Re: query about use of bookmarks on short documents

There is no set number of pages stated in either WCAG or PDF/UA about 
when Bookmarks should be added to PDFs. There are recommendations by 
various people, but nothing stated as a requirement.

So it's left to your best judgement.

Things to consider that affect your decision:

1. Bookmarks are not fully accessible to those who use screen readers. 
We don't know of any screen readers that work with Acrobat and other PDF 
PDF viewers that allow access to that panel. Wish the industry did a 
better job, but that's in the control of the PDF viewers, not the 
standards.

2. Bookmarks are most helpful to those who are sighted (about 94% of 
your total audience) and can navigate the Bookmarks menu. So they are 
useful to the majority of your end users, but not all users.

3. Human behavior studies tell that we do indeed judge a book by its 
cover. That means when any sighted user opens your PDF, they decide 
whether to continue reading based on what they see in that first 
screenful or within a short scroll.

Therefore, the page count is not necessarily how you should answer this 
question: instead, decide whether there's something that might be 
helpful or critical for your sighted audience beyond page 1, after that 
first screenful. That will be different for every PDF you create.

One other setting to consider, but not stated in the standards: decide 
whether to set the bookmarks panel to automatically open when the PDF 
itself is opened (File / Document Properties / Initial View). When 
automatically opened, sighted users easily get an overview of the PDF's 
content and can decide whether to click-and-go to a particular bookmark, 
or click to close the entire panel.

In the many decades of training we have conducted, we found that most 
sighted users quickly recognize what the bookmarks panel is (a digital 
table of contents) and use it when it's automatically opened for them. 
But if it's not open, they usually don't know how to open the panel or 
recognize the "ribbon" icon.

Bottom line: our policy at our studio is:
-- If there's critical or helpful information on page 2 or later in the 
document, then Bookmarks are added to the PDF. And we always set the 
panel to automatically open when the PDF is opened.

Hope this helps!

Bevi Chagnon  |  PubCom.com
Designers, Trainers, and Technologists for Accessible Publishing


On 2024-10-09 10:04, Reid, Suzelle T (Robin) wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> My agency recently got a request that we include bookmarks on any PDF
> document regardless of length. Until now, we've only added bookmarks
> for PDFs with more than five pages.
> 
> Are bookmarks on PDFs regardless of length more accessible?
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> Robin Reid
> 
> Editor
> 
> Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

Received on Wednesday, 9 October 2024 15:15:45 UTC