[Athen] PDFs or Word docs?

[Robert Spangler]

Someone else made that same argument at the AHEAD conference.  I would
agree that it's definitely easier to edit a Word document than a PDF.  To
make a PDF, it's best to create the document in Word, apply all of the
accessibility features and other formatting, then convert it to PDF.

Some years back I would have frowned at having to use a PDF but now I have
no problems with them whatsoever.  (I'm a blind screen reader user).

Thanks,
Robert


On Wed, Feb 7, 2018 at 3:21 PM, Christine Robinson <crobinson at ggc.edu>
wrote:


> Hi all,

>

> I don’t know how many from this group are also in Georgia Tech’s WAG (Web

> Accessibility Group) listserv, so pardon the cross-posting if you get both.

>

>

>

> Someone in WAG started a thread about Adobe’s PDF accessibility checker

> and the challenges of making PDFs accessible. It sparked me to ask a couple

> of questions about PDFs vs. Word documents. I’m cross-posting because I’d

> love to hear the ATHEN folks’ thoughts.

>

>

>

> I’m still comparatively new at accessibility of electronic documents, but

> over the past several months, I’ve been thinking there are major advantages

> to using MS Word documents *instead of PDFs*. And so far, I’ve only been

> doing training in accessible Word documents, because I don’t believe my

> institution is quite ready to approach PDFs.

>

>

>

> To summarize my thinking:

>

> 1.       It’s easier to make Word documents accessible than PDFs.

>

> 2.       Before you can make an accessible PDF, you really have to

> understand how to make an accessible Word doc first.

>

> 3.       If you save your Word doc in Read-Only format, it still protects

> the document from inadvertent changes, and it’s easier for a reader with a

> disability to change the typeface, font size, etc., to something that works

> better in their case.

>

> 4.       A couple of traditional advantages to PDFs are that (a) the

> reader doesn’t have to have the same software as the document author before

> they can read the doc, and (b) it preserves the appearance of the doc, in

> case the reader doesn’t have the same font set. But in an educational

> setting, I think (?) all our students have access to MS Office, and even if

> they don’t have the same font set as the author, Word will default to using

> a font that is still accessible. Consequently, I don’t believe PDF format

> is as necessary in edu settings as it used to be, particularly for

> documents that are primarily text.

>

>

>

> Use of PDFs is so deeply ingrained in our practices, however, that often

> people don’t seem to *hear* the advantages of Word. They just want to

> push forward for training in PDFs.

>

>

>

> So my first question is: Am I off-base for putting priority on MS Word?

>

>

>

> Second question: If you’ve been having issues in getting PDF files

> accessible, could you please detail some of those issues for me? I’m

> collecting such examples, to determine whether I should build a stronger

> case for getting our faculty and staff solid in Word before attempting PDFs.

>

>

>

> Thanks!

>

> Chris

>

>

>

> *Christine Robinson* | Technical Trainer/Writer | Center for Teaching

> Excellence

>

> *Georgia Gwinnett College* | 1000 University Center Lane, L-2158 |

> Lawrenceville, GA 30043

>

> 678-407-*5193*

>

>

>

> _______________________________________________

> athen-list mailing list

> athen-list at mailman13.u.washington.edu

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>

>



-- 
Robert Spangler
Disability Services Technical Support Specialist
rspangler1 at udayton.edu
Office of Learning Resources (OLR) - RL 023
Ryan C. Harris Learning & Teaching Center (LTC)
University of Dayton  | 300 College Park  |  Dayton, Ohio 45469-1302
Phone: 937-229-2066
Fax: 937-229-3270
Ohio Relay: 711 (available for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing)
Web Site: http://go.udayton.edu/learning
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