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Making PDFs Accessible

Making PDFs Accessible. Terrill Thompson tft@uw.edu http://staff.washington.edu/tft @terrillthompson. An Informal Survey. Google search: “ Purdue filetype:pdf site:purdue.edu ” Randomly selected 20 PDFs Selected PDFs from different sub-domains. Results. Results.

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Making PDFs Accessible

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  1. Making PDFsAccessible Terrill Thompson tft@uw.edu http://staff.washington.edu/tft @terrillthompson

  2. An Informal Survey • Google search: • “Purdue filetype:pdf site:purdue.edu” • Randomly selected 20 PDFs • Selected PDFs from different sub-domains

  3. Results...

  4. Results • 17 of 20 (85%) are not tagged • 3 of 20 (15%) are tagged • 0 of 3 tagged PDFs is fully accessible • Only 1 of 6 PDFs created with Adobe PDFMaker is tagged (accessibility is enabled by default in PDFMaker)

  5. Maybe the glass is empty after all

  6. Conclusion • PDF Accessibility is a major problem • It is not difficult to create a tagged PDF • Therefore, the problem is likely caused by lack of awareness • The problem could be addressed by: • Massive educational effort • Stronger policies

  7. It is not difficult to create an accessible tagged PDF

  8. What makes an electronic document accessible? • Text alternatives for non-text content • Information, structure, & relationships • HTML, Word, & PDF all support these features

  9. Adobe PDF • Three general types: • Image • Image with embedded fonts • Tagged (optimized for accessibility)

  10. To Create an Accessible PDF • Use an authoring tool that supports: • Creating documents with headings & subheadings • Adding alt text to images • Exporting to tagged PDF • Use these accessibility features anytime you create a document

  11. In Word, Add Alt Text to Images

  12. In Word, Use Heading Styles

  13. Export to Tagged PDF • Use “Save as…” > “PDF” • In Microsoft Word and PowerPoint 2010 (Windows only) • Beware the “Minimize Size” button • Use Adobe PDFMaker plug-in • In Microsoft Word and PowerPoint prior to 2010 (Windows only) • Adds an Adobe menu & toolbar to Word • Installed automatically with Adobe Acrobat

  14. Other Authoring Tools that support Tagged PDF • Adobe InDesign • Open Office • LibreOffice • Corel Word Perfect • Lotus Symphony • Maybe a few others: • http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-gl/2011AprJun/0061.html

  15. With Adobe Acrobat, you can make an accessible PDF from an inaccessible one

  16. PDF Accessibility Repair (General) Workflow • Recognize text (if needed) • Tag document (if needed) • Touch up reading order, alt text, etc. • Touch up structure • especially, add or modify headings • Create links from URLs • Specify language • Do a full accessibility check

  17. PDF Forms • Use Adobe Acrobat Pro to add or edit forms interactivity • Key accessibility goals: • Tab order is correct • All fields have labels (tooltips) • All checkboxes have tooltips that include the overall group prompt • All radio buttons have the same name, a tooltip for the full set of buttons, and a meaningful button value for each option • Colors are used to provide clear visual indication of focus • Markup the form fields first. Then add tags.

  18. Adobe LiveCycle Designer • Build forms from scratch • Key accessibility goals are the same as with any PDF forms • Start with a blank document (don’t use a template – they’re not accessible) • Careful: Tags can’t be edited later with Acrobat Pro!

  19. Where to Learn More • Adobe Accessibility • http://adobe.com/accessibility • WebAIM on PDF Accessibility • http://www.webaim.org/techniques/acrobat/ • California State University PDF Tutorials • http://tinyurl.com/y2dnyl2 • Karen McCall’s book • http://www.karlencommunications.com/products.htm • WebAIM Discussion List • http://webaim.org/discussion/

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