Friday, July 08, 2011

Adobe PDF Accessibility

AccessibleWeb@U Meeting, June 30, 2011
  • Terrill Thompson, tft@uw.edu, Technology Accessibility Specialist
    • Slides are at http://staff.washington.edu/tft, along with slides of other presentations by Terrill
  • Lawsuits relating to accessibility
    • The goal of lawsuits is to clarify what is required by law
    • NFB actively advocating and services
      • Actually aiming a vendors, which are not covered by law, while public institutions are
      • California State University actively screening products to be sure they are accessible before allowing them to be purchased
        • CSU Accessible Electronic and Information Technology Procurement - http://www.calstate.edu/Accessibility/EIT_Procurement/
        • Accessible Technology Initiative, June 10, 2011 - http://www.calstate.edu/AcadAff/codedmemos/AA-2010-13.shtml
  • What makes an electronic document accessible?
    • Text alternatives to non-text content
    • Information, structure (good semantic markup), and relationships
      • Headings
      • Lists
      • Good structure gets passed on to assistive technology, which uses it to effectively present the information
    • HTML, Word, and PDF all support these features
    • Example: Accessible University Web site
      • http://staff.washington.edu/tft/talks/fileformats/syllabus.html
      • Because page is structured, voice browser (JAWS) can describe structure
        • CTRL- H lists headings
          • With JAWS you can jump by heading levels, thus using headings as a map of the page's content
        • JAWS identifies lists before speaking the list contents (if it is marked up as a lists)
    • Example: Word document - same page
      • To make a Word document accessible
        • Use the predefined styles for headings
        • To put alt text on an image - have alt text as one of the options
          • Recent versions of Word offer two fields, use the Description field (not the Title field)
          • Keep the alt text short and sweet
        • When making lists, use the list button
      • When you create a PDF, the structure can be passed to the PDF file by creating a "tagged PDF" file
        • Office 2010 will create a tagged PDF (When saving, click on options, and check the tagged markup box)
          • Mac Word does not generate tagged PDF. Have to go in afterwards with Adobe Acrobat Pro
          • In older versions of Office, can obtain add-ons that help to create tagged PDF
        • To create a tagged PDF, use "Save As PDF"
          • Using "Print" to a PDF will not created a tagged PDF
    • Three different types of PDFs
      • Image
      • Image with embedded fonts
        • Content could be all scrambled, has no tagging
      • Tagged (optimized for accessibility)
        • Tagged PDF has been around for a while, developed in response to federal requirement that files be accessible
    • To Create an Accessible PDF
      • Use an authoring tool that supports...
        • Creating documents with headings and subheadings
        • Adding alt text to images
        • Exporting to tagged PDF
      • Use these accessibility features anytime you create a document
      • Can tools be configured to be required to do the right thing?
        • Some HTML tools require alt text, headings, etc., but most other tools only offer the ability; you have to know about it and use it
    • Is sitechecker available to other campuses?
      • Can scan 50,000 pages
      • Contact Gina Hills about using the service
    • What tools support tagged PDF
      • Microsoft Word and Powerpoint 2010 (windows only)
        • Save As PDF
      • Microsoft Word and PowerPoint prior to 2010
        • Use Adobe Acrobat Pro
    • PDF Accessibility Check
      • Check whether document contents are an image
        • Is the document skewed?
        • Is the font clear or fuzzy
        • Try to select text on the page
        • If the content is skewed, the text fuzzy, or you cannot select text, the content is an image and will not be accessible
      • Check whether document is tagged
        • Using Acrobat Reader (a free tool)
          • Go to File > Properties (CTRL-D) and look for Tagged PDF
            • Even if says Yes, content may not be structured well enough
        • File > Properties (Ctrl-D) in any version of Acrobat; will say Tagged PDF: yes or no
      • Run an accessibility check
        • Using Adobe X Reader: Edit > Accessibility
        • Using Adobe X Pro: View > Tools > Accessiblity
    • PDF Accessibility Repair
      • Using Acrobat Pro
        • Recognize text (if needed)
          • Can you select words within the page
        • Tag document (if needed)
          • In Acrobat Pro: View > Tools > Accessibility
        • Touch up reading order
          • In Acrobat Pro, can change reading order of elements
        • Touch up structure (if needed)
          • Can scroll through document, select item, change tag for the items
          • Can add alt text to any element
        • Sometimes easier to delete all tagging and go through and retag it
        • Acrobat Pro has "Recognize Text" tool that scans images with text and generates text
      • Where to find Acrobat Pro's accessibility features
        • Recognize Text
          • View > Tools > Recognize Text
        • Read Out Loud (built-in screen reader; not very useful for blind users but may help to spot problems)
          • View > Read Outloud
        • Accessibility Tools
          • View > Tools > Accessibility
            • Prior to Adobe X: Advanced > Accessibility
  • Discussion
    • PDF is way overused
      • Many times people create PDF by default
      • PDF is useful if you need the document to look the same for all users
      • Otherwise likely to be better off creating document in HTML