[Tagged PDF support for accessibility]

On 1/24/2021 at 11:33 PM, JohannaH said:

Here you'll find some info:

https://www.pdfa.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/TaggedPDFBestPracticeGuideSyntax.pdf

https://www.pdfa.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/MatterhornProtocol_1-02.pdf

https://www.axes4.com/resources.html

https://www.access-for-all.ch/en/pdf-accessibility-checker.html

https://www.access-for-all.ch/en/pdf-accessibility-checker/vip-pdf-reader.html

To add to @JohannaH's great list of resources, for anyone new to PDF accessibility and would like to know more:

• AccessAbility 2: A Practical Handbook on Accessible Graphic Design | RGD 
  • A good and brief overview of how typography, colour and language affect accessibility (digitally, and in print)
  • It has some short guides for making accessible PDFs from InDesign or Word (+Acrobat)
  • It also has a really useful section on how to convey the benefits of prioritising accessibility to bosses, stakeholders and co-workers
  • As a side-note, the PDF document itself (now) also functions as a good example of tag structure and use of alt text 
• WebAIM: Alternative Text
  • For me, alternative text (or alt-text) is frequently the part that stumps me the most
  • WebAIM's guide gives a good outline of the "What", "When", "Where" and "How" of writing alt-text, with examples
• Accessible-PDF.info
  • A good resource for troubleshooting!

Last of all, my biggest (subjective) tip – sometimes the most accessible PDF may be no PDF at all... by which I mean:

• Explore what the best format(s) for the digital output of your project is going to be, before defaulting to PDF:
  • A well-structured HTML document is the gold standard for accessibility, and offers the most flexibility for users to tailor the content to their specific needs
  • A "reflowable" EPUB3 is basically a portable HTML document
  • For your content, there may be fewer steps involved in making a well-structured and accessible HTML or EPUB3 document
  • Tools for creating accessible HTML and EPUB3 documents are far more widely available (and free)
    • As a user-friendly way for writers to generate structured HTML documents from plain text, consider incorporating Markdown – as used by the online tool AROW, for example
    • Not everyone can afford a subscription to Creative Cloud (or even Acrobat Pro on its own)!
• Only share information as a PDF if you absolutely have to
  • ...and provide the important information in an alternative format, such as – you guessed it – HTML and/or EPUB3

Not to say PDFs aren't useful (they're not going anywhere) – but asking this question at the beginning could save you a lot of unnecessary headaches later.

• Also – as @JohannaH highlighted, and many weary PDF remediators will tell you – Acrobat Pro and InDesign / QuarkXpress / MS Word don't represent the best, simplest, or most intuitive processes for creating accessible documents.
• They are just the least-worst tools available, and these are just useful guides for making the most of them

Keep pushing for better tools!

[Tagged PDF support for accessibility]

On 11/3/2020 at 8:39 AM, MaggieP said:

I've been just looking up the accessibility features for PDFs created in Affinity for a client, and I'm so surprised that this is the only post about it!

I've completely convinced my client to go with Publisher over InDesign, but this one feature may be a deal-breaker that'll force us to go with InDesign. It's not just government documents that need accessibility features, accessibility is a major ethical component for many consumer-facing brands who are demanding this with their websites online and in other digital documents. Affinity, please look into this!

Adding my voice to this! I also 100% agree with @MaggieP's comment.

Accessible PDFs, or accessible ePub3 creation is vital for digital content creation. It is a strict legal requirement for online documents in many countries, not to mention common-sense from a basic communication point of view.

How can we call ourselves effective content creators, if we keep ignoring a whole chunk of our target audiences?