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Re: PDF on websites + PDF is *not* accessible

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From: Morin, Gary (NIH/OD) [E]
Date: Jul 10, 2013 11:33AM

Andrew - and with all due respect, while Accessibility of PDF may not be "largely focused on screen reader access for users who are blind", I do have to say that it is still largely focused on persons with vision impairments, even it if is across the range of vision impairment and not 'just' blind. Even in Chapter 21, Making Forms Accessible (http://acrobatusers.com/tutorials/making-forms-accessible), the following is stated:
* Accessible forms contain the structure and design that optimizes readability on screen reading devices for the vision and motion challenged users.
"Motion challenged" users - at least, those persons with dexterity impairments that I know and speaking for myself - do NOT use screen reading devices. We use speech recognition software. They're very different - and it's still very strongly ignored by the US's Section 508 "community" or "professionals" and, in general, by many if not most accessibility specialists. There's misinformation, lack of real understanding of the diversity of persons with disabilities and, all too often, a dismissing attitude when such issues are raised.
I applaud Adobe's addressing more than 'just' blind persons. And/but, like most of the accessibility and the IT professions, it's still pretty much vision-related only.
Speaking only for myself, not my employer, my worksite, or anyone else.
In peace and collegiality,
Gary
* Padova, Ted. Making forms accessible. February 1, 2013. http://acrobatusers.com/tutorials/making-forms-accessible
As a side note, "vision challenged" and "motion challenged" seem to be rather poor euphemisms for disability status.

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Kirkpatrick [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
Sent: Monday, July 08, 2013 12:53 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] PDF on websites + PDF is *not* accessible

Last week was obviously a great week to have been on vacation... :)

I do take exception to a couple of minor things in the thread, but mostly the statement "Accessibility of PDF has largely focused on screen reader access for users who are blind" which is just not true. The Acrobat and Reader teams have worked to provide features for blind users, true, but also features to support low vision users (not as many as some would like, as stated) such as the zooming and reflow support and support for different high-contrast modes, support for keyboard-only users, and support for various OS-level conventions that users with different disabilities rely on. Also, it is important to recognize that what we're talking about now is not PDF but PDF viewers.

As always, I'm happy to discuss issues and ideas that people have to improve their experience with PDF. (BTW, Shawn, you should fix my email address on your site - please use the official feedback form http://www.adobe.com/accessibility/feedback.html which goes to me and my team).

Thanks,
AWK

Andrew Kirkpatrick
Group Product Manager, Accessibility
Adobe Systems

<EMAIL REMOVED> <mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> >
http://twitter.com/awkawk
http://blogs.adobe.com/accessibility


-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED> <mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> > [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Chagnon | PubCom
Sent: Tuesday, July 02, 2013 1:07 PM
To: 'WebAIM Discussion List'
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] PDF on websites + PDF is *not* accessible

It sounds like your issues should be addressed to Adobe, the ISO, WAI, and manufacturers of assistive technology.
-Bevi Chagnon

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED> <mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> >
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Shawn Henry (uiAccess projects)

Olaf & all,

I fully agree with you that it would be best if the community comes together to make all technologies more accessible and usable to people with disabilities. *That is my goal*. For about 10 years I have actively (though
quietly) encouraged PDF to support the text customization that users need.
(And I encourage web browsers to improve usability for text customization.)

My concern is the lack of understanding that PDF is not currently accessible to some users. Many people think "accessible PDF" is available today, but it is not. My goal is to help people understand the current limitations so that they can encourage those limitations to be addressed. That is the motivation for the many hours that I put into the research and development behind <http://www.tader.info>;

I stand by my original statements. To clarify: Even well tagged PDF developed with accessibility in mind is not sufficiently accessible to some people with low vision, dyslexia, and related conditions and situations that impact reading - because Adobe PDF Reader and other PDF viewers lack sufficient text customization functionality. (The aspects of text that users need to be able to customize are introduced at
<http://www.tader.info/display.html>;)

To your points:

* VIP PDF Reader. It came out only last week, afaik. It provides more text customization for PDF than any other tool that I've evaluated! However, it still falls short of users' needs. For example, as far as I can tell, it does not work for some PDF documents, including any PDF with form fields; and it does not allow users to print documents. (See
<http://www.tader.info/support.html#PDFisNOTaccessible>;) I will provide feedback to the tool developers, praising the positive points and encouraging improvements.

* pdfGoHTML. While it is helpful to some, it is not feasible to most and also has limitations. For example, it requires purchase of Acrobat, requires administrator access to install, and the HTML it produces misses some markup necessary for accessibility (likely due to a limitation of PDF itself, not pdfGoHTML).

* ISO. Unfortunately, becoming an ISO standard does not guarantee accessibility.

User needs. Accessibility of PDF has largely focused on screen reader access for users who are blind. I agree that was a priority in the past, given that there was no access at all. After that basic accessibility was covered, it is important to address accessibility for other users. I am focusing on people with low vision, dyslexia, and related conditions and situations that impact reading - including the increasing number of people with age-related impairments.

* HTML for documents. That is a tangent that I am not prepared to dive into.
I'll briefly mention that currently word processing software offers the most usable text customization functionality. Web browsers provide limited text customization functionality through menu options; customizing all aspects of text display requires user style sheets, which is a skill beyond most users.
EPUB and other efforts for advancing HTML for documents are underway... but I said I wasn't going to get into that tangent! :-)

I stand by the statement that "While PDF is a useful medium for some situations; when it is used, there must be a more accessible alternative provided in order for the information to be available to people with disabilities."
I am not saying that PDF should not be used. (I use it for documents intended to be printed -- and I also provide it in an alternative accessible
format.) I am saying that PDF is not currently sufficiently accessible, therefore, if you want the information to be readable by everyone, it needs to be provided in a more accessible format as well.

---

Individuals and organizations have invested a lot of effort to make PDF more accessible to screen reader users. Thank you!!! I appreciate your efforts and acknowledge your success. Now I ask that all are open to further advancements to make PDF accessible to an even larger user group. For starters, see Understanding Users' Needs to Customize Text Display at <http://www.tader.info/understanding.html>;

Sincerely,
~Shawn