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Re: Thoughts on PDF Accessibility

for

From: Karlen Communications
Date: Sep 27, 2019 8:29AM

NEVER use Read Out Loud to do testing for accessibility...or at all!

The best approach is to walk down the Tags Tree to perform three parts of a
quality assurance process:

1. Is everything in the document that needs a tag have a tag?
2. Are the tags correct for the type of content (headings, lists,
paragraphs, tables and so forth).
3. Are the Tags in a logical reading order for the content/type of document.

Additionally, if the document was scanned and needed OCR, you want to use a
screen reader like JAWS or NVDA to make sure that there are spaces between
words and that words don't have spaces between characters.

Cheers, Karen

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of
Ramshif Richu
Sent: Friday, September 27, 2019 9:31 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Thoughts on PDF Accessibility

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.sht
> ml 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
>
> -----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.
>
> > > archives at http://webaim.org/discussion/archives
> >
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