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Thread: Examples Needed for Alternatives to PDF Docs
Number of posts in this thread: 4 (In chronological order)
From: Sue Kot
Date: Wed, Jun 22 2005 12:23PM
Subject: Examples Needed for Alternatives to PDF Docs
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We have over 350 PDF documents that are currently accessed from our educational web site. I realize that we need to provide alternative HTML docs to these PDF docs in order to provide accessibility to everyone. I'd like to look at some examples of how other sites have handled this. Can anyone out there provide some links to sites that provide alternatives to PDF docs that I could look at that are considered compliant and accessible?
Thanks in advance!!
Sue
From: Pat Richard
Date: Wed, Jun 22 2005 12:49PM
Subject: RE: Examples Needed for Alternatives to PDF Docs
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Well, dunno if this will help you in your current situation or not (not
likely), but what I actually do is create the PDF files on the fly from
data in the database. Our PDF files tend to be press releases, so the
formatting is pretty standard. The data is dumped into our content
management solution, and then we provide a link on that press release
page to the PDF. When clicked, the site creates the PDF on the fly with
a standard styling fit for the press release. Same data - two formats.
YMMV
________________________________
From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
[mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of Sue Kot
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2005 2:24 PM
To: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
Subject: [WebAIM] Examples Needed for Alternatives to PDF Docs
We have over 350 PDF documents that are currently accessed from our
educational web site. I realize that we need to provide alternative
HTML docs to these PDF docs in order to provide accessibility to
everyone. I'd like to look at some examples of how other sites have
handled this. Can anyone out there provide some links to sites that
provide alternatives to PDF docs that I could look at that are
considered compliant and accessible?
Thanks in advance!!
Sue
From: Robinson, Norman B - Washington, DC
Date: Wed, Jun 22 2005 1:18PM
Subject: RE: Examples Needed for Alternatives to PDF Docs
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Sue,
You may be interested in the USPS AS-508-A, Section 508 Technical
Guidelines, Chapter 6, Section 14, Portable Document Format (PDF) Files
available via the URL:
http://www.usps.com/cpim/ftp/hand/as508a/508a_c6.html#508hdr78 .
One of the examples in that policy is the USPS Postal Bulletin. You
can access the Postal Bulletin via the URL:
http://www.usps.com/cpim/ftp/bulletin/pb2004.htm
You might note that the Postal Bulletin provides HTML versions of
all the PDF documents, but for other documents such as USPS Speeches
linked off of www.usps.com, we use a text version.
I won't go in-depth into the difficulties of providing accessible
PDFs as that is based on the proper tags, complexity of the document,
software versions in use, but if I can leave you with only one key idea
it would be that PDF is for printing or displaying on the screen as it
would be printed. There are many user scenarios where even if the PDF
was fully accessible, the alternative text or HTML format would be
preferred.
Regards,
Norman B. Robinson
Section 508 Coordinator
IT Governance, US Postal Service
-----Original Message-----
From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
[mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of Sue Kot
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2005 2:24 PM
To: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
Subject: [WebAIM] Examples Needed for Alternatives to PDF Docs
We have over 350 PDF documents that are currently accessed from
our educational web site. I realize that we need to provide alternative
HTML docs to these PDF docs in order to provide accessibility to
everyone. I'd like to look at some examples of how other sites have
handled this. Can anyone out there provide some links to sites that
provide alternatives to PDF docs that I could look at that are
considered compliant and accessible?
Thanks in advance!!
Sue
From: Austin, Darrel
Date: Wed, Jun 22 2005 1:48PM
Subject: RE: Examples Needed for Alternatives to PDF Docs
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> We have over 350 PDF documents that are currently accessed
> from our educational web site. I realize that we need to
> provide alternative HTML docs to these PDF docs in order to
> provide accessibility to everyone.
At that point, I'd consider just replacing the PDFs and just going with
HTML. You can't get much more accessible than well formed and structured
HTML.
That said, there isn't really a magic way to go from PDF to accessible HTML.
One option, if the PDFs came from source documents like MS Word, you may
want to provide the original MS Word files as an alternative, as they can
(not necessarily, but often are) actually more accessible to things like
screen readers than the PDF might be.
-Darrel