Re: Acrobat PDF & Accessibility

Hi Vadim,

Adobe Acrobat 5 "finally" works with the MSAA features in Windows.  But you
need to create the document properly for it to truly be accessible.  If you
do, the PDF will work well with assistive technologies that utilize MSAA.

If you create a structured document, say with Word 2000, the conversion to
PDF will automatically translate the headings, paragaphs, tables, etc. to
the PDF document.  You can check the tag structure with Acrobat, and also
check the other codes (like alt).  There are some other things to check, as
well, but ideally this wouldn't take too much longer than usual (depending
on the complexity of the layout).

Using other apps outside of Office 2000 to create PDFs requires more
adjustment in Acrobat, as they do not translate structure as well.

In case you want to read more, here's some resources on how to make PDFs
accessible:
    http://access.adobe.com/information.html

There are a few documents to read there.  If you're in a hurry, just read
this one:
    http://access.adobe.com/booklet.html

It outlines the basics.  There's an advanced techniques document there, too.

Joel


> Can someone explain to me what do you mean by *accessible* PDF?
> Is it PDF without "microspacing" and "words being broken up"?
> // I apologize in advance that I don't have time to read numerous Adobe
> specs, so simple explanation in 2-3 sentences would be enough

Received on Friday, 21 December 2001 10:29:08 UTC