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Re: PDF vs. HTML

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From: julian.rickards
Date: Aug 5, 2004 2:36AM

Part of my job function is to create accessible PDFs which according to the
Acrobat Accessibility Checker, mine are fine. I also incorporate checking
that does cannot be automatically checked such as "don't depend on colour".
Nevertheless, the accessibility of an accessible PDF is no where near the
same degree of accessibility of an accessible web page. Tables do not have
header cells (using a PDF generated from Word) and even if you do mark up
the top row of a table as a series of header cells (using PDF tags after the
PDF has been generated), neither Read Out Loud, nor JAWS are able to
associate the cells in the table with the header cells which is a feature
that JAWS can provide if HTML tables are marked up properly. In JAWS using
an HTML page, you can skip from heading to heading but neither JAWS nor Read
Out Loud understand headings in a PDF. In JAWS using an HTML page, you are
told the number of items in a list but this is not available to readers of
PDFs.


Despite the efforts that Adobe has been applying to making PDFs accessible,
I don't "see" the results. My experience with JAWS is limited - I am a
sighted person and used JAWS 5.0 (trial) for a while to try to experience
what JAWS users experience.


Because of my experience with "accessible" PDFs and accessible HTML, one of
my job functions will be changing over the next couple of months to reduce
the use of PDFs and to publicize our new publications in HTML format (with a
PDF as an alternate, not guaranteed to be accessible, printable format).


Jules


-----------------------------------------------
Julian Rickards
A/Digitial Publications Distribution Coordinator
Publication Services Section,
Ministry of Northern Development and Mines,
Vox: 705-670-5608 / Fax: 705-670-5960



-----Original Message-----
From: jeb [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]


Some time has gone by since this question was asked (and responded to), but
I have another question dealing with the same issue.


Today I discovered - quite by accident - that Adobe Acrobat Reader (v6.0.2)
with its various plug-ins - has a built-in text reader (see: View> Read Out
Loud). I've tested some PDFs that I had located on my hard drive and found
that it "read" all of them with mixed results. The "Read Out Loud" feature
was able to read everything on the page, but not always in the order it was
intended. It also was not able to read graphic images that contain text
(similar to HTML when someone does not add the ALT attribute). Lastly, it
seemed to have a hard time understanding that the period at the end of the
sentence means that you're supposed to "stop" - lots of run-on sentences.


So, my new question is, will the "Read Out Loud" work with ALL PDFs or only
ones that have been previously been "made accessible."


BTW, There is also a plug-in for the Acrobat Reader that is called "Make
Accessible" - but I have not figured out how this works. Anyone know?


My reason for asking these questions is that I historically have strongly
advised clients against the use of PDFs because of the accessibility issue.
Yet, there appears to be an increasing number of PDFs showing up. If the
newest Reader is able to in fact "read" these files, then I guess I have to
stop discouraging their use.