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Re: Authoring Accessible PDFs - HP Exstream Dialog Version 8 and Other Software

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From: Bevi Chagnon
Date: Jan 10, 2012 9:06PM

The best way to handle "multiple channels of content contribution" as well
as multiple methods of distribution (print, web, electronic, PDF) and
accessibility is with XML.

If possible, make sure your XML tags (DTD, schema) use common accessibility
tags rather than custom XML tags. Since you'll be making PDFs, I recommend
using the tags in Adobe's PDF ISO specification whenever possible,
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/acrobat/pro/using/WS58a04a822e3e50102bd615109794
195ff-7cd8.w.html , which are recognized by assistive technologies.

Note that some XML workflows use their own XML tags, which is the nature of
XML, extensible markup language. Each workflow writes its unique XML rules
with a DTD or schema. Most XML-ers I work with haven't yet adopted tags for
accessibility, but a few are hopping on the bandwagon.

However that's not much of a barrier for anyone schooled in XML. If your
workflow can't use the PDF standard tags, then an XML-er can write a
transform that will convert the custom XML tags to PDF standard tags before
pouring the content into a website, a Word file, or an InDesign layout file.
Not a big deal, but it is another step in the process before you can make an
accessible PDF from these source documents.

I am not familiar with HP Exstream Dialog Version 8 but there are many
vendors creating one-stop document preparation. You'll need to test them to
see how well any of them can handle your content, especially document
hierarchy, tables, forms, and other common stumbling blocks.

--Bevi Chagnon

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