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Re: Average Time to Create an Accessible PDF

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From: Philip Kiff
Date: Dec 4, 2017 9:36AM

I agree with Alastair that there is no good answer to the question of an
average time to remediate a PDF.

Estimating the time it will take to remediate something is a bit of a
micro-skill in itself. I have a set of criteria that I look at to make
estimates that includes: file format (pdf, docx, pptx? Do you have the
source file), type of document (standard text? large graphical poster?
filled with tables and charts?), complexity (many embedded lists?
numbered headings? uses complex tables? lots of non-decorative images?),
and length. One special case: documents that require OCR I consider
individually unique and almost impossible to estimate without starting
to actually work on them.

In addition to those criteria, the amount of time required will also
depend on what you mean by "accessible". Everyone on this list I am sure
is always trying to make perfect documents that meet or exceed all
accessibility requirements everywhere. But there are degrees of
perfection, in my opinion. Even within my own work, documents that I
remediated just a year or two ago, and that passed the PAC 2 checker
cleanly, I would now do additional work on were they to come across my
desk again. On the other hand, I would also work more quickly than I did
a year or two ago, so maybe that all comes out in the wash in terms of
time estimates.

On 2017-12-04 10:39 AM, Josh Schroder wrote:
> For pure-text documents, I can probably do somewhere around 5 minutes per page, sometimes less.

Having stated all those caveats and exceptions above, and for the
purposes of useful discussion, I would say that it takes an average of
somewhere between 3 and 12 minutes a page for me to remediate 90% of the
standard documents I work on.

On 2017-12-04 10:39 AM, Josh Schroder wrote:
> I'm also a big proponent of CommonLook PDF. It is expensive, but it really speeds things up and reduces the frustration of dealing with the inefficient workflows in Acrobat. If you do this work often, and you consider the cost of your labor per hour, it can potentially be a really good value.

Regarding remediation software, I would encourage folks to look at
AxesPDF instead of CommonLook PDF, at least until CommonLook provides
some kind of sane pricing structure for third-party licences to folks
who want to get paid to remediate PDFs for others. AxesPDF is  available
at a fraction of the cost and performs almost all the most important
time-saving functions as CommonLook's software does. In terms of
cost-per-hour, it would literally be cheaper for me to pay someone else
to remediate files for me than it would be for me to purchase a license
from CommonLook that lets me remediate files for you.

Phil.


On 2017-12-04 10:39 AM, Josh Schroder wrote:
> For pure-text documents, I can probably do somewhere around 5 minutes per page, sometimes less.
>
> I'm also a big proponent of CommonLook PDF. It is expensive, but it really speeds things up and reduces the frustration of dealing with the inefficient workflows in Acrobat. If you do this work often, and you consider the cost of your labor per hour, it can potentially be a really good value.
>
> Josh Schroder
> Web Administrator II
> Office of Strategic Communications
> Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation
> (512) 936-8937
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of R.U. Steinberg
> Sent: Monday, December 4, 2017 7:58 AM
> To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Average Time to Create an Accessible PDF
>
> A one page PDF with form fields takes me much longer to remediate than a 10 page straight text PDF. I could spend 8 hours on the form vs. less than an hour on straight text. If the PDF has color that fails contrast, that can be fixed in Acrobat Pro, but that is also a time factor. Complex tables are also a pain. I know that doesn't answer your question, but I suggest you do an inventory of sorts on what types of PDFs you have (forms, text only, with or without color, with or without images, with or without tables, etc.)
>
>
>
> On Mon, Dec 4, 2017 at 5:51 AM Alastair Campbell < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
>>> what everyone considers to be the average time it takes them to make
>>> a single page document (Word, PDF, HTML) that is inaccessible and
>>> output it as an accessible PDF.
>>>
>> I'm afraid the scale of different is logarithmic different for simple
>> and complex cases, so there is not realistic answer for this.
>>
>> For example, if you have a simple Word document with a couple of
>> (properly marked up in Word) headings, it is hardly any time.
>>
>> An identical looking page that was an image of the same text, that
>> needs to be OCRed and structured by hand would take a lot of time.
>>
>> If there are more complex structures (tables, quotes etc) the time
>> goes up again. If there are images that need alts, or video content,
>> the time goes up again.
>>
>> For a 100 page document from a good Word source doc, you might spend 5
>> minutes. An identical looking doc from an un-structured indesign
>> source might take 5 days. It is that much difference, so any 'average'
>> would be wildly different depending on what the sources were.
>>
>> If you are working with a PDF doc then the difference is mainly that
>> you can't work on the source, so it had better be the final version as
>> any changes from the source will undo your work.
>>
>> I haven't really tackled HTML to PDF as generally if you have an
>> accessible HTML version, you don't also need an accessible PDF version.
>>
>> I hope that helps in some way, but sorry there isn't a nice answer!
>>
>> -Alastair
>> >> >> archives at http://webaim.org/discussion/archives
>> >>
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