WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

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Re: PDF Accessibility

for

From: Julie Romanowski
Date: Jan 20, 2010 6:24AM

Creating accessible PDFs is actually rather easy as long as the original
document has been created to be accessible. Unfortunately, for screen
reader users, many people who are creating PDFs don't know how to format
the original documents correctly. Education is key to resolving these
issues. If you encounter inaccessible PDFs, let the document owners
know. Point them to resources that can provide assistance, such as Adobe
and Microsoft. Speaking from my experience, most people want to do
what's right and are happy to fix their inaccessible documents if
they're shown how. Don't just tell them there's a problem. Offer to help
them find a solution.

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Geof Collis
Sent: Wednesday, January 20, 2010 6:31 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] PDF Accessibility

I have to ask who are people making pdf's accessible for? I've been
trying to like them but as far as I am concerned it is hopeless.

I have the latest technology and still I cannot read them any better
than I could with my old technology, I only open them in hopes that one
day I will be able to read them effortlessly but that is just not
happening so I fall back to my usual plan and that is to ask them to be
converted to a more accessible format, so I ask why bother in the first
place, I'm sure I'm not the only one doing this.

We have legislation that gives me this option so perhaps Adobe would do
better to make the conversion process better, you cant force people to
drive cars they dont like so why do it with documentation.

cheers

Geof