Inaccessible PDF

Access to digital public information is a fundamental right for everyone;
also access to digital information in the form of PDF documents created by
government authorities constitutes digital public service.

Barriers that prevent interaction with, or access to a website
by people with disabilities can be considered discrimination.

The EU Web Accessibility Directive ensures that all users,
regardless of functional ability, have equal access to
information and functionality on the web;
(The Swedish Act 2019 on Access to Digital Public Services".

Sweden as a nation is bound to:

• the UN Declaration on Human Rights,


• the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,


• the Swedish Anti-Discrimination Act, and


• the EU Web Accessibility Directive implemented as
  the Swedish Act on Access to Digital Public Services
  (SFS 2018:1937 & SFS 2018:1938)

Declarations, conventions, directives and acts that are technology-neutral.
Regardless of the technology used for a digitally based service (web/HTML, PDF, ...)
it must be published in a form so that it is accessible for everyone in the community.

Authorities are also in the role of employer responsible for that
employee work material is accessible and well functioning.

Swedish authorities are thus since long bound to comply with
and apply these regulations in their daily operations.

The Swedish public sector alone publishes every year millions of PDF documents.

PDF documents occupy a large proportion of the amount of information
on the authorities' websites for public digital service.

On September 23, 2020, all websites in the public sector across the EU
shall comply with the Web Accessibility Directive.

The directive also covers PDF documents published on these websites;
documents and presentation slides that must be published as accessible PDF.

Many authorities and other businesses are
chartered to focus on accessibility for everyone.

What is the situation right now for them when it comes to accessible PDF?
How well prepared are these core players when it comes to their own websites
and how they publish PDF documents and PDF presentations that must be
accessible for everyone?

NewFormat has examined hundreds of PDF documents, incl. presentation slides,
from more than 60 authorities; from the Government Offices to authorities with
special focus on accessibility for everyone and from external interest groups.

The results of the survey are very disappointing.
Not a single document, regardless of provide, is made as an accessible PDF!
Despite the fact that the directive has been binding for public entities since several years.

In their current design, none of them meet the ISO Standard 14289, PDF/UA,
for accessible PDF. They are thus not accessible for everyone,
nor are they accessible under the EU Web Accessibility Directive.

Great potential for improvements!

Contact NewFormat for more information:

PDF documents can be easily tested/verified against how well they
comply with the ISO standard 14289, PDF/UA, for accessible PDF.

A reliable compliance test for the ISO Standard PDF/UA
always requires at least two stages of validation:

1. a programmatic syntactic test, which can be performed by a piece of software, and


2. an interactive semantic test, manually carried out by a human.

The PDF documents' syntactic conformity with PDF/UA
can be checked with several reliable testing tools:

• axesPDF QuickFix




• callas pdfGoHTML, callas pdfaPilot, callas pdfToolbox




• CommonLook PDF Validator, CommonLook PDF




• PDF Accessibility Checker (PAC 3)




• ...and others

For programmatic PDF/UA compliance validation of a PDF document,
we recommend to validate the document with more than one test tool.

If your PDF document does not pass the PDF/UA validation:

Do you need help to create accessible PDF in compliance with PDF/UA?

Accessible PDF (PDF/UA) ensures accessibility to digital public service for everyone.

We help customers to create any volume of accessible PDF documents,
out of native MS Office (Word and PowerPoint) and Adobe InDesign documents,
and PDF documents generated by other tools.

Interesting?

Accessible PDF - Requires Full Compliance with PDF/UA

• Accessible PDF - Requires Full Compliance with the ISO Standard PDF/UA

Accessible PDF (PDF/UA) for Accessible eGovernment

• Entirely Barrier-Free - Accessible PDF (PDF/UA) for Accessible eGovernment

Samples of Accessible PDF Documents - Accessible for Everyone!

• Samples of Accessible PDF Documents

Tools for Creation of PDF/UA-Compliant PDF Documents

• Recommended Tools for Creation of Accessible PDF Documents

Accessible PDF as a Service - PDF/UA Services

• Accessible PDF as a Service

Training in PDF Standards

• Training in PDF Standards

Next-Generation PDF

• Next-Generation PDF - PDF and the “Any Screen” Challenge