PDF Accessibility Q&A: What are the Alternatives?

This is another post in my Q&A series. Previous posts covered questions related to the New Solution for Automatic Tagging of High-Volume PDF Documents and Meeting Accessibility Standards.

Traditionally, visually impaired customers have been able to request accessible documents – in Braille, large-print or audio CD formats – from their financial services institutions. However, many in this community are demanding a different approach – one that will allow them to access their documents online and on-demand, just the way their sighted counterparts can. 

The new PDF Accessibility Solution creates tagged PDFs for banks, insurance companies, utilities, and other high-volume print stream environments, making transactional documents accessible through screen reader technology. This solution allows institutions to offer an inclusionary environment that meets the requirements of their visually impaired customers. I often hear questions about how this compares to the other alternatives:

Q: What are the pros and cons of Braille in terms of creating accessible documents for the visually impaired?

While most information can be translated into Braille, and it’s definitely vital to some, not everyone who’s visually impaired can read Braille. In fact, only a small number of blind or partially sighted individuals can, and that number is smaller for the younger generation. Specifically, in 2009 the National Federation of the Blind has reported that fewer than 10 percent of the people who are legally blind in the United States are Braille readers. A mere 10 percent of blind children are learning it. Furthermore, those that can read it need to wait up to 48 hrs to receive their translated statements in the mail, or require special hardware, including a Braille printer, to convert online text into usable information. For those visually impaired consumers who want to be able to interact with information online the same way their sighted counterparts do, a different solution is needed.

Q: What about audio CDs and large-print formatting?

Audio CDs and large print are other common formats that organizations can use to make their documents accessible to their blind and low-vision customers. However, every format has its restrictions. Audio CDs lack the immediacy many consumers (blind or not) want with their transactional information. And large print is only useful for low-vision customers. Institutions also find it difficult to meet high-volume needs with these formats.

Q: What are the benefits of tagged accessible PDFs?

Designed to work with a range of screen reader technologies, accessible PDFs let your visually impaired clients read their transactional documentation online through screen reader technology. But to be able to use that technology effectively, PDFs and documents need to be tagged properly (See Figure 1 – example of tagging for accessibility). That’s why the visually impaired community has become more and more vocal about creating tagged PDFs that are efficient and effective. If it’s done right, tagging allows visually impaired individuals to access documents that are immediate and up to date. Actuate’s PDF Accessibility Solution allows for on-demand access to accessible high-volume content, including bank statements and other transactional information.

Figure 1. PDF Document Tagged for Accessibility

Can you share any feedback you have received regarding tagged PDF documents?

PDF Accessibility Q&A: A New Business Alternative

As I talk to large private and government organizations in the US, I tend to hear very common questions about this new available technology for automatic tagging of high-volume PDF documents. As they come, I will continue posting Q&As on my blog, but please – do contact me if you have a question that was not answered. Or leave your comment below the post and I will respond.

So, it is true – Actuate’s PDF Accessibility Solution is the first in the industry. It allows organizations to capture and transform high-volume print streams into PDFs, tagging them automatically to make them accessible to visually impaired customers through screen reader technology. This eliminates the need for manual tagging and allows blind and low-vision customers to read their online transactional documents on demand.

Many questions I get can be categorized under “How does it work?” topic.

Q: What makes the Actuate PDF Accessibility Solution different from the traditional method of contracting third parties or assigning an in-house group to manually tag individual PDF documents?

Currently, most companies are doing just this in order to make their documents readable to visually impaired customers through screen reader technology. The problem is that these techniques are not scalable or cost effective when you start applying them to high-volume print streams that are the norm in financial institutions, utilities, some government agencies, and telecommunications organizations. Privacy also becomes an issue: the manual process exposes more people to sensitive transactional information. Actuate’s PDF Accessibility Solution tags high-volume content on demand, not only reducing the amount of storage needed, but also eliminating the privacy issues that these traditional manual processes create.

Q: How quickly does it work?

A traditional Actuate transformation – which would transform a document from an Advanced Function Presentation (AFP) format into a PDF – typically takes about 200 milliseconds for a 20-page document. Add in accessibility tagging, and it will take approximately 266 milliseconds. That’s only a one-third increase in the processing time. With the tagged text, the PDF is also only about one-third larger.

Q: What if the document has already been converted into a PDF?

It will take approximately the same amount of processing time, because the software is reading it and doing the exact same thing as it does with an AFP file.

I look forward to your comments – there is much more to discuss.