ICCHP 2012, STS (Special Thematic Session): PDF/UA - a new era for document accessibility. Understanding, managing and implementing the ISO Standard PDF/UA (universal accessibility)
About the STS
The focus of this Special Thematic Session (STS) is PDF document accessibility according to the new ISO Standard PDF/UA. The STS will be part of ICCHP (International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs) 2012 in Linz (Austria).
The STS is chaired by Olaf Drümmer, CEO of callas software and member of the PDF Universal Accessibility committee within ISO TC 171, Markus Erle, Wertewerk and Samuel Hofer, xyMedia.
Introduction
The new standard for accessible PDF documents PDF/UA – to be published by ISO as »ISO/DIS 14289-1, Document management applications – Electronic document file format enhancement for accessibility – Part 1: Use of ISO 32000-1 (PDF/UA-1)« – will be ratified in the first quarter of 2012. PDF/UA aims to achieve for PDF documents what WCAG 2.0 achieves for web pages, and will set a worldwide standard for both PDF documents and PDF authoring as well as AT aided access to PDF/UA conforming documents.
PDF/UA regulates how content – graphics, text, multimedia, annotations, form fields – is to be included in a PDF file in order to be considered accessible. While leaving implementation details – how the components are technically incoporated in the PDF file, or how AT takes advantage of accessible content in PDF/UA documents – to solution developers, it provides a clearly defined benchmark: a first in the field of accessible PDF documents.
With PDF/UA a new era in document accessibility begins.
The challenge now lies in:
- understanding PDF/UA and its relation to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0
- spreading the new ISO Standard to document software developers and assistive technology vendors, decision-makers, organisations in the public and private sector, accessibility experts, publishers, authors and last but not least the end-users
- implementing PDF/UA in authoring tools – mainstream (Microsoft Office, LibreOffice, Adobe Indesign and others) and specialized solutions
determining conformance with the PDF/UA standard
Call for Papers – suggested topics
Papers are welcomed around the following topics but please feel free to make other suggestions and contact the STS Chairs if you have any questions:
- concepts, tools and solutions to prepare for and ensure PDF/UA conformity in authoring tools
- concepts, tools and solutions for checking PDF/UA
- PDF/UA and assistive technologies
- conforming (desktop and mobile) PDF viewers (e.g. supporting tags, document reflow, highlighting, magnifying, screen reading, etc.)
- PDF/UA in publishing workflows
- PDF/UA and national guidelines
- PDF/UA and accessible education (teaching materials and more)
- how to implement specific challenges, e.g. glossary, footnotes, sidebars or complex tables according to PDF/UA?
- comparing accessible document formats: PDF, ePub, Daisy and others
- research: PDF accessibility and end users
- WCAG 2.0 Techniques for PDF
Contact and Contribution
Any questions about the STS can be directed to Markus Erle (erle@wertewerk.de).
Contributions to a STS have to be submitted using the standard submission procedures of ICCHP at: http://conftool.icchp.org:8080/tool/login.htm
For more details about submitting to ICCHP 2012, see http://www.icchp.org/call/papers.