Enhancing inclusivity for a Michigan based non-profit education organization with PDF accessibility remediation service!

Solution

To address these challenges, our team provided comprehensive PDF accessibility remediation services. This included:

1. Audit

Conducted an initial audit of PDFs to identify accessibility issues. Testing involves measuring whether the elements and content that make up a PDF page reflect the success criterion from the PDF/UA and WCAG 2.2 Level AA checklist.

The PDFs were tested with two methods:

• For automated testing, Adobe Acrobat and PAC were used for testing PDF’s accessibility.
• Manual testing included using a combination of assistive technologies, screen readers, and operating systems. The tools include NVDA, VoiceOver, JAWS, and WCAG contrast checker.

2. Remediation

Applied accessibility features to the PDFs, such as:

• Ensuring that all elements including table, text, heading, lists, etc. are correctly tagged for screen readers, especially in older or complex documents.
• Including alternative text for images and graphics.
• Ensuring the logical reading order of the document content matches the visual order, especially in multi-column or complex layout documents. We checked reading order manually using software like NVDA, JAWS.
• Ensuring text is readable with sufficient contrast and that font styles do not hinder readability. We have checked and updated the contrast ratio as per WCAG guidelines.
• PDF editing and remediation tools have limitations in their ability to fully address accessibility needs. So, we had used multiple PDF editing software to ensure no barrier remains.
• We have done remediation for multiple PDFs of more than 100 of pages.

3. Conformance and Report

• Tested the remediated PDFs with various assistive technologies to ensure compliance with WCAG 2.2 standards and Section 508 guidelines.
• We have generated a PDF accessibility remediation report to provide an overview of the PDF/UA-1 (ISO Standard 14289-1) and WCAG 2.2 level AA compliance status by using the Matterhorn Protocol and manual testing.

Result

• Improved Accessibility: All remediated PDFs are now accessible to users with disabilities, ensuring equal access to educational materials.
• Compliance: The documents comply with WCAG 2.2 and PDF/UA-1 standards.
• Enhanced User Experience: Students and educators using assistive technologies can now easily navigate and comprehend the content.