Why is it harder to make PDF documents accessible than HTML?
There is a number of reasons, including the fact that PDF documents typically originate in a variety of tools (e.g. PDF Maker for MS Office, AutoCAD, 3rd party tools and a variety of PDF printer drivers, etc). When documents are converted to PDF, it is not uncommon for the order of elements within their internal structure to be incorrect (i.e. The order of elements in the structure does not reflect the reading order of data in the original document) or for key tagging information to be missing or incorrect (e.g. table structure). Furthermore, the structure of PDF allows 3 independent views of the document (physical, content order and tags). These views can become inconsistent with each other which adds another significant layer of complexity to making a PDF document accessible. CommonLook greatly simplifies the process of making PDF documents structurally consistent, checking for compliance with section 508 checkpoints and remediating compliance problems.
Related Questions
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