WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Printable Brochures

for

From: Michael.Moore@dars.state.tx.us
Date: Sep 28, 2010 2:18PM


We have a library of print brochures that are used by service providers and field staff to distribute through our field offices, doctors offices, service provider facilities and similar locations. The brochures describe various programs offered by agency and include contact and eligibility information.

The camera ready print copies of these materials are stored electronically as PDFs. All of the information found in the brochures is available on our website but is not laid out the same and some of the language is different.

We have been placing the brochures on the website along with text transcripts of the content of the brochures. We provide the text transcripts rather than making the PDFs directly accessible due to the difficulty of making tri-fold, inDesign created content accessible. The reason for placing them on the website is to allow folks to print the brochures locally rather than needing to order them from the main office.

My question is this. Would it be better to link from the brochure libraries to the appropriate program content in the website rather than duplicate the text of the brochure as a separate document? In my opinion the website content is more thorough and much easier to navigate than the text transcript of the brochure or the PDF would be if it were made accessible.

The scheme would work something like this.

Link to brochure about XYZ program, link to website section describing XYX program.

Mike Moore