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Re: Automated Checking of PDF Documents?

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From: Tim Harshbarger
Date: Jul 5, 2007 3:10PM

Patrick,

Acrobat Reader has an Accessibility Quick Check feature and Acrobat has
an Accessibility Checking feature that goes more in depth. I have found
the full accessibility check in Acrobat to provide useful information.
The Quick check does not provide as much information, but it can provide
some insight on the document's accessibility.

Depending on the formats of the original documents, I have found it
useful to address most of the potential problems by teaching people how
to design the original document. For example, using styles in Microsoft
Word goes a long way toward producing an accessible PDF document.

I hope this information helps.

Tim


>-----Original Message-----
>From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
>[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of
>Patrick Burke
>Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2007 3:09 PM
>To: WebAIM Discussion List
>Subject: [WebAIM] Automated Checking of PDF Documents?
>
>Hi everyone,
>
>Do any of the automated testing tools check PDF files?
>
>Or is the Adobe "Read Out Loud" command a simple & effective test of
>the level of accessibility? (This would also give some feedback on
>forms & tables, at least to someone who knew what they were
>listening for.)
>
>Then there's always the Jaws demo & the "This document appears to be
>empty" test. ...
>
>We have a lot of non-technical people generating PDFs, so I'm looking
>for any quick & reasonably good test they can run to get some
>verification that they're using the creation tools correctly.
>Thanks much for any thoughts,
>
>Patrick (This brain appears to be empty.)
>
>
>--
>Patrick J. Burke
>
>Coordinator
>UCLA Disabilities &
>Computing Program
>
>Phone: 310 206-6004
>E-mail: burke <at> ucla. edu
>
>