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Re: Thoughts on PDF Accessibility

for

From: chagnon@pubcom.com
Date: Sep 27, 2019 7:11AM

For starters, PDF accessibility is defined by the ISO 14289-1 (PDF/UA-1)
standards so a review of them would be essential.

As yet, there isn't an official how-to guide from the PDF/UA committee (or
any other authoritative entity) on the steps to make a PDF accessible or how
to check a PDF for compliance or what to check.

However, the PDF Association released a syntax guide that can be helpful.
It's designed for programmers who write software that creates PDFs, not for
content creators and remediators, but if you glean through the programming
blah blah you'll find quite a bit of useful information on how a complaint
PDF should be tagged.

Download a copy from the PDF Association's website,
https://www.pdfa.org/resource/tagged-pdf-best-practice-guide-syntax/

We have a 12-point checklist for content creators and remediators to check
the major accessibility points of PDFs at
https://www.pubcom.com/books/bevi_cheatsheet/cheatsheet-accessdocs.shtml
There are many more nuances involved, but these are the big ones.

HHS has a good checklist at
https://www.hhs.gov/web/section-508/making-files-accessible/checklist/pdf/in
dex.html

--Bevi Chagnon
(US delegate to the PDF/UA ISO standards committee and member of the PDF
Association)

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-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of
Ramshif Richu
Sent: Friday, September 27, 2019 12:50 AM
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: [WebAIM] Thoughts on PDF Accessibility

Hi all, was just wondering when going through PDF accessibility..
there has been so many ways and techniques that should make the PDF
accessible, as a newbie, would like to know what not to test when testing
PDF accessibility? anyone has any thoughts on 'What's not to test when
testing PDF documents'.
Any though will be appreciated.