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PDF Usability and Accessibility
Articles and resources about best practice in portable document format (PDF) presentation, usability and accessibility.
6
Site Articles
- Accessibility and PDFs
- Presentation by Gian Wild to the Victoria Online Seminar in Melbourne, 14 October 2010. Some highlights include: PDF is not defined as an 'accessible technology' because: The design of the PDF file (and no universal definition of an 'accessible PDF); Technical ability of the assistive technologies; Skill of the end user (using an assistive technology with a PDF is different to HTML)...
Added: 14 October 2010
Page views: 1,475
Rating: 0
Votes: 0
- Making a PDF accessible
- PDFs cannot be made fully accessible, but they can be made accessible to some people with disabilities; for example people using screen readers. A PDF is made accessible by tagging certain elements within it, for example images. If a PDF is tagged properly then a person using a screen reader can often understand a PDF just as well as an HTML document. However PDF does not yet have all the features of HTML, and therefore an equivalent must always be provided.
Added: 1 July 2007
Page views: 5,141
Rating: 0
Votes: 0
- Making a PDF accessible - Accessibility Toolkit - Version 3 - 2009
- This is a guide to creating accessible pdfs, however, PDFs cannot be made fully accessible, but they can be made accessible to some people with disabilities; for example people using screen readers. A PDF is made accessible by tagging certain elements within it, for example images. If a PDF is tagged properly then a person using a screen reader can often understand a PDF just as well as an HTML document. However PDF does not yet have all the features of HTML, and therefore an equivalent must always be provided.
Added: 24 May 2010
Page views: 1,779
Rating: 0
Votes: 0
- PDFs and accessibility
- Portable Document Format (PDFs), video files and other downloads are inaccessible according to the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 1.0, because they require a plugin to the browser in order to access the information. There are methods that can make the actual PDF or video file available to certain people with disabilities (for example, creating tagged PDFs and adding audio descriptions to video files), however even if these documents are created in an accessible way the information still will not conform to the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
Added: 1 July 2007
Page views: 3,609
Rating: 0
Votes: 0
- PDFs and Accessibility - Accessibility Toolkit - Version 3 - 2009
- Portable Document Format (PDFs) are inaccessible according to the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 1.0. There are methods that can make the actual PDF available to certain people with disabilities (for example, creating tagged PDFs ), however even if these documents are created in an accessible way the information still will not conform to the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. The Australian Human Rights Commission has commented that Word documents are accessible: "When documents are only put on the Internet in PDF format, it usually results in inadequate or zero access for people with disability. "You can use HTML, Microsoft Word, or RTF formats", said the Commissioner. "It's particularly depressing to see documents created in word-processor formats, which provide very good access, being converted into PDF, which doesn't, then only being posted in PDF." " It is preferable, of course, to provide an HTML version.
Added: 24 May 2010
Page views: 1,378
Rating: 0
Votes: 0
- Usability - PDF - Archive
- Articles and resources about the usability of PDF documents.
Added: 19 December 2005
Page views: 1,441
Rating: 0.0
Votes: 0
49
External Links
- Case study: Unlock valuable content trapped in PDFs
- BriarBird, March 20, 2012. "We were very happy to have the opportunity to talk to Mark Bryant, Systems and Technical Manager for the Victorian Government's Department of Primary Industries about a major web development project in which the Department made the decision – no more PDFs..."
Added: 2 April 2012;
Page views: 521
Rating: 0
Votes: 0
- Creating Accessible PDFs
- HowTo.gov, Page Reviewed/Updated: September 25, 2011. "... Making your PDF documents accessible is important so that all users are able to access your agency's information—no matter its format. Not only is making your content accessible a best practice, agencies are also required by OMB to maintain accessibility and follow standards from Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act as amended in 1998..."
Added: 26 March 2012;
Page views: 351
Rating: 0
Votes: 0
- Is PDF accessible in Australia?
- By Roger Hudson, DingoAccess Random thoughts, stories and ideas from Roger Hudson of Web Usability, 21 February 2012. "More than two years ago I wrote about WCAG 2.0 and Accessibility Supported, and my fear that, 'the concept of 'accessibility supported' is not fully understood'. I believe that this 'could put at risk the whole move to improve the accessibility of the web'. I am concerned that mixed-messages relating to the status of PDF as a 'web content technology' is still causing problems within Australia at least..."
Added: 23 February 2012;
Page views: 367
Rating: 0
Votes: 0
- Release of WCAG 2.0 Techniques for PDF
- By Andrew Arch - AGIMO Blog, 12 January 2012. "On 3 January 2012, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) published updated Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, including new techniques for the Portable Document Format (PDF) and Silverlight, and an update to Understanding WCAG 2.0..."
Added: 3 February 2012;
Page views: 64
Rating: 0
Votes: 0
- PDF Techniques for WCAG 2.0
- W3C Working Group Note, 2012. "This Web page lists PDF Techniques from Techniques for WCAG 2.0: Techniques and Failures for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. Technology-specific techniques do not supplant the general techniques: content developers should consider both general techniques and technology-specific techniques as they work toward conformance..."
Added: 3 February 2012;
Page views: 376
Rating: 0
Votes: 0
- e-Publication accessibility
- By Andrew Arch - AGIMO Blog, 29 September 2011. "Recently the Australian Security Research Centre hosted an information sharing session on “i-documents & other e-publications”. It included information on a range of e-publishing trends including the use of EPUB and various other formats and their application in the government context. I spoke about accessibility and e-publications, and how the principles of accessible information apply to all e-publications..."
Added: 29 September 2011;
Page views: 448
Rating: 0
Votes: 0
- Boundary Commission defends release of pdfs of new constituency boundaries
- Quango responds to criticism about publishing data of proposed Parliamentary constituencies as hundreds of pdf maps, by Ben Whitelaw. Guardian Professional, Wednesday 14 September 2011. "The Boundary Commission for England (BCE) has defended its decision to release more than 500 pdf maps of proposed Parliamentary constituencies, stating that they believe they provided "an appropriate level of detail"..."
Added: 15 September 2011;
Page views: 253
Rating: 0
Votes: 0
- 3 Tips To Maximize PDFs And Search Engine Visibility
- by Rebecca Appleton in Content Marketing. Search Marketing Standard, September 13, 2011. "... While it's not advisable to inundate your website with PDF documents, the good news is that you can use them sparingly, safe in the knowledge that Google is better than it's ever been at extracting their meaning and indexing them as they would a HTML file. There are just a few things to keep in mind... 1. Duplicate Content Rules Still Apply... 2. Titles are still all powerful... 3. Links can still pass PageRank..."
Added: 14 September 2011;
Page views: 233
Rating: 0
Votes: 0
- PDFs in Google search results
- Posted by Gary Illyes, Webmaster Trends Analyst. Google Webmaster Central Blog, Thursday, September 1, 2011. "... Google first started indexing PDF files in 2001 and currently has hundreds of millions of PDF files indexed. We’ve collected the most often-asked questions about PDF indexing; here are the answers..."
Added: 7 September 2011;
Page views: 317
Rating: 0
Votes: 0
- PDF Techniques for WCAG 2.0 - W3C Editor's Draft
- W3C, 21 June 2011. "... The Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format for representing documents in a manner independent of the application software, hardware, and operating system used to create them, as well as of the output device on which they are to be displayed or printed. PDF files specify the appearance of pages in a document in a reliable, device-independent manner. The PDF specification was introduced by Adobe Systems in 1993 as a publicly available standard. In January 2008, PDF 1.7 became an ISO standard (ISO 32000-1)... PDF includes several features in support of accessibility of documents to users with disabilities. The core of this support lies in the ability to determine the logical order of content in a PDF document, independently of the content's appearance or layout, through logical structure and Tagged PDF. Applications can extract the content of a document for presentation to users with disabilities by traversing the structure hierarchy and presenting the contents of each node. For this reason, producers of PDF files must ensure that all information in a document is reachable by means of the structure hierarchy..."
Added: 14 July 2011;
Page views: 577
Rating: 0
Votes: 0
- Setting Document Properties Factsheet - in pdf format (262kb)
- (This document requires the use of Adobe Acrobat Reader). Government of South Australia, Department of Education and Children's Services, 19 August 2009. "If you are creating a document that will be uploaded to the web it is important to enter as much detail in the document properties as possible, as most of the Internet search engines (including the one used by DECS) display the title from the document properties rather than the file name in their search results. If there is no title set in document properties, then it shows a generic title such as 'MSWord Document', ' PDF Document' ‘Untitled’, ‘Microsoft Word’, ' PowerPoint Presentation', etc which won't be meaningful to the person viewing the search results – and means that your document won't be found by the intended audience. This factsheet will detail how to set document properties in Microsoft Office programs and in Adobe Acrobat..."
Added: 18 May 2011;
Page views: 450
Rating: 0
Votes: 0
- Testing PDF Accessibility
- By Jacqui - AGIMO Blog, 15 April 2011. "... Building accessibility into documents is essential, however testing for accessibility is an important part of ensuring the highest levels of accessibility are met. We recently came across an interesting paper presented at the 2011 CSUN conference which provided a Comparison of PDF Testing Tools..."
Added: 20 April 2011;
Page views: 731
Rating: 0
Votes: 0
- PDF Accessibility
- Australian Government Web Guide, 1 April 2011. "Further to recommendations of the Portable Document Format (PDF) Accessibility Review Project, in March 2011, a series PDF Accessibility Education Sessions for the Australian Government were delivered by Adobe with collaboration from AGIMO. The following information provides guidance on creating more accessible PDF files. Agencies are encouraged to review this advice to better inform themselves of the accessibility capabilities of PDF. However, agencies should note a wide range of PDF creation and accessibility checking tools exist and AGIMO does not endorse the use of any specific creation or testing products or services..."
Added: 6 April 2011;
Page views: 1,323
Rating: 0
Votes: 0
- Challenges of Using PDF documents online - half day forum
- Sponsored by 4 Syllables and Vision Australia. Thursday April 14, 2011 2 - 5pm, Jasper Hotel, 489 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne. - Registration is free but essential as places are limited. PDF documents are widely used on the web. On some sites they outnumber web pages. They are quick to produce, but can create challenges for accessibility and usability if not designed and used appropriately. In this forum you'll get to hear about the pros and cons and publishing PDF documents online, when PDF might be an appropriate format for content, and how to produce more usable, accessible PDF documents. There will be a panel of speakers from the public and private sectors who will discuss the use of PDF documents on their organisation's websites. For more information please contact 1300 367 055 or email webaccess@visionaustralia.org.
Added: 15 March 2011;
Page views: 1,189
Rating: 0
Votes: 0
- The Australian Government’s study into the Accessibility of the Portable Document Format for people with a disability
- Department of Finance and Deregulation, November 2010. "... Overall, the Study found that there is insufficient evidence to establish that the development of the Portable Document Format and improvements in assistive technologies have advanced enough for PDF files to be considered accessible for people with a disability, particularly for those who are blind or have low vision. Importantly, the Study also highlighted that the issues contributing to the inaccessibility of PDF files, when used with assistive technologies, are not in general directly attributable to the Portable Document Format itself. The issues that result in an inaccessible PDF file are, in order of impact: the design of the PDF file by the document author to incorporate the correct presentation, structure, tags and elements that maximise accessibility; the technical ability of the assistive technology to interact with the PDF file (via the relevant PDF Reader); and the skill of the user and their familiarity with using their assistive technology to interact with a PDF file..."
Added: 1 December 2010;
Page views: 1,183
Rating: 0
Votes: 0
This category last updated: 2 April 2012
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