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Re: Thoughts on PDF Accessibility

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From: Philip Kiff
Date: Sep 27, 2019 8:14AM

I think it may be hard for some folks to understand what kind of advice
you are seeking. Most organizations have a list of things they are
testing, not a list of things that they are NOT testing. The standards
and checklists that Bevi noted all provide good starting points for
developing your own testing processes.

I wouldn't purposely "avoid" anything or skip anything when testing PDFs.

The challenge that organizations run into more often is that they don't
have time to test all the things that they ideally would like to test.
But in that case, they are not avoiding testing things, they are just
prioritizing which items are most important. And to come up with such
priorities, the resources that Bevi has identified are a great start.

Phil.

Philip Kiff
D4K Communications

On 2019-09-27 09:31, Ramshif Richu wrote:
> Thanks for the reply. But I am trying to understand in a testing
> perspective, I assume there would be certain things which we shouldn't test
> or avoid when testing PDF Accessibility, I would like to know what are
> those areas, kind of limitations and or things that should be avoided when
> testing PDF Accessibility.
>
> Thanks.
>
> On Fri, 27 Sep 2019, 6:41 pm , < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
>> 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
>> <https://www.hhs.gov/web/section-508/making-files-accessible/checklist/pdf/index.html>
>>
>> --Bevi Chagnon
>> (US delegate to the PDF/UA ISO standards committee and member of the PDF
>> Association)
>>
>> - - -
>> Bevi Chagnon, founder/CEO | <EMAIL REMOVED>
>> - - -
>> PubCom: Technologists for Accessible Design + Publishing
>> consulting . training . development . design . sec. 508 services
>> Upcoming classes at www.PubCom.com/classes
>> - - -
>> Latest blog-newsletter - Accessibility Tips at www.PubCom.com/blog
>>
>>