Making PDFs accessible

Before we delve into accessible PDFs let's take a step back and review what digital accessibility means. We like the definition from AbilityNet;

"Digital accessibility, or web accessibility, is about universality and making websites and digital services that can be accessed and used by everyone - people on different devices, in different environments and with different abilities."

What is an accessible PDF?

An accessible PDF makes it easier for people with disabilities to access PDF documents with the aid of assistive technology software and devices, like screen magnifiers, screen readers, speech-recognition software, text-to-speech software, alternative input devices and refreshable Braille displays.

Hang on, I didn't know PDFs aren't accessible

Standard PDFs are not particularly accessible, this is due in part to the original purpose of PDFs which was create fixed content that can be printed and read offline. With the shift to online, PDFs need to adapt to be accessible in a digital environment.

Text

All text is available as readable text, not an image or a shape. This means that the text can be read by assistive devices and also magnified and maintain legibility.

Language

The language is specified so the assistive technology can use the correct language. and pronounce it correctly.

Title

The title of the document is understandable and human readable to provide context to the information in the file.

Tags

Content is tagged semantically to create a logical structure. This means that headings, paragraphs and tables are recognised and adhered to.

Tab order

There is a logical reading order for the content. This means that the content can be navigated in a meaningful way using a keyboard and doesn't rely on using a mouse.

Images

Images are described with alternative text (known as ALT tags) that can be read out by assistive technology. This ensures people using assistive technology have access to the same information as everyone else.

Graphics

Decorative visual styling that conveys no additional information are ignored by screen readers, this can include images or shapes, for example.

Colour

Contrast between background and foreground colours are high enough to make content visible to everyone. Colour coding is not used solely to indicate information.

Typeface

The chosen type face is legible, font size is readable and can render all required languages.

Line length

Line length can affect the comprehension of the content, setting to a fixed maximum promotes comfortable reading.

There are lots of articles on how to 'fix' PDF accessibility post production - i.e. after you have made it. Here's an article on how to do this from the accessibility experts at Web Aim.

However, this remediation work adds to the time needed to create designs and requires a level of training to know how to do it. It also might require you to have an expensive software licence such as Adobe Creative Cloud.

What we are doing to improve accessibility

Here at BrandStencil we want to build an inclusive software system that can be used by everyone and ensure that content created and output by our system is also accessible.

Accessible software and user interface

We are working on improving the accessibility of the user interface so it meets WCAG 2.0 standards as much as possible. This is a work in progress, our next step is to have an independent accessibility audit carried out so we can prioritise our next actions.

Outputting accessible PDF files

We are also working to improve the accessibility of PDFs the BrandStencil platform outputs to meet PDF/UA Foundation accessibility standards as much as possible.

We have developed a range of 'baked in' features into our template system to improve PDF accessibility with no need for any costly or time intensive remedial actions after it's been created. As much as possible we are aiming for 'out of the box' accessibility.

There's still work to be done but initial results are really positive and we now have a roadmap for continuing to develop our accessibility features.