PDF Document Management Software, Services & Support

Knocking Down the Myths

Myth: Section 508 doesn't apply to PDF documents

WRONG Most website accessibility efforts begin with a focus on ensuring that HTML content complies with the terms of the law - which makes sense, because most websites are based in HTML

Government websites often use PDF for a high proportion of overall site content, and in many cases, an even greater proportion of high-value content.

PDF files tend to be produced by someone other than the website developers or administrators. As a result, these files are characteristically treated as "black boxes" by web content administrators. This content often goes overlooked with respect to accessibility - even though PDF files represent a huge volume of the documents that site visitors use everyday.

Myth: Section 508 compliance means it will read well in JAWS

WRONG  It's possible to tag a PDF to be compliant with Section 508, and still deliver a negative experience in JAWS or other screen-readers.  The current Section 508 regulation permits, for example, a 100 page document to include nothing but paragraph tags, offering no navigational accommodations to AT users.

Myth: Acrobat's Accessibility Checker can test for Section 508 compliance

WRONG. Adobe Acrobat's Accessibility Checker provides some useful functions, but "failing" the Checker cannot be taken to mean that a PDF file is not in compliance with Section 508. "Passing" the Checker cannot be taken to mean that a file complies.

For example, the Checker will identify untagged images as errors - without discriminating between "content" images that require alt. text versus "background" images that do not, such as repetitive logos, rule-lines and footer graphics.

Another example: the Checker cannot provide any assurance that the text's logical reading order is correct. While the PDF's contents may be fully tagged, the checker has no way of knowing how one column should follow another in the reading order, or where to place a sidebar, or how to handle a footnote.

One thing the Accessibility Checker does get definitively right is that it checks to see if a language has been declared for the document - which is not a Section 508 compliance issue per se, even though it's a very good idea to set the document language correctly!

Get more facts about Section 508 and PDF.