AcceDe PDF

WCAG 2.0 correlation matrix

Sébastien Delorme — 2011-03-30T21:08:10Z

Warning: such as PDF Techniques for WCAG 2.0, this page is a draft version.

Correlation matrix between AcceDe PDF manual and PDF Techniques

The aim of AcceDe PDF manual is to provide all the practical information you need to learn how to tag a PDF document. Below, find a correlation matrix with PDF Techniques for WCAG 2.0.

PDF Techniques for WCAG 2.0
Technique	Title	AcceDe PDF Manual Chapter
PDF1	Applying text alternatives to images with the Alt entry in PDF documents	6.2.7 Providing alternate text	Page 40
PDF1		8.5 Images and captions	Page 52
PDF2	Creating bookmarks in PDF documents	10.1 Generating bookmarks (if required)	Page 80
PDF3	Ensuring correct tab and reading order in PDF documents	7 - Defining the reading order	Page 46
		9 - Checking the content reflow	Page 72
		10.2 Indicating the link tab order	Page 82
PDF4	Hiding decorative images with the Artifact tag in PDF documents	9.2 Placing items which do not convey information in artifacts	Page 73
PDF5	Indicating required form controls in PDF forms	(next release)
PDF6	Making tables accessible in PDF documents by using table elements	8.8 Tables	Page 57
PDF7	Performing OCR on a scanned PDF document to provide actual text	12.4 Character recognition in scanned documents	Page 94
PDF8	Providing definitions for abbreviations via an E entry for a structure element	(next release)
PDF9	Providing headings by marking content with heading tags in PDF documents	8.3 Section headings	Page 50
PDF10	Providing labels for interactive form controls in PDF documents	(next release)
PDF11	Providing links and link text using the /Link structure element in PDF documents	8.10 Links	Page 67
PDF12	Providing name, role, value information for form fields in PDF documents	(next release)
PDF13	Providing replacement text using the /Alt entry for links in PDF documents	6.2.7 Providing alternate text (need an update)	Page 40
PDF14	Providing running headers and footers in PDF documents	(next release)
PDF15	Providing submit buttons with the submit-form action in PDF forms	(next release)
PDF16	Setting the default language using the /Lang entry in the document catalog of a PDF document	5.2 Adding the main document language	Page 22
PDF17	Specifying consistent page numbering for PDF documents in Adobe Acrobat Pro or Reader	(next release)
PDF18	Specifying the document title using the Title entry in the document information dictionary of a PDF document	5.1 Adding a document title	Page 20
PDF19	Specifying the language for a passage or phrase with the Lang entry in PDF documents	6.2.8 Specifying a change of language	Page 42
PDF20	Using Adobe Acrobat Pro's Table Editor to repair mistagged tables	8.8.2 Link the headers with their corresponding cells (2 possible methods) (need an update)	Page 60
PDF21	Using List tags for lists in PDF documents	8.6 Lists and list items	Page 55

Press release

Pauline Laurent — 2011-02-22T13:23:24Z

Atalan publishes manuals for creating PDF documents accessible to visually-impaired people.

Atalan in collaboration with a group of nine blue-chip companies have published the first comprehensive manuals with step-by-step instructions for making PDF documents accessible. These manuals, available in English and French from www.accede.info/en, are set to become an international reference.

A strong demand from companies. More and more socially responsible companies want their PDF documents (annual reports, leaflets, brochures, magazines…) to be accessible. At the same time, legal obligations have come into force concerning the accessibility of digital content.

The solution for making PDF documents accessible is called tagging. Standard PDF documents cannot be read by some disabled users, especially visually impaired readers. However, by tagging the PDF according to well-defined rules, content becomes accessible and readable to everyone.

The AcceDe manuals: clear, detailed and free of charge. The AcceDe manuals describe tagging techniques and procedures clearly and in detail. The manuals, available in English and French, can be downloaded from www.accede.info/en/manuals.

The manual is very easy to follow and the step-by-step procedures are well explained. notes Sylvie Duchateau of BrailleNet, a leading association that promotes digital accessibility in France.

A well-structured description, based on the experience of specialists familiar with the issues, adds Frank Gross of Adobe France and a member of the proofreading committee.

One of the best resources for learning how to tag a PDF document. The exercise books are particularly useful and clearly deal with the main accessibility problems of PDF documents in a step by step fashion, states Matt May, an engineer specializing in accessibility at Adobe Systems (Seattle) and member of the English proofreading committee.

Press contact: Christophe Pineau - cpineau[at]atalan.fr - Tel: +33 (0)1 45 26 77 89

Contact

Sébastien Delorme — 2011-02-22T13:16:51Z

You could contact Atalan, the coordinator of the AcceDe project, at the following email address: contact(at)atalan.fr. - Toolbox / pied-de-page

AcceDe initiative

Sébastien Delorme — 2011-02-22T13:04:58Z

By default PDF documents are not accessible to certain users with disabilities. Among the users affected, there are, for example:

Blind users:
Blind people use their computers with screen readers. These devices use software which either read the information displayed on the screen (with a voice synthesizer) or convert it to Braille (with a Braille terminal). With this type of software, it is difficult to understand the contents of a PDF file if it is not structured with tags. The reading order is not always logical, the information contained in images is not read, and the absence of a title structure makes navigating such a document long and complicated.
Partially sighted users:
Customizing the display of a PDF document in Adobe Reader often poses difficulties. Changing the text or background colour in order to improve readability does not always work. For example, some background colours cannot be modified.
Users with a motor disability:
The rigid linear navigation imposed on those who read PDF documents exclusively with the aid of a keyboard makes it difficult to navigate in the document. For example, the tab order of links or form fields is not always logical.

The solution for making PDF documents accessible is to structure them with the appropriate tags. Currently, this solution is rarely implemented, specifically for the following reasons:

The concept of a structured or tagged document is not widely known by those who produce PDF files.
There is no good quality documentation for learning how to tag documents.

In France, as part of their policy for people with disabilities, more and more large companies want the PDF documents they publish to be accessible. For this reason nine French companies came together to form the AcceDe project to increase the accessibility of PDF documents.

One of the objectives of AcceDe was to create educational guides and manuals for those who want to make their PDF documents accessible.

For any comment about this document, please contact Atalan, the coordinator of the AcceDe project, at the following email address: contact[at]atalan.fr.

Suggestions for improvements to Acrobat 11

Laurent Bracquart — 2011-02-15T14:11:50Z

To implement the AcceDe initiative numerous users (freelancers, communication agencies etc.) have been involved in tagging PDF documents in Acrobat Pro. As a result we have gained some initial insights into Acrobat Pro.

Some observations crop up again and again. On this page we are publishing the most important comments and suggestions for improvements which would make tagging in Acrobat Pro easier.

Last update: 08 February 2011.

Don't hesitate to forward your comments and other issues that you have noticed (contact us).

Missing functionalities

Some simple functionalities that are common in authoring tools are not included in Adobe Acrobat Pro 9. The following functionalities would make the job of tagging a document easier:

Copy/paste of tags in the Tags navigation panel;
History of actions (undo/redo) in the Tags, Reading Order, and Content tabs;
Keyboard shortcuts for creating a tag from a selection, adding an empty tag in the Tags navigation panel...

To check the tagging of a PDF document, it is a good idea to export it to an accessible text format. Nevertheless, you can only export the entire document with this functionality. It would useful if it was possible to export a specific range of pages (or the currently displayed page).

User interface improvements

The display of some features could be modified in order to optimize tagging in Adobe Acrobat Pro 9.0.

For each language, sort the tags in alphabetical order in the drop-down lists for selecting a tag (the tags, even when translated, are always sorted according to the alphabetical order in English).
Standardize the French translations for the tag titles (the P tag is sometimes translated as Paragraphe sometimes Texte, the Figure tag is sometimes translated as Figure and sometimes Illustration)
In French, do not translate the BlockQuote tag by Bloc en retrait but by Bloc de citation.
In the Tags navigation panel, display a specific icon when an alternative text is present.

Editing the reading order

The Order navigation panel in Acrobat Pro is designed for checking and correcting the reading order of tagged content on a page. However, in Acrobat Pro 9 (and previous versions), this tool is very difficult to use as it manages both the reading order of content and the order objects visually overlay each other on the page.

The main disadvantages of this double functionality are the following:

When you change the reading order of content from the Order panel, the tags in the Tags panel are automatically moved. It sometimes happens that they are inadvertently moved inside other tags, when you don't want to move them there.
When you change the reading order from the Order panel, the order objects are overlaid on the page is also changed. Sometimes when you edit content in the Order panel, an object which should be in front of another ends up behind it, and therefore adversely affects the layout. You then need to manually correct it.
The numbering used on the Order navigation panel does not correspond to the reading order but to the order the different content layers on the page overlay each other. So, when you want to check the reading order of content by a screen reader, the displayed numbering may be inaccurate.
The content blocks you need to sort may incorporate several tags. It is therefore sometimes impossible in this panel to manage the reading order of two tags which are next to each other.

Suggestions of Jean-Marie d'Amour
(proofreader of AcceDe guides)

Make the highlight content option checked as default in the Tags, Order and Content panels
Close dialog boxes with the escape key rather than only the close button (ALT+F).
Make it possible to reach an item in a list box by typing its first letters (example: list of types of tags).
Add a reference in the tree view to know which page correspond to which tags and where change occurs. Or page by page, add a tag that includes the tags of elements on this page.
Use different icons for headings and figures
Allow to change the color pale blue border which surrounds the selection tool TouchUp Reading Order to make it more contrasting. In the Edit menu, Preferences, Accessibility, it is possible to check "Always use the color selection system." On Windows selection color is darker and more recognizable, but it is still not enough on Mac.
Locate and mark the page numbers with a configurable text as "Page :", "Start of page", "End of page", placeable before or after the number. Or automatically create tags of page numbering with a possibility to configure a text before or after the page number.
Provides a button to delete an alternative text without having to go in the attributes to delete empty alt.

Tables

In the properties of a cell in the table editor, validate writing IDs to ensure they meet the rules (no space, no digit to start, uniqueness).
In the properties of a cell in the table editor, allow to change the order of the IDs for the association of cells and place them in the order of reading.
Option: display the type of cell should be checked by default.
Allow modify all properties of cells from the tree of tags and not only from the table editor.
May assign IDs automatically for TH.
Offer an interface to automatically associate TD and TH.

Forms

In forms, do not overwrite the tag of the field if it moves or changes the size of fields (which often occurs unintentionally).
Allow to restrict the automatic detection of form fields to a selected area.
In the Properties dialog box, extend the size of the field for Mame and Tooltip to the maximum possible size of the box.
Allow two radio buttons that have two different tooltips with the same field name. The only way we have found is to use a javascript function.

Suggestion of Victor Brito
(proofreader of AcceDe guides)

When carrying out a full check on accessibility for a PDF document, among the references listed are the WCAG 2.0. However, Acrobat Pro does not have a reference to the recommendation of December 11 2008, but to a working draft with a date of April 27 2006.

Review committee

Laurent Bracquart — 2011-02-15T14:11:22Z

The Review Committee of the AcceDe manuals' English version included :

Matt May (Adobe Systems),
Greg Pisocky (Adobe Systems),
Sophie Schuermans (AnySurfer),
Christophe Strobbe (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven).

Matt May and Greg Pisocky, Adobe Systems

Position: accessibility specialists
Website: www.adobe.com

« I think this is the best tutorial available. »

Matt May

« A very good guide, introduces all the necessary concepts. I would use a simple example at the beginning to illustrate the notion of structure and markup. »

Greg Pisocky

Sophie Schuermans, AnySurfer

Position: web accessibility specialist
Presentation: The AnySurfer team provides web accessibility training and consultancy, labelling of websites and certification of web agencies. AnySurfer is the web accessibility label recognised in Belgium.
Why I accepted to join the English reading committee: I have used the AcceDe manuals to train myself in making PDFs accessible and thought they were a great tool. More people will be able to use them if they are available in English.
Website: www.anysurfer.be

« I started trying to make accessible PDFs from Word but found the results were sometimes a bit unpredictable. After I purchased Acrobat Pro I remembered that the AcceDe manual (french version) had been announced in Paris last April, so I decided to look for it. I took some time to read through it and do the exercices and I now use it as a reference when I encounter something new. »

Christophe Strobbe, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

Position: researcher
Presentation: The research group DocArch of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven has been active in the area of accessibility of ICT and documents since 1991 and has participated in over 20 European projects in this area.
Why I accepted to join the English reading committee: DocArch wishes to contribute to good practices for making documents accessible for people with disabilities, especially those with “print disabilities”.
Website: www.kuleuven.be/english/

AcceDe manuals

Laurent Bracquart — 2011-02-15T13:22:59Z

Download AcceDe PDF manual

“Making PDF documents accessible with Adobe Acrobat Pro”

ZIP file - 7.5 Mb

The aim of this guide is to provide all the practical information you need to learn how to tag a PDF document.

The ZIP file includes AcceDe PDF manual and two exercice books (untagged version and tagged version).

Download also AcceDe PDF manual in PDF format, AcceDe PDF manual in Word format, Tagged exercise book and Untagged exercise book.

Download AcceDe DTP guidelines

“Making PDF files accessible: guidelines for the DTP creation phase”

PDF file - 0.7 Mb	This document describes the guidelines to follow when creating a publishable file with DTP software in order to optimize the tagging to be carried out once the PDF is generated.
Download also AcceDe DTP guidelines in Word format.

English review committee feedback

“I think this is the best tutorial available”

Matt May (Adobe)

“I took some time to read through it and do the exercices and I now use it as a reference when I encounter something new”

Sophie Schuermans (AnySurfer)

English review committee