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Re: Who benefits of PDF tags aside fromscreenreaderusers?

for

From: Duff Johnson
Date: Sep 7, 2013 3:27AM

> I'm planning some introductory accessibility workshops for faculty at our university. I'm going to explain the importance of OCR and tagging to make PDFs accessible.

Excellent!

> I'm still looking for ways that tagging benefits students who don't use AT.

- A (properly) tagged PDF will deliver high-quality results when exported to accessible text
- Some who do not think of themselves as "AT users" nonetheless prefer to read a PDF in a "reflowed" fashion; i.e., all in the single column, with text fonts and text size they can control, etc.
- A properly tagged PDF form is easier to fill (the fields tab in the correct order, good tooltips are provided, etc)
- A properly tagged PDF would deliver considerably better results with search engines.. if such engines understand PDF tags

> Are there benefits to the students who don't use AT, and view PDF in browser or adobe reader? Or on a mobile phone or tablet?

Given current-generation mobile devices (that I am aware of) they won't get benefits from tagged PDF on phones. More's the pity.

Perhaps some students will take this state of affairs as a challenge… and will write the necessary software!

Duff.