Increasing Web Accessibility of Adobe PDF Files

Emerging web technologies have made it possible for visually impaired people to be able to access and enjoy the same kind of web content as we all do though it has involved adapting the technology somewhat. For example, screen readers can convert on screen content into synthesized speech output that can be heard through computer speakers allowing people with no vision to enjoy onscreen content. Similarly, people with low vision can use screen enlargers to magnify onscreen information by up to fourteen times and can thus read the content comfortably. The biggest problem is dealing with PDF files that have already been created without taking web accessibility into account. To fix pdf files and make them accessible is a big challenge that many developers are dealing with.

The Portable Document Format of PDF is extremely popular because you can view it using the free Adobe Reader and on almost any platform without any distortions. However, if the PDF content has not been created with web accessibility in mind, people who are visually impaired are going to find it very difficult to access the information stored in these documents. We will look at an application that makes it possible to create PDF files that are accessible to everyone and also at another application that makes it possible to fix pdf files that have already been created so that they are more easily accessible to visually challenged people.

One of the most commonly used word processing tools, Microsoft Word 2000 provides you with the tools that you need to create accessible PDF files. Using this application you can create accessible tagged PDF files that tremendously increase Web accessibility. Tagged PDF files present the content of the document in a structured format without worrying too much about the layout of the content. This is extremely useful while using screen readers or even converting the content into speech. The next time you are authoring a PDF document or would like to use a PDF file for sharing information, use the software or software version that supports accessibility.

Similarly, using Adobe Acrobat 5, you can either create PDF files that are web accessible or quickly fix pdf files so that they are more accessible. By using these tools effectively you can optimize the PDF files so that they can be used by everyone even over the Web. In addition to making the document more web accessible, creating PDF documents in a logical, structured manner also allows you to keep the contents of your file organized. At times your PDF file may suffer corruption due to hardware or software issues and you might fear losing all your valuable data. Advanced PDF Repair is a specialized repair tool that will help you quickly fix pdf files that are corrupted. This tool can not only recover all versions of PDF files but can recover both images as well as text from the damaged file. More importantly, it will restore the data in the same structure as in the original file.