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PDF Accessibility

PDF Accessibility. Lisa Tomalty, IST ltomalty@uwaterloo.ca , x35873. Agenda. Legislation Culture Change When PDFs are not accessible (scanned files) Ensuring New PDFs Are Accessible Testing Accessibility Word/PDF Accessibility Making Existing PDFs Accessible Questions?. Legislation.

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PDF Accessibility

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  1. PDF Accessibility Lisa Tomalty, ISTltomalty@uwaterloo.ca, x35873

  2. Agenda • Legislation • Culture Change • When PDFs are not accessible (scanned files) • Ensuring New PDFs Are Accessible • Testing Accessibility • Word/PDF Accessibility • Making Existing PDFs Accessible • Questions?

  3. Legislation • Web sites, including PDF files on our web sites published as of January 1, 2012: • Will need to be accessible as per the Accessibility for Ontarians With Disabilities Act (AODA) by January 1, 2014 (WCAG 2.0 Level A). • PDFs on our web sites must either: • Be accessible or • Have accessible HTML equivalents • Why? • We want to reduce/eliminate barriers faced by people with disabilities • Include whole audience (recruiting/retaining staff, students and faculty) • 57+% computer users are likely to benefit from accessible technology (Forrester Research, 2004) • Legal reasons

  4. Culture Change • How we create documents • Create a culture of thinking “accessibility” at the time of creation(web,Word,PDF,etc.) • Word templates will be made available but • people still need to be aware of how to make documents accessible and how to test for accessibility • Accessibility testing – part of creation just like naming and saving a file

  5. When PDFs are not accessible (scanned files) • PDFs that are scanned files, saved as PDF, are not accessible • PDFs that have been created from an accessible Word file, are generally accessible (but may require tweaks to be fully accessible) • Having an HTML version is the best alternative in some cases

  6. Ensuring New PDFs Are Accessible • Educate campus • Have resource staff to advise and help • Training • In house (SEW course, web pages) • UW/IST may bring in a trainer for ½ day – 1 day training course • Provide templates (training is still required)

  7. Testing Accessibility • Word and Acrobat accessibility testing • Free Testing Tool for individuals: • PAC: http://www.access-for-all.ch/en/pdf-lab/pdf-accessibility-checker-pac.html • Recommended by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) • 14/23 WCAG 2.0 checks • Gives text of what a blind person would hear

  8. Word/PDF Accessibility • A SEW course has been taught on Word/PDF Accessibility • The course notes are at: https://sharepoint.uwaterloo.ca/sites/IST/CS/under SEW Handouts/Web Courses/ Accessible Word and PDF Files

  9. Making Existing PDFs Accessible • Find PDF files on our sites (using internal or external resources) • If not needed anymore, remove from site • Create HTML alternative, OR • Make the PDF files accessible: • Using an external resource for a cost OR • Edit the source (e.g. Word) to make it accessible, convert to PDF, test PDF for accessibility OR • Tag existing PDF, test for accessibility (a lot of work)

  10. Making Existing PDFs Accessible • External Resources: • There are organizations that will scan our sites and make our PDF files accessible for a cost • http://www.accessibilit.com/public/services/ • www.tbase.com • CommonLook (Word, PPT (soon), PDF) • Many others to investigate

  11. Making Existing PDFs Accessible • An accessibility working group has been formed • “The goal of this working group is to identify and address gaps in information, training and support required for uWaterloo staff pertaining to the web accessibility legislation.”

  12. Suggestions • Spread the word about accessibility to the campus community • Encourage training • Writing for the Web, Web Accessibility, PDF Accessibility • Ensure enough resources (staff/outside resources) to meet January 2014 deadline • Plan for testing web sites for accessibility including PDF files

  13. Suggestions • Make templates available • Plan for • removing old PDFs • Making existing PDFs accessible or adding HTML equivalents

  14. Questions? • Thank you ! 

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