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Re: pdf forms for print or html forms for web use?

for

From: Holly Marie
Date: Jun 26, 2002 4:24AM


----- Original Message -----
From: "Steffi Rausch" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >



| Does anyone know if I a printable version of a pdf form is enough for
| accessibility purposes? Maybe it is a stupid question but I have a
state
| site that needs to make their site accessible which I assume would
mean all
| their forms as well - which is a lot. So in my price quote I need to
| incorporate this if needed and it will be a lot of money that I have
verify
| reasons for. How do accessible people deal with printed forms? Do they
have
| someone else fill it out? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

Hi Steffi,

Since you are going through and making a web site accessible for the
state or public, it may be a good time to make the whole site accessible
and also use valid XHTML. This way the site will be ready for any future
upgrades and changes made, too.

As far as accessibility, there are converters or tools for the PDF
version, but I believe it may be best to offer these in both web and
PDF.
I have no idea how others feel but an alternative would be to offer the
documents in correctly developed Word format.

---

Looking at these links will give you an idea what will need to be done
to prepare or convert existing documents over to Accessible PDF, if you
go this route. Though accurately created Accessible PDF works mostly
with JAWS and Window eyes, there is an online conversion tool for the
users of other readers. I think it is difficult to make users or
visitors go through extra tasks in order to get this information, check
that link below for online converting and see if it causes frustration
in you and imagine what it may feel like for a user who encounters a
form. They will have to first go to that site(if you provided the link
for conversion for non Jaws and Window Eyes readers. [
http://access.adobe.com/onlinetools.html ]
Once there, the user will have to read the instructions and go through
the conversion. I believe there are quicker and more accessible
solutions for documents on the web, and I am not sure that PDF is one of
these just yet.

---

Acrobat/PDF accessibility[webaim]
http://www.webaim.org/howto/acrobat
[quote From Webaim]
It's wonderful that Adobe has made it possible to make PDF files that
are accessible to users of screen readers. Remember though, that only
two screen readers on the market, JAWS and Window Eyes, currently
support accessible PDF files. This still leaves out the users of other
screen readers. It's always a good idea to provide an HTML version in
addition to the PDF, even if the PDF is created with accessibility in
mind. [/quote]

Though at adobe there are online conversion tools... for those having
screen readers other than Jaws, or Window Eyes. They cover web based
forms and E-mail submissions in English and French versions.
http://access.adobe.com/onlinetools.html
[quote from adobe page]This section provides tools to help visually
disabled users whose screen reader software is not compatible with Adobe
Acrobat