Comments on: Creating accessible PDF documents

By: pete warren

pete warren — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:36:02 +0000

please email when course is available.

By: Gary

Gary — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 15:37:24 +0000

I hope that you generalize beyond screen readers. Not all disabled persons are visually impaired and not all who use assistive technology use screen readers. many of us use speech recognition software for dexterity impairments. the accessibility industry’s narrow-focus is very frustrating and counter-productive.
Surveys with ranking: 1 should be the lowest – 5 or whatever other number should be the highest. yours in counter-intuitive.

By: Jolie Miller | associate content manager, business

Jolie Miller | associate content manager, business — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 21:56:36 +0000

Thank you for the terrific feedback–we’ll be taking it into account as we plan the course.

By: Laurie Iten

Laurie Iten — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 14:27:23 +0000

In academia we often have links to pdf files from published journal articles. I’d like this new “Creating accessible PDF documents” class address the question of what are the accessibility requirements for “published” pdf files that we have links to within a website that must be 508 compliant?

By: mike

mike — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 09:39:07 +0000

PDF is designed to replicate the printed page. But, in theory at least, I’ve always felt it should be possible to reflow text at any font size, for any display size, and for any paper size (or orintation). Furthermore, it should be possible for PDF to be read aloud by a PC in the correct order and with appropriate Alt text. In practice, PDF’s nods in these directions have all proved, shall we say, a bit hit-and-miss, at least for the complex technical documents I produce. I’ve always felt the PDF would have to designed from the ground up to reliably achieve any of these goals, and even that PDF might be the wrong format. If it’s going to be that constrained, why wouldn’t I use ePub? Well, one reason might be because I care more about producing controlled document spaces than I do about selling as such. So, if your trainers know how to deliver PDF for section whatever compliance, you may be tapping into a wider audience, simply by showing how to make PDF work better for a broader range of devices: tablet > netbook > laptop > dual-screen workstation.

By: Mark Hale

Mark Hale — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 20:22:56 +0000

I hope you start from the document source (e.g. making good documents in Word, etc.), not just from the perspective of remediating PDFs.

Also, I hope you generalize the accessibility beyond 508, e.g. to include WCAG 2.0, for those whose standards aren’t tied to 508.

By: drs18

drs18 — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 19:31:30 +0000

Your tweet said you’re planning a course in making a PDF accessible; I raised a wary eyebrow. Actually, it seems to be in making PDFs 508 compliant. There’s a difference, and I’m glad you’re going this route. I’d actually prefer WCAG2 compliance, but 508 ain’t so bad.

By: Kathy Simic

Kathy Simic — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 20:44:40 +0000

I work with students at TAFE who have a vision impairment, and I am regularly have to reformat pdf documents either to make them accessible for students, or using the ocr to convert the document into text to enlarge. This is often very difficult. I would really appreciate any tips that you could give on making this a more streamlined, and less time consuming process. Thank you, Kathy

By: Mark DuBois

Mark DuBois — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 19:53:52 +0000

I teach a class in web accessibility and on of the topics we cover deals with creating accessible PDF documents. Having students reference lynda.com tutorials would be a great addition to this section in my class.

Best,
Mark

By: Cheryl Johnson

Cheryl Johnson — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 17:17:01 +0000

Flash!