Accessibility is not an especially familiar concept in the computing world. Most of us encounter the idea of accessibility often enough by way of special vehicle parking spaces, ramps, braille signage, beeping crosswalks, and so on. Improving accessibility is more than a courtesy, it is an accepted and vital goal of any advanced society. Both […]
View PostA blind person cannot read from a screen any more than from a printed page. Technologies nonetheless exist that allow blind and other disabled users impressively full-featured access to documents. To be accessible, however, the document contents must be available to these so-called “assistive” technologies. To address the needs of visually impaired and other users […]
View PostAccessibility: Why is it important to Adobe Systems? Government demands it. Schools need it. Users want it. But when it comes to making electronic documents friendly to assistive technology, the great strengths of the PDF format are also its weakness. The very flexibility of PDF and the tremendous power of Acrobat make real accessibility (also […]
View PostPDF files can contain many things. At a minimum, a PDF contains the text, graphics, bookmarks, links and other elements of content that go to make up an electronic document. In addition to content, PDF files may also include “structure”. Structure is the term for a set of instructions that define the logic that binds […]
View PostBryan is a solitary, but well-armed PDF developer, fighting (and winning) an uphill battle to make Canadian government forms PDF accessible to Canadian standards (WCAG priority 2), which are a lot tougher than the relatively simple (and vague) Section 508 regulations. Bryan basically feels that there’s not a lot about tags that promotes accessibility in […]
View PostThere are lots of reasons to think about the files you email to other people. Of course, first and foremost, you want to know that they can read the file when they receive it. That’s a good place to start – and a good reason to start with PDF. Dependability When you make a PDF […]
View PostIf PDF did not exist, it would have to be invented PDF stands for “Portable Document Format”. The key word is portable, intended to combine the qualities of authenticity, reliability and ease of use together into a single packaged concept. Adobe Systems invented PDF technology in the early 1990s to smooth the process of moving […]
View PostThe following guidelines for PDF authoring may not help you entirely avoid any problems, but the vast majority of your users and readers will be thankful nonetheless. Take good care of your PDFs when you make them, and everyone who ever uses the file will thank you for your consideration. If the document is very […]
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