Accessibility and PDF

The PDF format has long been a major barrier to accessibility for people with disabilities. A huge amount of content on the web and elsewhere is provided in this format which, up until fairly recently, has been fundamentally inaccessible.

The problem is that the PDF format began life simply a pictorial representation of a document. It contained information about the layout of a document and the included fonts but not the content itself. Those who could not see the document could not read it.

Accessibility Improvements

Adobe have gradually improved this situation by exposing the interface and the content of documents to screen reading software. In addition Adobe have added accessibility ‘tags’, a layer that sits above the document and describes the document content. These two features have made it possible to create accessible pdf documents that contain ‘real text’, not images of text, and information about the structure and flow of documents as well as embedded images and multimedia.

Options for PDF Accessibility

Organisations currently have two options when it comes to making the content of PDF documents accessible to people with disabilities.

1. Convert the PDF into an alternative and more accessible format such as HTML.
2. Use the accessibility features included in the latest versions of Adobe Acrobat to make the PDF documents themselves accessible.

The first option is a good one only if the particular advantages of the PDF format are not required, namely the preservation of the document layout, security etc. It also presents the problem of having to maintain and link to two versions of the same document.

The latter option is a best case scenario where the layout of a document can be preserved while the content within the document is fully accessible.

How Enable PDF can help

Enable PDF automates the process of converting PDF documents into accessible PDF documents. This provides the best option for meeting accessibility and regulatory requirements without losing the benefits of PDF. The often complex process of 'tagging' documents for accessibility is made simple and efficient, and large document loads can be handled at once.

What is accessibility?

A wide range of technologies exist that enable people with disabilities to browse, communicate, work and shop online. However, most web sites are inaccessible due to poor design. Read more about accessibility>>