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Re: PDF files and Section 508 Compliance

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From: Jukka K. Korpela
Date: May 15, 2005 9:27PM

On Sun, 15 May 2005, Sue Kot wrote:

> I am in the process of making our educational site Section 508
> compliant and have found that we have over 350 active PDF files present.

PDF isn't a problem; PDF-only is a serious problem, often far more serious
than other accessibility problems combined.

Do not consider PDF as Portable Document Format; consider it as
Print-only Document Format, since this is what it was basically designed
to be, and this is what it basically is.

> Some of these files cannot be created into an html format easily (i.e.
> college course catalog, etc.).

Then they should be created in an HTML format in a difficult manner.

The best solution would be to change the production processes of documents
so that the primary format is either HTML or some more structured format
(e.g., DocBook) from which HTML can easily be generated, along with any
print-only formats.

Did someone tell you that achieving accessibility is always easy, or
that it can be ignored when it isn't?

> For those PDF files where we cannot make
> an HTML alternative easily, is it safe to just go into Adobe and run the
> "Make Accessible" option for them?

Of course not. If it were safe, or a real accessibility option, why would
you bother with the HTML format at all? It's just self-deception if you
think it means accessibility. If you honestly label your site as poorly
accessible, then it would be OK to run the "Make Accessible" option as a
measure of trying to make something a _little_ less inaccessible to some.

> I'd like to get a handle on this and the best
> route to take in making our site compliant.

If you aim at making the site compliant (to 508 or WCAG 1.0 or whatever),
just remember that you are then not aiming at accessibility. What you
would be doing would mostly be in accordance with improving accessibility,
but as a matter of objectives, compliance as a goal mean that you aim
at making _yourself_ (your organization) pass something, instead of trying
to let _disabled people_ make the best of your website.

--
Jukka "Yucca" Korpela, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/