The TechDis Accessibility Essentials Guide on making the most of PDFs has been designed to provide step-by-step information to enable anyone creating Portable Document Format (PDF) documents do so in a more accessible manner. These hints and tips will benefit those who create PDF documents using scanned materials or word processed documents, or receive a PDF version of publicity materials from a graphic designer.
The use of the techniques described here will aid people with a wide range of disabilities to get more from written content by highlighting the potential benefits of PDF format and enabling documents to be created with these in mind. These techniques will have benefits (and possibly barriers) for different groups of learners and it is important to consider the needs of the specific learners and adapt the materials as necessary.
This guide has been divided into the following sections:
The Benefits and Barriers of PDFs
This section looks at the way in which PDF files are typically used in education, including some of the benefits and challenges of using PDF format and some recommended approaches to meeting these challenges.
Producing Accessible PDFs
This section looks at the creation of accessible PDF documents. It is divided into two sub-sections:
Creating a new PDF document
This section looks at the three most common sources of PDF files - scanned materials, conversion from word processed documents and PDFs produced by professional graphic design packages - and suggests ways in which these documents can be made more accessible.
Building accessibility into existing PDFs
This section contains step-by-step guidance for ensuring that users can get the most out of PDF files.
User Personalisation of Adobe® Reader
This section contains step-by-step guidance on amending the look and feel of a PDF document to best suit the reader.
Supplementary guidance and example materials are available from the TechDis website at
www.techdis.ac.uk/getaccessiblepdf
This document builds on the information provided in the first three Accessibility Essentials publications. The first guide in the series, entitled 'Making Electronic Documents More Readable', was designed to give practical step-by-step information to enable anyone reading material to amend its look and feel into a style which suits them. The second publication, 'Writing Accessible Electronic Documents with Microsoft
® Word', provides information on the creation of accessible documents enabling anyone writing documents to do so in a more accessible and innovative manner. It covers the use of font styles and colours, appropriate structuring, images and the use of hyperlinks, along with a series of accessibility gains for authors enabling them to use Microsoft
® Word more efficiently. The third publication 'Creating Accessible Presentations' provides information on the creation of accessible presentations, both for projection and wider use (for example, when a presentation is made available online) along with hints and tips on how to present to an audience in an accessible manner. This document focusses on the use of Microsoft
® PowerPoint.
For further information on the previous Accessibility Essentials guides see the TechDis website.
,the Joint Information Systems Committee.