I am not an PDF (Portable Document Format) expert so I have mistakenly thought that if it is portable it should also be accessible. My first mistake.
As a Microsoft Office user I was always thinking that print to PDF will automatically include the title, language, headings, alt texts, links and other details in an accessible way if I have used them semantically correctly in the original document. My second mistake.
OK, then it must probably be a simple matter of some automatic conversion tool; I make sure the original document has all the needed info and the output will be then an accessible PDF. My third mistake.
Well, after three mistakes I decided to investigate a bit more in depth, PDF accessibility is also a WCAG matter, so I stumbled upon their technical documentation (opens in new window).
But how to make a PDF accessible in practice? WebAIM has a great article / how-to on it (opens in new window) but it is heavy Adobe oriented. No wonder, as PDF was made an open standard by Adobe, I guess.
I try to use open source as much as possible and I’ve investigated open source options to make a PDF accessible. Found this JAVA based HTML to PDF (opens in new window), but it requires usage of special CSS features to get good results. Maybe an option for some integration but I guess not very practical for simple one time conversions.
Then there are some online tools, like for example PAVE online semi-auto-correct tool (opens in new window), but it is worth mentioning that it is free for personal use only.
Still not satisfied with my search. Looking for more solutions and will post more on the subject.
