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RE: PDF compliancy question

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From: Robinson, Norman B - Washington, DC
Date: Feb 10, 2006 12:30PM

Alex,

Under Section 508 requirements what you describe would not be
compliant. Based on what I think you intended to say, I don't think it
is accessible at all. Perhaps the USPS Section 508 guidelines available
via URL
http://www.usps.com/cpim/ftp/hand/as508a/508a_c6.html#_Toc63573129 would
be of use to you as well as the section on descriptive hyperlinks via
URL http://www.usps.com/cpim/ftp/hand/as508a/508a_c6.html#508hdr60.

It isn't exactly clear based on your stated problem but the PDF
itself would need to be accessible (to include textual information that
screen readers could access) such that it isn't just an image (as the
PDF format can contain image bitmaps that contain no textual information
such as scanned in documents).

If you _are_ trying to use PDFs for images only (i.e., instead
of a PNG or JPG bitmap for instance) on a website this is covered by
Section 508's text tags requirement (see URL
http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/guide/1194.22.htm#(a)) and I'd have
to see your exact image.

A technique I find useful is to consider if you have an
individual that can't see the content but wanted to print you out a copy
and share it with their sighted friends, what would be the text
description? E.g., description of "Streams Display" isn't as exacting as
"Robinson's Stream as viewed from 10K feet". Or if you have a picture of
the president "Picture of the President" isn't as useful as "Picture of
George Washington" or "Portrait of George Washington during
Congressional Session". In the last example, even without sight I could
(with some chance of success) cut and paste the picture to share in a
presentation with my sighted friends. If I didn't provide appropriate
descriptive alt text, I might have copied a picture from the current
White House's web page.

Regards,


Norman B. Robinson