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Re: PDF/A accessibility

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From: Humbert, Joseph A
Date: Aug 10, 2011 6:30AM

I have to say that after reading your article that it seems to mislead the audience. The article makes many correct statements concerning PDF accessibility, except for:

"And that's why we can safely and responsibly ignore reading order when considering accessibility in PDF."

It is true that if a PDF is tagged correctly and the software used to consume can read the tags then the "logical reading order" will be correct, but as you even point out it prior emails, "'logical reading order' is the concept of interest". Therefore, some type of reading order, "logical" in this case, is very important. For many users of assistive technology (AT), the order in which the AT software reads the content is how the user perceives the logical reading order. Headings and other tags help to improve a user's understanding of logical reading order and allow advanced users to navigate the document in their own "logical" reading order, but never the less reading order IS important.

Please don't get me wrong, the articles message about tagging PDF files and using software that supports creating accessible PDFs is wonderful. You seem to be well versed in accessibility issues. My interpretation of Ron's point is that "reading order" in some form is important. I may interject that I believe Ron's comments come from the point of view that many programs which create PDF/A documents do not automatically tag the document correctly, thus creating inaccessible PDFs.

"Pagination" is also extremely important, particularly when a textbook or print article is being converted to a PDF. When this happens, my opinion is that the original "pagination" of the book/article should be preserved. Ron, I'm not sure of your complaint with the PDF/A or PDF/UA specification is in terms of "pagination" so you will have to comment further.

Back to the original question of the post, it seems as though the PDF/A specification does not have any accessibility limitations included in the specification. I have not read the full PDF/A specification so I cannot be 100% sure. Unfortunately, the software used to implement the specification in creation of a PDF/A file may produce accessibility issues that may have to be addressed manually.

Please forgive me if I have misinterpreted something.

Joe Humbert, Assistive Technology and Web Accessibility Specialist
UITS Adaptive Technology and Accessibility Centers
Indiana University, Indianapolis and Bloomington
535 W Michigan St. IT214 E
Indianapolis, IN 46202
Office Phone: (317) 274-4378
Cell Phone: (317) 644-6824
<EMAIL REMOVED>
http://iuadapts.Indiana.edu/