A toolbox to ensure the accessibility of your PDFs

Wednesday, April 5, 2023

Other developments followed, such as text reflow, a technique that allows users who want to increase the font size to adjust the width of the paragraph to the width of the screen, so they don't have to scroll from left to right to read text.

However, two decades on, not all PDF documents are accessible, far from it. From texts scanned in image mode to a 100% compliant form, from LibreOffice to InDesign, there is a whole range of intentions and tools. Some authors, anxious to structure their document neatly using Word, will unknowingly make it accessible, like Monsieur Jourdain making prose without knowing it.

While Luxembourg's public sector websites and apps have been subject to accessibility requirements since 2019, the same applies to office automation file formats. Those published before the end of September 2018 are exempt, unless their content is necessary for active administrative processes. A forthcoming article will look at the accessibility of PDFs on the Grand Duchy's most frequently visited public websites.

Since 2020, the Information and Press Service has been offering training in PDF accessibility for the public sector. It is included in the INAP catalogue and is given several times a year.

In this context, the PDF framework aims to provide a structure and all the necessary tools for each administration to independently audit the digital accessibility of the office files it makes available to its users, thereby ensuring their compliance.

To help you become more familiar with it, the "Methodology" page invites you to download an archive, which contains the following files: a docx file, a PDF file created from the docx file, and a folder containing screenshots related to each test you will perform according to the criteria.

This framework is based on the European standard EN 301 549 v 3.2.1, more specifically chapter 10, "non-web documents", which applies to all PDF documents published on Luxembourg public websites. The criteria it contains are an adaptation of the WCAG success criteria for office documents.

Certain criteria and techniques from the European standard have been deliberately left out, either because they are irrelevant in the context of a PDF document (for example focus visibility), or because the use cases are too rare (for example, all the criteria relating to audio and video content integrated into a PDF, audio control, captioning, etc.)

The objective is to ensure that all checks can be carried out using the most commonly used office tools, such as LibreOffice Writer, Microsoft Word, Adobe Reader, and others. It was therefore decided to exclude certain content and structures from the analysis. Adobe Acrobat Pro software, despite offering a range of accessibility tools, is not required for this standard.

So, what will be tested? What factors will influence the document's compliance? A total of 46 criteria, divided into ten themes, are being put under the microscope. Examples include the correct management of images conveying information, compliance with a minimum contrast, the presence of semantic logic in the structuring of tables, the relevance of accessible names of links and, of course, the compliance of forms.

Try things out and let us know what you think: this framework is not set in stone, and we will be making adjustments based on you feedback.

Last question worth asking: PDF or HTML? As we have seen, it is perfectly possible to produce a 100% accessible PDF. However, the complexity of producing accessible documents is greater in PDF, and updating them is less robust. It is possible to accompany the publication of any non-accessible PDF document with an accessible HTML document.

You may also be interested in the following resources:

• A guide to "How to create an accessible PDF document in Word"
• Comprehensive procedures for French government departments to produce accessible office documents.