Lab: Making PDF documents truly accessible Mireia Ribera, Universitat de Barcelona Friday, Nov , 2:15 - 4:15 p.m. 12th Annual Accessing Higher Ground Accessible Media, Web and Technology Conference November , 2009

What IS and IS NOT this LAB It IS – Heuristic guidelines gathered through user observation and multiple documents conversion. – Intended for plain PDF documents – Focused on international issues and usability It IS NOT – General recommendations – Intended for multimedia PDF or PDF with forms

Heuristics for… PDF documents on the web Documents to be read on digital Documents to be read on paper International issues

Structure Do not include table of contents. – Include bookmarks for documents >5 pages. – Hide or show bookmarks depending of your main audience. Do not include internal links Partition the document, since >2M. – Offer the possibility to download full document or chapters.

5 PDF documents on the web Indicate that the link target is a PDF document. Indicate file weight within the link. Optimize it. Name the file properly. Include reading advices (for example TechDis guide), and a short abstract for very big documents.

PDFs to be read on digital Slim images Clear link anchors Problems in Adobe Reader Searching/Bookmarking and Reflow incompatible Presentation settings override user settings

PDFs to be read on paper Make 2 versions or more? – Regular – Large text – High contrast? Clear language? Indicate page numbers Indicate URL and alternate presentations

Common pitfalls in automatic conversions Reflow images from Word 2007 doesn’t work Language identification is not inherited Complex tables can’t be marked in text processors. Page order Conversion from PDF really buggy, especially with Word 2007 templates.

International issues Plan for different paper sizes (A4 in Europe) Indicate the title of the document [WCAG 2.0 requirement] Indicate the language of the doc and parts [WCAG 2.0 requirement] Avoid the use of abbreviations (ASAP, FYI) and be alert with cultural references (thumbs up, animal symbols) Indicate month by letters 10/06/2009 vs. 06/10/2009 Preview different currency or postal addresses (ZIP, state vs. postal code, country) in forms. More information at W3C internationalizationW3C internationalization

Limits and opportunities for PDF docs PDF standards timeline Multichannel strategy Sustainability Users teaching

11 PDF standards timeline o July 2008: PDF as ISO :2008 standard o October 2009: PDF/UA as a work in progress ISO standard

Include PDF in a multichannel publication strategy HTML still the most accessible and well known Microsoft Word for documents to be edited; proprietary but a de facto standard. Adobe Flash or Microsoft PowerPoint very useful for cognitive disabilities DAISY very useful for blind people and people with dyslexia, also for mobile agents. Editors don’t like it. Shortcomings in readers support. PDF only: – Digital rights management – Preserve layout – Digital preservation (PDF/A) – Special requirements in typography – Portability

Sustainability Authoring tools not easy => establish a priority policy If possible, always keep master document EXTENSIVE PLANNING for reducing costs – Simplify – Validation – Templates Right now, PDF real accessibility means mostly Adobe tools

Extenstive planning: Duff Johnson START model Simply the layout Tables should be as simple as possible Alternate text for graphics and images should be addressed early in the authoring process Reinvent design elements that just won’t work in a screen reader Test with common screen reading software until you can predict performance from looking at the tags alone. Duff Johnson Adobe Acrobat PDF 2007 Conference

Users teaching Lots of users don’t know how to use Adobe documents. WebAIM screen reader survey

Trends on accessibility of PDF PDF/UA new coming ISO standard – Richer markup – Automatic validation? (WCAG 2.0 robust 4.1.1) PDFXML version of PDF documents? – Conversions to other DTDs – Editing by software

17 PDF is here to stay PDF Daisy Doc Who will win?

18 ! Thanks ! Mireia Ribera ! Tell me your experiences with PDF documents!

19 References used solutions.com/pdf/agipdf2007_DuffJohnson.pdf 3. accesibles.html Material licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike