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

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From: Chagnon | PubCom
Date: May 9, 2013 10:19PM

Rabab wrote: "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."

It's difficult to compare the 2 formats, HTML and PDF, as they are quite
different from each other. And with PDFs, you should be doing most of the
accessibility work in the source program such as Word, not moving around
tags in Acrobat or correcting the reading order. Remediating a PDF is
mind-numbing, slow, and tedious.

The 20-page document you describe could be easy to format and make
accessible in Word (and in its exported PDF), or it could be difficult.
Depends upon whether you've done any of the Word-to-PDF no-nos, namely using
text boxes and certain forms of wrapped text around graphics that aren't
accessible in either Word or PDF.

And then there's that wonderful "feature" where all of the PDF's graphics
will be dropped at the top of the tag tree when exported from Word. Not sure
whether who should be shamed for this, Microsoft or Adobe, but it's a
senseless flaw.

On the other hand, footnotes, cross-references, and active tables of content
can be relatively easy to create in Word/PDF compared with HTML coding.

HTML does give more coding options for certain things, especially with
tables. About all you can do in Word/PDF is designate header rows and
columns, and of course, construct it correctly.

But the key words in your question, to me, are "delivering an accessible
primary version." Given today's technology, I think primary versions should
be HTML whenever possible as they provide the best accessibility features,
such as scaling text, reflow, skipnav, and navigation options, that aren't
as robust or even available in either Word or PDF.

Word and PDF should be used only when a more structured or visually designed
document is required.

--Bevi Chagnon

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