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How To: Create Accessible PDF’s

How To: PDF Accessibility
PDF’s are used in masses across the web. Many times, sites will rely on PDF’s to communicate information, which can be good for users to download and read later, however, PDF’s have major usability problems for web site marketing and accessibility.

Marketing Problem 1
The marketing problem comes from the PDF User Trap. PDF’s tend to rank very well in search engines. As a result, many users will click on the PDF, just as they click on a typical search engine result. The downside starts immediately when the user has to wait 20-30 seconds for the PDF reader to load and start-up. Delays when trying to find information can be priceless, as many users just don’t want to be bothered with waiting. However, when the PDF application starts, the user is locked in, they can’t stop it or leave.

Marketing Problem 2
The next problem comes as the user starts to look through the PDF. If it is interesting and has good content, there is no immediate way for the user to get to the company website. This is because very few PDF’s are built with hyperlinks embedded in the document. The hyperlink could be a very valuable resource for users to get to the main web site. Most users will not edit the URL field to get to the website, as they tend to rely on the back button. When a user hits the back button, they are now seeing the results page again, with your result back alongside competitive web sites. You had them at your site – but they couldn’t get any further. This is how the PDF becomes a user trap.


Accessibility Problems
For many users, PDF’s are much more frustrating than this. As PDF’s can also incorporate many images, they lack elements that web sites include, such as alt text for images, or document structure. Many screen readers are unable to handle PDF’s if they are not “properly� constructed and can cause frustration. For many users, the only option is to upgrade their assistive software, at a potential cost of hundreds of dollars.

Creating an accessible PDF is not difficult, and can be done by changing settings in the standard PDF creation, typically in Adobe. Creators can also test the accessibility of their PDF documents.

How to Create an Accessible PDF
The best means of creating an accessible PDF document is to start with a tagged source file. Starting with this, any device should be able to access the document. With accessibility, the benefit of creating accessible documents is that the documents are open to be read by multiple devices. PDA’s and phones are included in this list.

Fortunately, tagged document formats are included in Adobe programs and Microsoft Office. By “tagged,� the most basic explanation is that the document has some sort of underlying structure such as header information, text and graphic display commands and alt text. The best example of this is a web page, which has make-up language to position elements, designate text size, font style and more. To see the Tag structure of your document, select View > Navigation Tabs > Tags.

The tags create a logical order and structure to your document. Allowing the reader to follow the document as the author intended. A tagged format also allows a PDF document to be reflowed. Reflow is an important consideration for those who have to re-size the document for readability and for viewing on handheld devices. Reflow allows content to be structured for viewing without horizontal scrolling, allowing the user to only rely on the vertical scroll to see the content.

Microsoft documents embed this and will carry tagged data through PDF creation. Be sure this option is selected in the document settings set-up screen. Other programs, such as Quark, need to be converted to a PostScript file and then converting the PostScript file to a PDF in order to maintain the tagged format. Web Pages saved as a PDF must also select “Create PDF Tags� in the settings.

Tagged Documents
To create tags in current documents, it can be as easy as opening a PDF document. , From the toolbar in Acrobat 6, select Advanced > Accessibility > Add Tags to Document. Adobe will create the logical tag structure in the document, which will enable a logical flow of information and the reflow feature. You may want to review the tag structure for accuracy.

Acrobat will also allow you to check documents for accessibility compliance. There is a Full Check and a Quick Check. Don’t waste your time with the quick check, the full check doesn’t take much longer and you are better off knowing what to do to improve your documents. In the toolbar, select Accessibility > Full Check. The resulting checklist will notify you of improvements that can be made to allow for a more accessible document.

This not only allows you to better communicate with all of your web site users, but it also allows search engines to better search your documents for information and context. You can benefit, as always, by creating more accessibility options that help you market your website more effectively.

Next:

How To: Use Adobe Reader 7 accessibility options.