Understanding Accessibility
summary
Documents must meet WCAG AA in practice not just in name, with WCAG’s 50 criteria and 13 guiding principles driving expectations; PDFs differ from HTML because tagging and read order are author-controlled, so many PDFs turn out as “just paragraphs.” Automated checkers (Acrobat, PAC3) catch some issues but fail on meaningful alt text, tag order and footnote links, so manual remediation plus a screen reader like NVDA or JAWS is required. Use tools like Callas PDFGoHTML, and always Save as PDF rather than “Print to PDF.”
AI-written summary · about
chapters (17)
- 0:00Introduction
- 0:38Disability Discrimination Act
- 1:39Key Points
- 3:20AA Guidelines
- 4:15Poor Principles
- 7:59Example
- 10:18Compliance
- 11:00Tools
- 14:27Screen Readers
- 16:23Screen Reader Pitfalls
- 17:15Meaningful Content
- 19:53Captions vs Alt Text
- 21:05Read Order vs Tag Order
- 21:52Screen Reader
- 23:39Blank Cells
- 25:59What you can do
- 27:56Conclusion
related talks
28mFrom Documents to UI: Designing an Inclusive Digital Experience
01h 03mAccessibility Testing: The Manual Parts
50mQuality Control for Accessible PDFs
48mLet's break some WCAG rules
01h 03mAccessibility: Making your websites more inclusive
38mGuidelines on Designing for Accessibility in UX Design
52mCommon Accessibility Pitfalls
40mAccess All Areas: Making Accessibility More Accessible