WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: HTML vs. PDF - which takes less time and resources?

for

From: Denis Boudreau
Date: May 9, 2013 12:41PM

Hello Rabab,

It might be a little outdated now (and since I know you can read French), I would guide you towards documents we created long ago in the process of writing the Quebec accessibility standards: <http://www.tresor.gouv.qc.ca/fileadmin/PDF/ressources_informationnelles/AccessibiliteWeb/guide_pdf_html.pdf>;. It's a document I'd written back in early 2010 and that has apparently been re-edited last year by someone else. It benchmarked HTML and PDF over a series of 19 criteria, such as accessibility potential, universality of format, availability of expertise, reliability of methodology, simplicity, costs, etc. I think some of your answers could be found in that document.

Page 6 talks about qualified resources. Page 10 among others talks about cost of producing accessible HTML and PDF. This data was gathered through various testing we conducted at the time.

The main intent was about comparing HTML and PDF and incentives to choose one or the other. I'll admit to having a bias towards HTML at the time, but quite frankly, I wouldn't be so sure anymore. I think the most important factor to consider is the quality of your source and your conversion process - if both of them are top notch, then PDFs can be very accessible indeed. Maybe not as much as PDF of course, but accessible enough to be a meaningful solution all the same.

Hope this helps!

/Denis




On 2013-05-09, at 2:15 PM, "Rabab Gomaa" < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I am wondering if there are members proficient in producing accessible PDFs in the group to answer my question or guide me to useful resources about the topic.
>
> I am comparing HTML to PDF.
> Do you think tagging PDF takes more or less time and resources compared to tagging HTML?
> The question in a different way, delivering an accessible primary version would be much quicker in PDF or HTML providing that the original file exist in word format with 20 pages full of sections , subsections, complex data tables and complex images.
>
> Thank you,
> Rabab Gomaa
>
> > >