WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

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

for

From: Paul J. Adam
Date: May 9, 2013 6:12PM


I think PDF takes longer to make accessible. Manually tagging elements for accessibility in PDF takes much longer than in HTML.

You can paste accessible content into Dreamweaver from Word and it will preserve the headings and table structure. You'll have to tag the table row/column headers and Dreamweaver will prompt you to enter the alt text for each image.

Also if you're concerned about universal accessibility and want the content to work on iPhone/iPad/Mac then PDFs are not an option. HTML is really the only universally accessible format currently due to lack of access to tagged content in PDFs on Apple's platforms.

Paul J. Adam
Accessibility Evangelist
www.deque.com

On May 9, 2013, at 1:15 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
>
> > >