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Re: Thoughts on PDF Accessibility

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From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Sep 27, 2019 5:40PM

I guess there are a few things in WCAG that do not apply to PDF files,
keyboard focus outline (2.4.7) and maybe text resizing (1.4.4) come to
mind. I'm honestly not sure if there's a way to customize focus
outline or resizing in PDf files (well, assuming the PDF file is real
text, not an image of text of course).
Then there are interaction specific criteria like change of context on
focus or on state change (3.2.1 and 3.2.2) which I'm not sure would
apply to PDFs, fortunately I've managed to stick to the more
traditional and static ones, not testing the limit of what's
technically possible in the PDF format.

With forms, I don't know if there is a PDF equivalent of
aria-describedby to assign a tag as the accessible description for
another focusable tag (e.g. error message or tooltip scenarios).


On 9/27/19, William O'Donnell < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> Forgot about Read Out Loud, I agree.
> Have a good day. Sorry if emails are coming across twice, internet is bad
> here.
>
>
> On 9/27/19, Karlen Communications < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>> 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
>>> >>>
>> >> >> at
>> http://webaim.org/discussion/archives
>> >>
>> >> >> >> >>
>
>
> --
> William F. O'Donnell, MPA
> Open Access Technologies, (OAT)
>
> 617.249.4015
>
> www.openaccesstech.com
> > > > >


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