Accessible PDF documents

There are millions of PDF documents on the internet. Unfortunately, most of these are not accessible for persons with visual impairments. Blind and visually impaired persons use special software, known as screenreaders, to have the information on the screen read aloud to them. If a PDF document's structural information and elements such as links, images, and form fields cannot be interpreted by screen reader users, then it is considered a non-accessible PDF document.

Tools for creating accessible PDF documents

The ICT Accessibility Lab has developed the following tools to facilitate the creation of accessible PDF documents.

• PAVE – the web tool for ensuring PDF document accessibility
  PAVE can be used even by non-professionals to create accessible versions of PDF documents.
• Accessibility plug-ins for Microsoft Word and PowerPoint 2010-2016
  In Microsoft Word and PowerPoint you can use the plug-ins to quickly and easily save your document as an accessible PDF.

Standards

ISO 14289-1:2012 specifies how ISO 32000-1 (PDF/UA-1) is to be used in order to obtain accessible electronic documents.

Publikationen and Reports

• Doblies, L., Stolz, D., Darvishy, A., Hutter, H.-P.: PAVE: A Web Application to Identify and Correct Accessibility Problems in PDF Documents, In: Computers Helping People with Special Needs Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Volume 8547, 2014, pp 185-192
• Darvishy, A., Hutter, H.P.: Comparison of the Effectiveness of Different Accessibility Plugins Based on Important Accessibility Criteria, In: 7th International Conference, UAHCI 2013, Held as Part of HCI International 2013, Las Vegas, NV, USA, July 21-26, 2013, Proceedings, Part III
• Darvishy, A., Leemann, T., Hutter, H.-P.: Two software plugins for the creation of fully accessible PDF documents based on a flexible software architecture. In: Miesenberger, K., et al. (eds.) ICCHP 2012, Part I. LNCS, vol. 7382, pp 621–624. Springer, Heidelberg (2012)
• Darvishy, A., Hutter, H.-P., Mannhart, O.: Web Application for Analysis, Manipulation and Generation of Accessible PDF Documents. In: Stephanidis, C. (ed.) Universal Access in HCI, Part IV, HCII 2011. LNCS, vol. 6768, pp 121–128. Springer, Heidelberg (2011)
• Darvishy, A., Hutter, H.-P., Horvath, A., Dorigo, M.: A Flexible Software Architecture Concept for the Creation of Accessible PDF Documents. In: Miesenberger, K., Klaus, J., Zagler, W., Karshmer, A. (eds.) ICCHP 2010, Part 1. LNCS, vol. 6179, pp 47–52. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)