WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: PDFs that read one word per line

for

From: Monir ElRayes
Date: Jan 26, 2010 8:57AM


Hi Everett,

A couple of points to add:

Tagging a PDF document is a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for
accessibility. A document must both be tagged and also have a valid
structure as a baseline for accessibility (there are many tagged documents
that are not accessible). Furthermore, a PDF document needs to be remediated
to meet a specific accessibility standard (e.g. Section 508 or W3C WCAG 2.0
to add alt text for images and fix tables etc).

There are currently two approaches in the marketplace for remediating PDF
documents for accessibility: Adobe Acrobat (Pro or Standard) or NetCentric's
CommonLook tool. Once remediated, a PDF document is typically as accessible
as an equivalent HTML document.

Best of luck with your project.

Cheers,
Monir

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of E.J. Zufelt
Sent: January-26-10 8:29 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: [WebAIM] PDFs that read one word per line

Good morning,

Once in a while I run across a PDF that reads with JAWS one word per
line (example URL below). Even when saving the PDF as text the
content is saved one word per line. Can anyone tell me if there is a
common structural error that people are making with these documents,
and if so what it might be?

Example PDF document that reads and saves one word per line:
http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/pdfs/board/10jan18/12.pdf

Thanks,
Everett

Follow me on Twitter
http://twitter.com/ezufelt

View my LinkedIn Profile
http://www.linkedin.com/in/ezufelt