Web Access Centre Blog

PDFs get a rough press when it comes to accessibility and understandably so as most PDFs on the web today are not accessible. I thought I’d turn the spotlight on the much maligned thorn in many a web site owners side, and look at some of the reasons why PDFs are inaccessible. What follows is a list of some of reasons behind why PDFs suck that are not about the technology itself but how we (the web designer, the content author, the content commissioner, the manager, the policy maker) use it and what we can do to start changing PDFs on the web.

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PDF’s are something that we all struggle to make accessible and can be problematic. While Adobe have done great work adding in features to support us making accessible PDF’s there is still a huge amount out there that are not accessible either because they are legacy PDF’s or an organisation’s processes do not support the creation of accessible PDF.

To help you in your efforts to make your PDF’s accessible, a requirement of WCAG, we are launching two new services:

• PDF assessments: we can check your PDF for accessibility in line with WCAG 1.0 and with a screen reader. Results will be delivered in a report together with suggested amendments. This is a great way to get practical advice on fixing not just the PDF we assess but PDF’s in general - lessons learnt can then be rolled out throughout other PDF’s in the site.
• PDF fixing: We can take existing PDF’s, identify any accessibility issues and fix them for you. This is great for if you have important content such as annual reports.

Costs and timescales will vary according to the size and complexity of the PDF but we will endeavour to do what we can to fit with you. If you’re interested in booking one of the above services drop us an email at webaccess@rnib.org.uk, attaching the PDF(s) you need testing or fixing together with your timescales. We’ll then get back to you with a proposal and schedule the work.

With the help of Barrier Break Technologies we have pulled together a list of Jaws and WindowEyes keystrokes for Flash and PDF. These are based on certain versions of each screen reader, Flash and PDF. Most of these are standard keystrokes but useful to flag within the context of using or testing accessible Flash and PDF. Also included are some useful links.

We’d be interested to hear your feedback, how you get on with the keystrokes, or if you have any more tips and advice that others may find useful.

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Yesterday at Internet World our PDF expert Hugh Huddy spoke on a panel about “PDF Documents & Web Accessibility – What you need to know if you have PDF on your website”. Joining him on the panel was Struan Robertson, a senior associate at Pinsent Masons and the editor of IT law Web site Out-law.com, Jon Gooday from AbilityNet and Fergus Brady from Riverdocs.

The whole issue around PDF and accessibility has been running for years and we have always asked that people create accessible PDF’s according to the Access Adobe guidelines, avoid putting key information or scanned images of text in PDF, provide accessible alternatives where possible (in HTML, Word or text) as well as provide links to the Adobe Online PDF conversion tool on web pages where PDF’s can be downloaded from. In this press release Hugh clarifies what should be done when using PDF’s while Straun discusses how inaccessible PDF could fall foul of the law under the 2005 Disability Discrimination Act (DDA):

“The legal duty is to provide the information in a way that is accessible and usable. Many PDFs are not accessible and the solution is to provide accessible HTML in addition to PDFs, if you wish to use PDFs.”

This clearly underpins the necessity for producing accessible PDF’s in all circumstances as described by Access Adobe and if this isn’t possible looking at producing an accessible alternative.

Read the whole article PDFs fail on accessibility, says lawyer on Out-Law.com.

Across the world, millions of PDFs are generated every day. Organisations, businesses and governments use them, small companies and individuals use them - they are everywhere, but why?

Printing - paper is still very popular and PDFs print out reliably.
Protection - the information is locked.
Design - a company can implement its corporate branding guidelines and know that everyone seeing that document is getting the same experience.
Foolproof - its not complicated to create a PDF, just a couple of clicks and its done.

PDF’s should really be intended for reading in their printed format and not on screen. This becomes even more relevant for screen reader users.

As a screen reader user myself I’ve hit up against lots of problems trying to access and read information presented in PDFs. More often than not PDFs are much harder to navigate and read than other document formats and leave me confused or doubting the accuracy of what I’m hearing.

Help is at hand - we’ve produced Accessing PDF using JAWS: a users guide.

This guide is aimed at you the screen reader user, those people who support you and of course policy makers and IT managers. The guide is from a screen reader users’ perspective and sets out tips on reading PDFs, Adobe’s official guidelines, what’s inside a PDF, links to conversion resources and a section that somewhat bravely comments on the legal aspects.

Please use the guide and tell us what you think and share any tips you may have.

Together we can make PDFs what they were designed to be: a way of sharing information irrespective of location or platform.

Hugh