This introduction on accessible PDFs was presented at the Web Accessibility 2.0 Seminar for the Web Industry Professionals Association (WIPA) in Melbourne Australia on the 4th December 2008. All content is copyright Vision Australia 2009 Any comments or questions most welcome!

1. ACCESSIBLE PDFS

2. A PRESENTATION BY
VISION AUSTRALIA

3. FOR THE
WEB ACCESSIBILITY 2.0 SEMINAR
MELBOURNE 2008
Copyright © Vision Australia 2008. For educational use only. No part of this presentation may be
published, sold, or otherwise used for profit without the written permission of the author.

4. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN TODAY:
1. Accessibility features of PDFs
CONCISELY

5. IN THE PAST…
HAS PDF BEEN CONSIDERED
ACCESSIBLE?

6. ONE REASON:
PDF DOCUMENTS ARE OFTEN SAVED AS
AN IMAGE
…AND THEN WHACKED STRAIGHT UP
ONTO THE SITE

7. SCREEN READER USERS CAN’T ACCESS
THE CONTENT

8. THEY KNOW IT IS THERE, BUT THEY
CAN’T READ IT

9. LISTEN AND RECORD
WALLPAPER
“Those with perfect vision are
excluded from the meaning of the
design – a role they are
unaccustomed to and which
visually impaired people
experience daily”

11. SO HOW CAN WE MAKE THEM
ACCESSIBLE?

12. SCREEN READER USERS:
1. Tagging PDFs
2. Bookmarks
3. Reading order

13. VISION IMPAIRED USERS:
1. Zoom
2. High contrast
3. Built in reader (Read out loud)
4. Customise form field focus colours

14. PHYSICALLY IMPAIRED USERS:
1. Bookmarks
2. Automatically scroll

15. USERS CAN CONTROL:
1. Contrast
2. Zoom
3. Screen reader reading order
4. Form field focus colours

16. ACCESSIBILITY SET-UP ASSISTANT

19. DESIGNERS CAN CONTROL:
1. Semantic structure
2. Screen reader reading order
3. Colour contrast
4.Clear links and writing
5.Bookmarks
6. Form field focus colours

20. PDF TAGS ARE SIMILAR TO HTML

22. Tag Description Note
<h1> to <h6> Headings
<p> Paragraph
<l> List Similar to <ul> or
<ol> tag in HTML
<li> List item
<table><tr><th><t Table, Table row,
d> Table header, Table
data
<figure> Figure Similar to <img> tag
in HTML

23. HOW DO WE TAG THEM?

27. PROVIDING ALT TEXT FOR IMAGES

30. DEALING WITH LANGUAGES

32. CONTROLLING THE READING ORDER

34. ARTIFACTS – HIDE CONTENT FROM
SCREEN READERS

36. BOOKMARKS

38. THE KEY IS TO
BUILD IT INTO
YOUR
WORKFLOW

39. ADOBE INDESIGN:
1.Use paragraph and character styles
2.Control the reading order
3.Provide alternative text for images
4.Link paragraph and character styles to tags

40. MICROSOFT WORD:
1. Mark-up headings and lists using styles
2. Provide alternative text for images

41. CONVERTING TO PDF
1.Switch on the setting so that the tags are
imported into the PDF – Not on by default
2.Use Adobe Distiller to set-up a pre-set for
your organisation

43. ACCESSIBILITY CHECKING

45. THANKS!

46. Suggestions, questions
Email: webaccess@visionaustralia.org.au
Phone: 1300 367 055
Web: www.visionaustralia.org.au/webaccess