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Re: Thoughts on PDF Accessibility

for

From: chagnon
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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