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Re: PDF accessibility

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From: Karlen Communications
Date: Oct 31, 2015 11:20AM

My list would be the same but I would add that the form controls must be accessible.

Be aware that in order for the form controls to be accessible, once you've built the accessibility into the form controls/fields themselves, you THEN Tag the document. You don't add form controls/fields to an already tagged PDF. If you are using a Word document as a template, this is the ONLY time you use Print to PDF to create an untagged PDF. You open the untagged PDF in acrobat Pro and begin adding the form controls. (Unless the document is a scanned document, in which case you perform the text recognition first.)

Here is the hierarchy of tasks that Adobe established years ago and I advocate that clients use:

1. Is the PDF a scanned document? If yes, perform Text Recognition.

2. Is the PDF document a fillable form? If yes, then add the "accessible" form controls/fields.

3. Does the PDF document have links? If yes, then use the Create Links from URL's tools and the Links tool to add them.

4. Does the PDF document have multimedia? If yes, then add the multimedia. I would add that the multimedia itself must be accessible and.

Only THEN do you add Tags to the document and then go through the remediation and/or Quality Assurance process. So the list of basics for the document are the same, but since you are adding another element, the form controls/fields also have to be accessible .

Cheers, Karen