WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

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Re: PDF Accessibility

for

From: Karlen Communications
Date: Jan 19, 2010 1:30PM

This happens more often than you think! It is the same with web design, you
can't assume an adaptive technology web site is accessible or web sites on
accessible web design are accessible. I've found a lot of sites on
accessibility that aren't accessible. It's not just a couple of missed
things, it is not following the information/technology/skills they are
selling.

Cheers, Karen

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Steve Green
Sent: January-19-10 3:15 PM
To: 'WebAIM Discussion List'
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] PDF Accessibility



-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Hull, Larry G.
(GSFC-750.0)[GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER]
Sent: 19 January 2010 19:57
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] PDF Accessibility

Hi Geof,

You are correct. I had assumed a PDF document on PDF Accessibility would be
assessable. Bad assumption. The document isn't even tagged.


-------

Actually the document is tagged - I have just been looking at the tag tree
trying to figure out why the document reads so badly in JAWS 9.

JAWS 9 only recognises two headings, which is insufficient for a 46-page
document. There are lots of tags called something like <header 3>, and it is
possible that some screen reader versions recognise this as a heading, but
JAWS 9 does not. As a result there is effectively no semantic structure in
the entire document.

JAWS 9 also cannot read any of the contents of the data tables - it just
says 'table containing x columns and y rows' followed by 'table end'. This
is really weird because the content is in the tag tree but it is marked up
in a deep set of nested tags. Someone has tried to create an ordered list
spanning multiple table cells, but it just doesn't work.

Steve Gren
Director
Test Partners Ltd