Re: PDF and Accessibility

Hi Gian,

According to WCAG 1.0 checkpoint 11.4 if you don't have an accessible web
version available of any content you are not in conformance at any level, as
I read it.

As Rob noted in his response, PDF is not necessarily inaccessible - it
depends on how it was generated. Best thing to do is run it through the Adobe
converter and see what happens, since that is essentially what many people
out there on the web will be doing. If it is a single document, it may be
simplest to take that version and clean it up. (You could get a start by
opening the HTML version in Sausage HotDog, which will do some accessiblity
testing for you, but I guess you know that <grin/>).

The Guidelines document (checklist and all) is in the process of being
revised - there are existing working drafts, but there is quite an extensive
process to producing a new version of a W3C Recommendation.

Cheers

Charles McCN

On Wed, 10 Jan 2001, Gian Sampson-Wild wrote:

  Hi,

  I work for Sausage Interactive, an Internet firm in Australia. We have a
  client who wishes to put an Annual Report on their AAA website. The report
  is quite long and in PDF format.

  I am aware that PDFs are not accessible, however is it possible to have the
  Report downloadable as a PDF if there are also contact details available
  (such as an email address and/or phone number)? Thus people who cannot
  download the PDF can access it some other way- ie. by mail etc. I believe
  this would be A and possibly AA level accessible, but am unsure whether it
  fulfills the AAA standard.

  Secondly, I was wondering if you intend on upgrading the May 1999 W3C
  checklist as you have done the guidelines?

  Thanks for your help,

  Gian

  Gian Sampson-Wild
  Accessibility Specialist
  Sausage Interactive
  gian.sampson-wild@sausage.com
  +61 3 8662 2547


-- 
Charles McCathieNevile    mailto:charles@w3.org    phone: +61 (0) 409 134 136
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative                      http://www.w3.org/WAI
Location: I-cubed, 110 Victoria Street, Carlton VIC 3053, Australia
until 6 January 2001 at:
W3C INRIA, 2004 Route des Lucioles, BP 93, 06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France

Received on Thursday, 11 January 2001 21:48:38 UTC