PDF/UA in a Nutshell Accessible documents with PDF Olaf Drümmer and Bettina Chang ■ The ISO standard for universal accessibility ■ Laws and regulations ■ The history of PDF/UA ■ File format requirements ■ Compliant PDF programs ■ Assistive technology ■ PDF/UA creation tools ■ Validating PDF/UA compliance ■ What the experts say Contents PDF/UA: The ISO standard for universal accessibility 3 Assistive technology for in-depth testing 14 Compliant reader software 14 PDF/UA: The key facts 4 Laws requiring accessible IT services 4 Added value for PDF users 15 Introduction to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 4 Visual or motor impairments 15 Reading and writing difficulties 15 Important Laws and regulations 5 Easier reading and navigation on mobile devices 15 International 5 United States of America 5 The potential benefits of PDF/UA 16 Europe 5 Laws paving the way for PDF/UA 17 The history of PDF/UA 6 What the experts are saying 18 PDF/UA’s requirements 7 Klaus-Peter Wegge, Siemens AG 18 File format requirements 7 Markus Riesch, “Access for All” 18 Requirements for compliant PDF programs 8 Requirements for compliant assistive technology 8 Learn more about PDF/UA 19 PDF/UA Competence Center 19 Accessible PDF: Users and usage 9 PDF/UA seminars 19 PDF Association membership 19 PDF/UA: Creation tools 10 AIIM PDF/UA Committee 19 Table 1: PDF/UA creation tools 10 Validating PDF/UA compliance 12 Table 2: Validating PDF/UA compliance 13 PDF/UA in a Nutshell I Introduction PDF/UA: The ISO standard for universal accessibility Information plays a central role in soci- PDF/UA-1 is the first part of the ety today, and it is becoming more and PDF/UA standards family; the “UA” more common for that information to suffix stands for “Universal Accessibili- be offered in digital form alone. The re- ty” and refers to the standard’s central liable, user-friendly Portable Document requirement. It is the first complete defi- Format (PDF) has become the world’s nition of a set of requirements for uni- file type of choice for providing infor- versally-accessible PDF documents. mation as a digital document. PDF/UA is aimed primarily at de- Tags can be added to a PDF in order velopers of software for creating, read- to structure the content of a document. ing, editing and validating PDF, and at Tagged PDF: These tags are a critical requirement if suppliers of assistive technology. The Tags are standardised content any form of assistive technology (such standard itself is not intended as a field markers in a digital document. as screen readers, specialist mice, and manual for day-to-day use, but for PDF First available in Adobe Acro- speech recognition and text-to-speech creators looking to learn more. The PDF bat 5, tags can be used to cre- software) is to gain access to this con- Association and its members offer spe- ate a PDF file with a logical tent. To date, PDF documents have rare- cialist articles, webinars and training, document structure . Tags are a ly been tagged, and not all software can providing detailed information about critical requirement for access- ing the content in PDFs with make use of PDF tags. In practical terms, PDF/UA and explaining how to create assistive technology. this particularly reduces information‘s accessible PDF content. Implementing accessibility for people with disabilities the clearly-defined requirements of the who rely on assistive technology. PDF/UA standard in software products will allow users to easily create accessi- ble PDF documents without any special training, opening up effortless access to high quality content to as many people as possible. At the time of PDF/UA’s publication, of course, there were no programs avail- able which were fully compliant with the standard. Since then, however, a number of software developers including Adobe The ISO (International Organization for Standard- ization) is the largest organisation in the world for Systems, axaio software, callas software, developing and publishing international standards. NetCentric Technologies, NV Access, PDFlib, xyMedia, the Swiss National In order to ensure future access to Association of and for the Blind (SNAB), PDF documents for as many people and the Swiss foundation “Zugang für as possible, the ISO 14289-1 standard alle” (Access For All) have already an- (known as PDF/UA) was developed by nounced or even released products sup- specialists from around the world. It was porting the PDF/UA format. published by the ISO in July 2012 with More and more developers, govern- the official title “ISO 14289-1. Document ment authorities and other organisa- management applications – Electronic tions are expected to accept PDF/UA as document file format enhancement for an absolute requirement for universally accessibility – Part 1: Use of ISO 32000-1 accessible PDF documents from this (PDF/UA-1)”. point on. PDF/UA in a Nutshell 3 Introduction PDF/UA: The key facts What does “universal accessibility” from websites, this applies in particu- actually mean when it comes to PDFs? lar to PDF documents. Although such It is the idea that everyone should be laws do not always apply to the private equally able to independently access sector (or apply only in limited cases), and use the information contained more and more modern businesses are within a PDF document. This applies accepting their responsibility to pro- in particular to people with disabili- vide accessible versions of both their ties and those with other difficulties; websites and the PDF documents they in other words, those who particularly provide. depend on universally accessible infor- Introduction to the Web Content mation and documents. The PDF/UA Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 standard allows these people the fol- lowing key options: The requirements for PDF/UA are based on the principles of Version 2.0 ■ Making use of PDF documents with- of the W3C consortium’s Web Content out assistance from others Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), also published in identical form as an ISO ■ Reaching a specific goal easily, di- standard in October 2012 (ISO/IEC rectly, and within a reasonable time 40500). WCAG 2.0 guides the creation frame of accessible web content, focusing on the kinds of content and applications ■ Making the same-quality use of PDF usually provided on websites. documents as people without disa- Some WCAG 2.0 tips of a purely in- bilities. formative nature suggest how barriers to access can also be avoided in PDF The technical requirements for uni- documents, but a systematic explana- versally accessible PDF documents are tion or guide is not provided. PDF/UA, described clearly and in full in the new on the other hand, exclusively and ful- PDF/UA standard. They define, for ex- ly addresses the PDF format, bringing ample, how to create text, images, form the ideas behind WCAG 2.0 into the fields, lists and tables that can be used world of PDF and setting PDF-specific by people with disabilities. rules. As an ISO standard, PDF/UA does Laws requiring accessible IT services not offer concrete help with implemen- These requirements are increasingly tation, either for specific programs or important for businesses and public areas of application. This, however, is institutions, as current legislation re- covered by the PDF/UA Competence quires (and in some cases has regulat- Center founded by the PDF Associa- ed for many years) universal accessi- tion. The PDF/UA Competence Center bility in information technology. Laws is made up of leading international in the USA, Canada, Australia and the businesses and individual experts who European Union, for example, require use the website www.pdfa.org, as well state and federal authorities to allow as publications, seminars and confer- the public universal access to the dig- ences, to provide information about ital information they provide. Aside implementing PDF/UA in practice. 4 PDF/UA in a Nutshell Laws and regulations Important Laws and regulations International Section 11 of the German federal law BGG has required since 2002 that fed- ■ UN Convention on the Rights of People eral authorities’ online presences and with Disabilities: The UN Convention on services be universally accessible. Some the Rights of People with Disabilities German states also have state-level laws defines in concrete terms the general which place similar requirements on lo- human rights of people with disabilities. cal authorities. It has been in effect since 2008. ■ Regulation for the creation of univer- sally accessible IT in accordance with the United States of America Equal Treatment of Disabled Persons Act (Barrierefreie-Informationstechnik-Ver- ■ Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA): ordnung – BITV 2.0): BITV 2.0 specifies In 1990, the US Congress passed a fed- the minimum requirements for online eral law, ADA, which forbade all forms information and services provided by of discrimination based on disability. federal authorities. They are most- ly based on the recommendations of ■ Rehabilitation Act, Section 508: In WCAG 2.0. Some German states have 1998, the United States expanded the comparable state-level regulations re- Rehabilitation Act to include Section garding universally accessible IT ser- 508. Since then, the federal govern- vices. ment has been required to ensure that all its IT services are accessible for peo- ■ Regulation on equal rights for disabled ple with disabilities. persons (Behindertengleichstellungsver- ordnung, BehiV): Article 10 of the Swiss federal regulation BehiV requires fed- Europe eral authorities to make anything they provide online universally accessible Important Standards: ■ EU Mandate 376: With Mandate 376, so that people with disabilities can PDF/UA (ISO 14289-1:2012): ISO the European Commission tasked the make use of it. standard 14289-1 defines all standardisation organisations CEN, essential requirements for uni- CENELEC and ETSI with harmonising ■ Federal Guidelines for Designing versally-accessible PDF docu- European public procurement laws. Universally Accessible Online Content ments, PDF programs and as- They are currently working on the EN (P028): The Swiss P028 guidelines re- sistive technologies for using PDF/UA. 301459 standard which specifies re- quire federal websites to conform to quirements for universal accessibility WCAG 2.0 and to meet compliance PDF 1.7 (ISO 32000-1:2008): in creating public-sector ICT products level AA. ISO standard 32000-1 specifies and services. the PDF file format. ■ Federal Law on the Equal Treatment of WCAG 2.0 (ISO/IEC 40500:2012): ■ European Accessibility Act: The Euro- Disabled Persons (Bundes-Behinderten- ISO/IEC 40500 is a standard pean Commission is currently prepar- gleichstellungsgesetz – BGStG): The Aus- which is identical in content to ing a European Accessibility Act. trian federal law BGStG requires the the W3C’s WCAG 2.0, the guide- Austrian federal government to make lines for a universally-accessi- ■ Equal Treatment of Disabled Persons Act its services available in an accessible ble web. (Behindertengleichstellungsgesetz – BGG): form. PDF/UA in a Nutshell 5 History The history of PDF/UA Timeline: From PDF to PDF/UA The first version of PDF, PDF 1.0, was World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) 1993: Adobe Systems publishes released in 1993. PDF was created and published WCAG 2.0. This replaced its PDF 1.0 further developed by Adobe Systems predecessor WCAG 1.0, published in Incorporated. The PDF format makes 1999, and took into account the tech- 1999: W 3C releases Web Content it easier to exchange and display digital nical developments which had taken Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 documents; in the two decades since place since that time. 2001: PDF 1.4 integrates tags to its publication, it has gained world- An ISO standardisation project be- represent the logical wide acceptance. It allows all kinds of gan in 2009. Based on AIIM’s pro- structure of content documents to be reproduced exactly as ject, ISO committee ISO  TC  171 within PDF documents they were originally designed, regard- SC  2, chaired by Cherie Ekholm of 2002: Equal Treatment of less of the platform used, thanks to a Microsoft, aimed to further develop Disabled Persons Act, number of (sometimes free) PDF cre- PDF/UA. A wide range of companies, Germany ation and viewing programs and web including Adobe, Microsoft, callas 2002: A ccessible IT Regulation 1.0, browser plug-ins. software, Design Science, NetCentric Germany For a long time, however, this file and others were actively involved in format remained inaccessible to a large the standardisation work. This meant 2004: PDF/UA project begins, number of people, as PDF originally that just one year later, the draft stand- coordinated by AIIM focused on the visual presentation of ard ISO/DIS 14289-1 was ready for 2008: P DF 1.7 published as an a document rather than its content publication. After an intensive consul- ISO standard (ISO 32000) and structure. In order to address this tation and testing phase, PDF/UA was problem, in 2001 Adobe introduced finally approved as an ISO standard 2008: U N Convention on the Rights of People with tags with PDF 1.4 and Adobe Acrobat and published as ISO 14289-1 in July Disabilities comes into 5. These can be used to turn a conven- 2012. effect tional PDF into a tagged PDF. The German standardisation organ- In 2004, a working group began to isation DIN (Deutsches Institut für 2008: W3C releases Web Content form, coordinated by AIIM (the As- Normung e.V.) is currently working on Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 sociation for Information and Image translating ISO 14289-1 into German; 2009: I SO takes over the PDF/UA Management, www.aiim.org), aiming this version is expected to be published project as ISO/NWI 14289 to develop a universally accessible PDF in autumn 2013. standard. This standard would speci- On the international stage, mean- 2011: A ccessible IT Regulation 2.0, Germany fy a complete set of requirements for while, the second part of the standard tagged PDF documents that could be (PDF/UA-2) is now being prepared by 2012: I SO approves and reliably used to create and check for a the ISO. PDF/UA-2 will be based on publishes PDF/UA sufficient level of accessibility. the next version of the PDF format, (ISO 14289-1) A further important development PDF 2.0, and will make use of all that came in 2008, when Adobe’s PDF 1.7 has been learned during the develop- specification became an ISO stand- ment and introduction of PDF/UA-1. ard – published by the ISO as “ISO Among other things, it will include 32000-1:2008. Document management more extensive options for sophisti- – Portable document format – Part 1: cated semantic structuring of con- PDF 1.7”. A copy of the standard can tent and support for specific tag sets. be downloaded for free from the Adobe These will include scientific sets, such website, while the ISO version (which as MathML and ChemML, as well as is identical in content) can be ordered specialised publication tag sets such as from ISO for a fee. Also in 2008, the DAISY and DocBook. 6 PDF/UA in a Nutshell Requirements PDF/UA’s requirements The PDF/UA standard defines technical are used, a role assignment entry must requirements for universally-accessible record which standard tag each one rep- PDF documents by identifying a set of resents. relevant PDF functions (including text content, images, form fields, comments, ■ Information may not be conveyed bookmarks and metadata) based on ISO using visual means alone (e.g. contrast, 32000-1 (PDF 1.7) and specifies how colour or position on the page). they should be used in PDF/UA-com- pliant documents. It does not address ■ No flickering, blinking or flashing elements which have no direct impact content is permitted, either as effects on accessibility, such as the compression controlled by JavaScript or as part of any algorithms used for image data. videos embedded within the PDF. Successful access to content within PDFs depends not just on compliant ■ A document title must be given, and documents, but also on compliant PDF the document must be set up so that the programs and assistive technology. title (rather than the file name) appears PDF/UA therefore also specifies require- in the window title. ments for these. A brief selection of the main requirements is shown below: ■ The language of all content must be noted, and changes of language must File format requirements be explicitly marked as such. ■ Content is categorised in one of two ways: meaningful content, and artefacts such as decorative page elements. All meaningful content must be tagged and integrated into the structure tree of all tags within a document. Artefacts, on the other hand, need only be marked as such. ■ Meaningful content must be marked with tags and, together with the other tags in the document, create a complete structure tree. ■ Meaningful content must be marked with the appropriate semantic tags. ■ The structure tree created by the doc- ument tags must reflect the document’s logical reading order. ■ Only the standard tags defined in PDF 1.7 may be used; if any other tags PDF/UA in a Nutshell 7 Requirements ■ Any pictorial elements – whether ■ It must not limit the functionality of image objects or other non-text objects the assistive technology. such as vector objects or object groups – must have corresponding alternative ■ It must allow the assistive technology text. to recognise the language used and any changes in language within the document. Adhering to these technical and se- mantic requirements will create a uni- ■ It must allow navigation through the versally accessible PDF/UA document document by page number, through the which a person with disabilities can structure tree, or through bookmarks. make use of just as effectively and in just as high quality as any user without ■ It must not play media content auto- disabilities. matically, but rather wait for the user’s command to do so. Requirements for compliant PDF programs Requirements for compliant assistive technology PDF programs are often the link for people with disabilities between the The term “assistive technology” de- PDF document to be read and any as- scribes anything which helps or allows sistive technology that may be used. In people with disabilities or other dif- practice, this means that PDF/UA-com- ficulties to use any kind of hardware pliant PDF programs must hand over and software. People with serious all content and other information from visual impairments may use screen the PDF document to the assistive soft- magnifiers. People with restricted ware or device, and that the assistive mobility can use joysticks or special technology itself must make use of all keyboards for input and navigation. the information it receives, including Highlighting the current portion of a for navigation, filling out form fields, or document while also reading it aloud reading metadata. using a text-to-speech function can make it easier for users with dyslexia ■ The software must be able to read and to read a document. Blind users often pass on all information stored within use a standard keyboard for input and the document’s tags and structure tree, navigation alongside a screen reader or otherwise make all the document’s or Braille display for output. For all content accessible. of these assistive technologies to work properly with PDF/UA, they must ■ It must make all content available meet the following requirements: to the assistive technology, including structural information. ■ They must be able to recognise all structural elements, attributes and key values used in the specification and output them for the user of a PDF doc- ument. ■ They must allow the user to navigate through the document by page number, through the structure tree, or by using bookmarks. ■ They must allow the user to easily set and change the magnification of a PDF document at any time. 8 PDF/UA in a Nutshell Usage Accessible PDF: Users and usage As a quality standard for universal- terms of functionality, compatibility ly accessible PDF documents aimed and accessibility, it is often easier for at both software developers and doc- everyone involved to export these doc- ument creators, PDF/UA serves as a uments to PDF format before passing clear basic requirement for everyone them along to others. PDF documents involved in PDF creation. It gives soft- created in this way are not automati- ware developers a clear set of goals to cally PDF/UA-compliant, but it is now work towards implementing which us- becoming much easier to make these ers can then take into account when documents universally accessible and creating PDFs. ultimately, for them to meet the stand- This benefits all PDF creators. Some ard. of them will find PDF/UA compliance A further area of application for brings significant advantages. This in- PDF/UA is in digital distribution of cludes people who work with office printed publications in PDF format. The documents, who often distribute their print data is usually prepared in digital finished presentations, spreadsheets format using layout and editing pro- and text documents to others or store grams, then exported in PDF format for them in a central location for others printing. These programs are also often to retrieve. As the office program each used to generate a PDF for on-screen person uses can vary dramatically in reading which is then distributed over the web or by email. The most exten- sive support for universally accessible PDF documents can be found in the layout program Adobe InDesign, from version CS 5.5 onwards. InDesign pro- vides a particularly high level of support for the technical requirements behind the PDF/UA standard , which means it requires little extra work to create uni- versally accessible PDF/UA-compliant documents. Certain aspects may need occasional adjustment, either manually or with the use of specialist software ex- tensions. If a PDF document is created from a database, XML, or some other struc- tured data set, the solutions used can also take advantage of updated PDF programming libraries which encode the content in accordance with PDF/UA specifications. It is also equally possible to adapt solutions which already allow the creation of tagged PDFs, in order to produce PDF/UA-compliant PDF docu- ments. PDF/UA in a Nutshell 9 Software tools PDF/UA: Creation tools In principle, universally-accessible PDF adaptation process must then be started documents can either be generated di- again from scratch. rectly during document creation, using a The direct approach is almost always suitable program, or indirectly generated the better option; post-creation PDF ed- by adapting an existing PDF document. its should be avoided or at least kept to a The indirect approach tends to require a minimum. Either way, it is essential that great deal of work, as all tags and numer- the document creation program can per- ous other settings will need to be provid- form the functions required and that the ed manually. document creator can make use of them. This work can also become void as soon Although only a few programs current- as a new version of the PDF document re- ly support PDF/UA in its entirety, a wide places the old one, if any changes to the range of options still exist in the form of document’s content need to be made. The the programs listed alphabethical below: Table 1: PDF/UA creation tools Software Developer Application PDF/UA functions supported Adobe Acrobat XI Adobe Systems PDF document creation, • Create and edit content tags Pro editing and viewing • Mark page content as artefacts • Add alternative text • Specify the language(s) used for a document and specific content within it • Feature to add basic accessibility to any PDF • Fast, extensive accessibility checking Adobe Distiller Adobe Systems Converts PostScript files • Create tagged PDFs Server 8 to PDF • Requires specific pdfmark codes within the Post- Script files axesPDF for Word xyMedia Add-in for Word 2007 • Specify the language of a document and Word 2010. Helps • Set up a series of tabs based on the document struc- the user to use Word ture functions and compen- • Specify the document title and include it in the doc- sates for weaknesses and ument window errors resulting from ex- porting a tagged PDF • Use all standard PDF tags from Word. • Advanced table tagging • Tag all content or mark it as an artefact • Integrated validation function CommonLook NetCentric Tech- Plug-in for Word and • Guided review of document based on checkpoints Office 1.2 nologies PowerPoint. It uses • Adjust alternative text for images checkpoints to take us- • Correct mappings between styles and tags ers through the author- ing software’s accessibili- • Advanced table tagging ty functions • Enhanced tagged PDF export • Generate bookmarks • Support for accessible PDF forms 10 PDF/UA in a Nutshell