RE: query about use of bookmarks on short documents

Bookmarks in PDFs can be generated based on the use of Heading Styles in a
document. Bevi is correct, it doesn't matter how many pages are in the
document, if there are topic changes, they should be identified as headings
(preferably in the source content). These should get converted to Bookmarks
in the PDF although if You're using Word, you may have to set this once for
the document or template.

Using the old UI in Acrobat, I can use the keyboard and my screen
reader/JAWS 2024 to open the Bookmarks Panel in the Navigation pane,
navigate to a Bookmark, press Enter, press F6 to go to that place in the PDF
and begin reading...again, using the JAWS screen reader.

As far as I know, the Bookmarks Panel and other panels in the Navigation
Pane have been keyboard accessible and have worked with JAWS. I haven't
tested it with NVDA 2024 yet.

So, if you're going to use Bookmarks to get people to a specific place in a
PDF, they should be supported by corresponding heading levels. No standard
for this, just years of best practice at improving navigation through PDFs
for everyone.

OK, I just checked the process with NVDA 2024. Everything works as it
should...except when I press F6 to move back to the document, NVDA is not
"hooking" into the heading/bookmark and instead reads from the top of the
document. Maybe something to bug with NVDA.  However, if I go into browse
mode in NVDA, get a list of elements and choose headings, I can quickly go
to that heading and begin reading. This tool is working as it should.

This is why it is important to correspond bookmarks with headings: both are
navigational tools for PDFs.

Cheers, Karen



-----Original Message-----
From: chagnon@pubcom.com <chagnon@pubcom.com> 
Sent: Wednesday, October 9, 2024 11:16 AM
To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: 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 15:58:03 UTC