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Re: PDF Accessibility and Copyright

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From: Duff Johnson
Date: Sep 1, 2016 7:55AM

Unlike HTML or other formats, adding structuring elements to a PDF document does not "alter" the untagged (visual) appearance of the document, but merely makes the existing document accessible (subject to limits imposed by the source).

Yes, users and software both sometimes make mistakes that result in changes to appearance, but that's another issue.

It's difficult to see how any agency might take offense at such action, but even though some of my best friends are lawyers I've learned not to try to predict their concerns. :-)

Duff.

>> We have a lot of PDFs on our university site and it's my goal to make them as
>> accessible as possible. If we own the material, it is one thing, but what if we
>> don't? For example, we have government forms and published journal
>> articles. We have permission to have these materials on our web site, but do
>> we have the right to alter them by adding tags, alt text, etc?
>> Is there a fair use rule that applies or do we need permission from each
>> source?