Since 2005, legislation has evolved in several countries (France, UK, Germany, USA, Canada, Australia, etc.) in favor of the right of persons with disabilities to improve access digital content online. This is reflected in preventing to create discrimination situations vis-à-vis employees,customers, shareholders, journalists or any stakeholder – situations that would be detrimental to the high end for the company. Several cases of legal actions have recently been filledin several countries. Digital accessibility is a fundamental right of every citizen, including via the internet. Achieving accessible PDF is therefore part of an inclusive global approach for the general public and all your stakeholders.
The accessibility of PDF documents offers many advantages: A wider audience: a document made accessible to the disabled may be consulted by all, including people with visual impairments, without having to make any graphic and ergonomic concessions.
The need to read a document only once suggests that all four formats should be considered, and appropriate ones should be made available depending on where the information will be read. If someone needs to read an agenda during a meeting, for example, an audio tape is not ideal, unless the tape is distributed ahead of time. In this situation, braille or large print may be the best choices, or if the agenda is available beforehand, the person may prefer to download the electronic file into a portable reading device for review during the meeting. Like sighted people, blind individuals want to follow along with the text and fully participate. Understandably, handouts may continue to change until close to the time of the meeting, so time pressure may become a concern. But good planning and communicating in advance with blind or visually impaired attendees will result in a better experience for everyone.
To help you comply with these regulations, we have developed an innovative technology solution: e-Accessible-PDF, which renders PDF documents “accessible”, at an ultra-competitive cost. Whether you are in the non-profit sector or the private sector, this solution allows you to expand your audiences and make them more inclusive for people with disabilities.
For the 10% of the population who have a visual, cognitive or motor impairment in Europe, access to the content of websites can be a real challenge. How have an inclusive life without access to critical information on the internet, such as a bus schedule, a new administrative regulation, or the user instruction manual for an electronic device … The notion of PDF accessibility is at the very heart of this problem.
Some people with reduced mobility, are not able to use the mouse, they therefore navigate with adapted keyboards or use the “focus” mode to interact on a web page. In this case tagging of documents proves to be of a precious help. According to WHO, about 1.3 billion people in the world, have some form of visual impairment. In Europe, the statistics show that almost 10% are affected. These figures include people with blindness, low vision, cognitive and motor impairments. The majority of these individuals are over 50 years old. With the growing and ageing of the population, coupled with a greater prevalence of neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s), the WHO estimates that the number of visually impaired is expected to double by 2050.
For many years we have developed and improved our accessibility and PDF tagging techniques and now have developed a proprietary solution to accelerate the production of Ultra Accessible PDFs. This allows us to produce on a fast turnaround and at competitive costs quality PDFs. We have customers around the world, public or private companies, and meet the international standards defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), such as ADA, Section 508, WCAG 2.0 AA, HHS and PDF / UA. We are able to produce various accessible documents such as PDF, documents from the Microsoft range (word, Excel, Power point) or Epubs. See more details on Accessible PDF at the fair price
Unfortunately, PDF, Word, Excel or PPT documents, which are widely integrated on websites, are rarely adapted to these tools. Our role is to render these documents accessible for processing by reading software so that they can be vocalized in the correct reading order. For Apple computers, it is the “VoiceOver” reader that is used. However, this software is not compatible for PDF browsing. There are also some screen readers for mobile devices. “VoiceOver” is used on Iphones/ Ipads, “Talkback” on Android devices (Smartphones, tablets) and “Narrator” on Windows phones.
For screen readers to read a PDF document effectively, the document must have an underlying logical structure and reading order. This logical structure and reading order use behind-the-scenes elements called tags, which a PDF author adds to the document. Tags define the intended reading order of the content on each page. Screen readers rely on these tags to present text in a way that makes sense when someone is hearing the text read out loud. The tags allow a screen reader to interpret page elements such as headings, sidebars, tables, and multi-column text.
Following the conventional techniques for formatting documents with a word processor is important because doing so facilitates the production of these alternate formats. Software used to translate text into braille, for example, is designed to find and utilize standard word processing codes and to apply them to generate text formatted in the ways that are common practice for the production of braille. When generating large print, often a text must be reformatted, and this task is easier when proper coding in the word processor makes the page numbering, margins, line spacing, tabs, etc. consistent.
What are the benefits of the Accessible PDFs we produce ?
– PDFs that meet the following standards PDF / UA, ADA, Section 508, WCAG 2.0 AA, HHS…
– Documents validated through user tests
– Accessible PDFs directly utilisable
– Quick production turnaround
– A fast and customized service
For your users :
– More user-friendly navigation
– The ability to convert text to voice
– Reading on different media (tablets, mobile, screen magnifiers)
– Replacing mouse actions with keyboard combinations
– The possibility of searching in images
– A help to navigation
Audio recordings are generally produced on cassette tape, but compact discs may be used in some circumstances, particularly as tape production and duplication become more difficult. Blind people may use commercially available tape recorders or stereos to listen to recorded texts, or they may use specialized half-speed, four-track cassette players which many blind people have available. You may wish to use this non-standard format to produce cassette tapes, especially if the document you are recording is longer than 90 minutes. Companies that regularly produce audio tapes for blind people are familiar with the logistics of providing recordings in this specialized format. For french readers read more details on https://e-accessiblepdf.com/index.php/un-balisage-numerique-permet-laccessibilite-des-pdf-e-accessiblepdf/.