- PDFs Suck! - Use semantic HTML! 2004: PDF hatin’ was all the rage…

PDFs never went away, did they?

10 years and billions of PDFs later…

While technology has come a looooong way…

Are you winning the war on inaccessible PDFs?

Measuring PDF PSUWebConf 2014 Deque Systems, Inc. PDF a11y testing for the rest of us

What’s your strategy? PDFs…

What’s your strategy? PDFs…

Not everyone is a PDF expert!

Not everyone has access to one!

“Trust me, everything will be all right!” Have no fear, Frank is here!

PDF Accessibility Self-Defense Techniques

PDF Techniques for WCAG 2.0

PDF4: Hiding decorative images

Measuring PDF Accessibility A Testing Proposal For the Rest of Us

Or, as I like to put it…

in 12 easy steps! fake your way into looking like a PDF expert How to

But we don’t wanna use no stinkin’ screen readers!

Some Tools to Consider Acrobat Pro XI Accessibility Checker Runs on both Windows and MacOs CommonLook PDF plugin For Adobe Acrobat on Windows PDF Accessibility Checker 2 Independently runs on Windows

Faking Your Way Up the PDF a11y Ladder 1.Access Restrictions 2.Default Language 3.Document Title 4.Bookmarks 5.Content Reflow 6.Read Out Loud 7.Semantic Structure 8.Tabbing Order 9.Informational Images 10.Decorative Images 11.Meaningful Hyperlinks 12.Data Tables

a11yTips – an ever growing resource

10,000 ft. View StepTechniqueWCAG SC Access Restrictions Default LanguagePDF Document TitlePDF BookmarksPDF Content Reflow , Read Out Loud Semantic StructurePDF11, PDF , Tabbing OrderPDF32.1.1, Informational ImagesPDF Decorative ImagesPDF Meaningful HyperlinksPDF Data TablesPDF61.3.1

Access Restrictions Are there any access restrictions on the document, such as password protection?

Default Language Is the natural language of the PDF document specified? a11yTip #2 Specify the default language of PDF documents

Document Title Does the PDF have a meaningful title (not just a file name)? a11yTip #3 Specify descriptive and meaningful titles for PDF documents

Image-Based Documents

Text-Based Documents

Bookmarks Does the PDF contain bookmarks and are they helpful for navigating efficiently to various sections of the document?

Content Reflow When Reflow mode is activated, does all the content reorganize naturally in a single, easy to read column? a11yTip #5 Ensure the reading order of a PDF makes sense when reflowed

Read Out Loud When Read Out Loud is activated, does all the content get read correctly and in the right order?

Semantic Structure Is content organized consistently using semantically and correctly structured tags/markup?

Tabbing Order Can the document be navigated in a predictable order that is consistent with the meaning of the content? a11yTip #8 Create a tabbing order for PDF content that is logical and intuitive

Informational Images Does the text alternative provided for every informational image convey the same meaning or purpose as the image?

Decorative Images Are purely decorative images marked up as artifacts, so screen readers can safely ignore them? a11yTip #10 Turn purely decorative images in PDF documents into artifacts

Meaningful Hyperlinks Is hyperlink text marked up using Link annotations and is the purpose of that text meaningful? a11yTip #11 Provide replacement text for PDF links that are not meaningful

Data Tables Are the tables marked up properly and are header cells and data cells explicitly associated? a11yTip #12 Use table markup to structure tabular data in PDF documents

PDF Accessibility Self-Defense Techniques

PDF Testing Methodology

PDF strategy! What will yours be?

Denis Boudreau Deque Systems, Merci Beaucoup!

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