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Accessibility of SharePoint online's PDF viewer

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From: Steve Green
Date: Jan 15, 2024 10:45AM

Does anyone have any views on the accessibility of the default PDF viewer in SharePoint online? A client has asked us to test it, but as far as I can tell it's completely inaccessible. I'm hoping to find a bit more evidence just in case I'm missing something.

The code is just weird. The PDF is displayed as a <canvas> element and is invisible to screen readers. Some of the container elements have "aria-label" attributes that are not read out because the elements do not have roles.

If you manually scroll to a page that contains links, empty <a> elements with the appropriate "href" attributes are inserted into the DOM even if the links in the PDF have anchor text. However, screen readers don't read the links and I can't even tab to them unless I cheat by clicking on the PDF. The <a> elements are removed from the DOM when the links are scrolled out of view.

It seems odd that Microsoft would include the "aria-label" attributes and do all that stuff with the links if none of it works.

And it gets weirder if you open one PDF, then another. A chunk of text from the first one gets put in an invisible ARIA live region at the bottom of the DOM for some reason. It remains there when the second PDF is opened, and it's the only thing that the screen reader reads.

Regards,
Steve Green
Managing Director
Test Partners Ltd
020 3002 4176 (direct)
0800 612 2780 (switchboard)
07957 246 276 (mobile)
020 7692 5517 (fax)
Skype: testpartners
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www.testpartners.co.uk
 
Connect to me on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/stevegreen2