The first review of the AODA’s Information and communications Standards became public in 2020. In this review, the AODA Information and Communications Standards Development Committee outlines improvements to make information and communications accessible for people with disabilities by 2025. The Committee recommends changes to the Information and Communications Standards, to identify, remove, and prevent accessibility barriers in information. In addition, the Committee recommends an alternative system for developing, updating, and enforcing AODA standards. This new system would affect the Information and Communications Standards, as well as other existing and future standards. This article will discuss the Committee’s recommendations for accessible PDF files.
Accessible PDF Files
The Committee reviewed a 2016 recommendation from the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs to ban Portable Document Format (PDF) files in government. The Standing Committee recommends this ban because PDF files are often made in inaccessible ways. Workers in most organizations lack the awareness that there are many ways to create PDF files. Likewise, workers lack the knowledge that some of these methods produce accessible documents, while other methods produce inaccessible documents. For example, many document designers create files from scanned images, rather than text. However, people using screen readers or other types of assistive technology cannot access files made from images. In addition, there are many other ways to create PDF files that people cannot read or navigate easily.
Nonetheless, there are many ways to make accessible PDF files. For example, many Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) also apply to PDFs. Therefore, the Information and Communications Standards Development Committee does not recommend banning PDF files in government. Instead, the Committee suggests that government employees need training on how to produce accessible PDF files. Meanwhile, before this training takes place, employees could produce accessible or conversion-ready versions of documents they create in PDF.