acrobat xi accessibility - requirements, implementation, and evaluation presented by: jonathan avila...

Acrobat XI Accessibility - Requirements, Implementation, and Evaluation

Presented by:Jonathan Avila and Jason Megginson

March 6, 2015

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Agenda

• Overview• User Impact• Laws and Standards• Formats and Workflow• Native Document Preparation• Acrobat Accessibility Features• Make Accessible Wizard• Implementation Tools• Accessibility Checkers• Implementation Bet Practices• Acrobat Accessibility Features• Resources

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Overview

Goal: Make PDF available to widest Audience

• PDF is an open specification– PDF is an ISO standard (32000-1:2008)

• PDF format can be accessible– Static created documents, forms and

dynamically generated content • Readers available that support tagged

documents on Windows– Limitations within readers on mobile/Mac

environments

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User Impact

Document accessibility affects users:• Who are blind or have visual impairments• Who have cognitive disabilities

Interactive document accessibility affects users:• With mobility impairments• Who are deaf or hard of hearing

Examples you may have not considered• Links must be keyboard accessible • Text should reflow when document is zoomed

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Applicable Laws and Standards

Section 508• Federal procurement requirement -

requires comparable access

Section 504• Accommodations for federally

funded programsSection 255• Telecomm support documentation

WCAG 2• Guidelines that may be adopted as

standards

WCAG 2.0

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Applicable Laws and Standards

PDF/UA• PDF/UA as an ISO a11y standard• Defines conformance for documents, readers, &

AT• Provides WCAG sufficient techniques

ADA• Employment, education, public

accommodation

International Disability Law• Equality Act in UK• AODA in Ontario• M376

PDF/UA

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Workflow

There’s no magic “Make Accessible” button

Accessible content creation:• Is a process• Requires automated & human testing • Should be part of the production workflow• Requires a variety of techniques/methods

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Workflow

Source -> Destination Formats• Word, InDesign -> ePUB, PDF, HTML

documents

Workflow Guidance• Incorporate in design and implementation

process• Post-production remediation is costly - can’t

address all issues• Updates require conversion and loss of post-

production remediation• Create priority order for pre-existing documents

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Native Document Preparation

Creating Accessible Source Documents• Templates• Color and contrast• Use styles in documents• Create multiple columns with column tool• Add alternative text for images and objects• Specify column header rows in tables• Use meaningful hyperlink text• Check the document• Convert to PDF using accessible PDF Settings (Windows)

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Acrobat PDF Conversion

• Some aspects will need to be addressed in Acrobat

• If native document was accessible effort will be minimal

• Conversion process may create tagged PDF files

• What are tags?– Semantic markup to identify structure– Ordered/nested a sequence referred

to as structure

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Make Accessible Wizard

Run the Make Accessible Wizard from Tools > Action Wizard

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Make Accessible Wizard (cont.)

Complete the Wizard• Set doc title• Recognize text OCR• Detect form fields • Set tab order • Set language • Add tags (if needed)• Set alternative text • Accessibility Checker

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Accessibility Checker

Run the Accessibility Checker• Detects limited set of potential

accessibility issues• Automatically appears as the

last step in the wizard• Run the Accessibility Checker

from the Tools Panel > Accessibility Pane

• Choose checker options

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Accessibility Checker

Review the results and fix the issues

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Implementation Tools

Use the Touch Up Reading Order tool/Order panel

Right click on the desired page in the index and select “Show reading order panel”

• Changes items in the Tags and Content panels

• Tag most elements• Order that content is written

in the document• Access to table editor• Changes in content panel

may affect visual document

Be careful!

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Implementation Tools

Tags panel• Reading order used by AT• Does not affect visual appearance• Advanced, but provides flexibility• Find unmarked content/annotations• Keystrokes support for quick nav

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Additional Implementation Best Practices

Reading order• Tag panel/Order panel

– Check and arrange reading order

Semantic structure • Tag panel/Order panel

– Isolate content, check role/fix roles

• Links, lists, notes, etc.– Tags panel

Tags panel and Object Properties

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Tagging Tables• Tags panel or Table Editor

– Select content tag, tag, and associate headers

Table Editor with Table Cell Properties dialog

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Math and Symbols (non-image)• Tags panel – split out and add actual text

Tags panel showing isolated formula content

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Provide Titles for Form Fields• Form Editor – Properties –

tooltip (and value for radio buttons)

Form Editor with Text Field Properties Dialog

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Mark Artifacts (lines, headers, footers, etc.)• Tags Panel (tag as Artifact) • Order Panel (background)

Footnotes• Tags panel

– Tags as reference and note– Can re-order footnote to after paragraph

Role Mapping• Tags Panel > Edit role mappings

Watermarks• Avoid in native format

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Test the Document

Re-run the Accessibility Checker until all issues are fixed• Use a screen reader

– JAWS, NVDA– Read Out Loud tool

• View > Read Out Loud > Activate Read Out Loud

• View with Reflow option– View > Zoom > Reflow

• View in high contrast– Edit > Preferences >

Accessibility > Replacement Document Colors• PDF Accessibility Checker (PAC) check PDF/UA conformance

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Acrobat Accessibility Features

Read Out Loud• Text to speech built-into

Adobe Acrobat• Reads text in order of tag

structure using arrow keys• “Say All” command follows

the content order• Not a replacement for a

screen reader

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Accessibility Features

Text Reflow• Makes the text easier to

read when magnified• no horizontal scrolling

necessary

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High Contrast View• Users with visual impairments may adjust the color contrast

for text, shapes, and the background within the document

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Sample High Contrast View

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High Contrast View Challenge - Watermarks• Avoid if possible in Word

– If used in Word 2013, choose the Semitransparent option in the Printed Watermark dialog

• Watermark is retained when the document is reflowed in Adobe Acrobat

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High Contrast View Challenge - Watermarks• Apply Artifact tag structure

to background images in Adobe InDesign

• Reflowing the document will remove the background images with High Contrast enabled

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High Contrast View Challenge - Watermarks• Adding in Acrobat allows the watermark to be hidden when

document is reflowed• Opacity must be set to 100%• Place it behind text

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High Contrast View Challenge - Watermarks

• Implementation Best Practice– Avoid Watermarks on all pages if

possible– Alternatives may include:

• Using native features (i.e., MS Word, InDesign, Acrobat) set watermark on the title page only

• Set watermark text in document’s meta-data (e.g., document title)

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Resources

• Adobe’s Accessibility Website: www.adobe.com/accessibility• Adobe’s Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates (VPAT):

www.adobe.com/accessibility/products/compliance/• Adobe TV Accessibility Channel: http

://tv.adobe.com/channel/government/accessibility/• PDF Techniques for WCAG

http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/pdf.html• PDF/UA AIMM page

http://www.aiim.org/Research-and-Publications/Standards/Committees/PDFUA

• Accessibility Management Platform (AMP): https://amp.ssbbartgroup.com

http://www.adobe.com/accessibility

http://www.adobe.com/accessibility/products/compliance/

http://www.adobe.com/accessibility/products/compliance/

http://tv.adobe.com/channel/government/accessibility/



http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/pdf.html







https://amp.ssbbartgroup.com/

https://amp.ssbbartgroup.com/

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Thank You!

Contact Us

Jonathan [email protected]

Jason [email protected]

Slide Deckinfo.ssbbartgroup.com/CSUN2015

Follow Us

@SSBBARTGroup

linkedin.com/company/SSB-BART-Group

facebook.com/SSBBARTGroup

SSBBARTGroup.com/blog

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About SSB BART Group

• Unmatched Experience• Focus on Accessibility• Solutions That Manage Risk• Real-World Strategy• Organizational Strength and

Continuity• Dynamic, Forward-Thinking

Intelligence

• Fourteen hundred organizations (1445)

• Fifteen hundred individual accessibility best practices (1595)

• Twenty-two core technology platforms (22)

• Fifty-five thousand audits (55,930)

• One hundred fifty million accessibility violations (152,351,725)

• Three hundred sixty-six thousand human validated accessibility violations (366,096)