ADA compliance Print to PDF form

[maxwithdax]

If you create an ADA compliant PDF template with form fields and then print to pdf to "finalize" and flatten the document, all the ADA complaint tags and features are lost. Is there any trick to creating an ADA compliant form that can be flattened but still retain the ADA parameters?

Thanks

-Dax

[Test Screen Name]

Flattening destroys key information about structure, by design. It may be that what you are trying to achieve goes against the whole concept of accessibility. If you must flatten you are going to need to manually re-tag each form, which sounds a high price to pay for a largely ineffective "protection". Why not just sign it?

[maxwithdax]

I completely understand it will destroy all the ada tags. That is my dilemma. I want to create A pDF template that allows other people in our company to create branded documents while still remaining ada compliant.

Dax

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com · Accepted solution]

maxwithdax  wrote

I completely understand it will destroy all the ada tags.

Flattening doesn't destroy the accessibility tags themselves. Instead it CAN adversely change the document's reading order of those tags, which is one of the components that creates the document's structure.

The solution is to make one layout that has all the Sec. 508 accessibility features you need, and then export it twice:

1. Set to your printing specs (and without the checkbox to tag it for accessibility)
2. Set to web requirements (and with the checkbox to tag it for accessibility).

Has absolutely nothing to do with flattening, which merges all of the layers into one main layer. Flattening does help with accessibility as part of the accessible reading orders are controlled by layers and stacking order.

FYI, accessible documents and web information are not formally a part of the US ADA regulations. Eventually we expect they will be, but right now I'd avoid using the phrase "ADA compliant." It's not accurate. For example, "ADA" is a US-only set of regulations, while accessibility is an international set of voluntary guidelines and not a regulation or law of any particular country.  Individual countries have the right to formally adopt the international standards, which is what the latest version of the US Sec. 508 does; it includes by reference the international WCAG and PDF/UA guidelines below.

The international accessibility guidelines are published by the ISO and include:

• WCAG  ISO/IEC 40500:2012 - Information technology -- W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0
• PDF/UA   ISO 14289-1:2012 - Document management applications -- Electronic document file format enhancement f...
• EPUB   ISO/IEC WD 23761 - Digital Publishing -- EPUB Accessibility - Conformance and Discovery Requirements...

[maxwithdax]

The underlying issue is that we need to distribute these pdf templates for meeting announcements, road closures and other announcements that get posted to the web by several departments so that they are in compliance with Section 508 rather than having a barrage of documents sent to us to "fix" before posting to the web.

-Dax

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

You can solve that by providing them with templates your agency employees can fill out and export to an accessible PDF.

Word has some tools that make this very workable (oh horrors! I mentioned Microsoft in an Adobe forum!). An Acrobat PDF form that's accessible can also do the job.

[maxwithdax]

For those following this thread. I found this script here that does the trick.

1. Original PDF that is accessible  (section 508 compliant)

2. Contains form field for the client to fill in

3. Now contains a hidden button that alllows them to "flatten" the form fields" without losing any of the accessibility (read order/alt tags etc).

How to Change a PDF Form to Read-Only Before the User Submits | TurboFuture

for (var i = 0 ; i < this.numFields ; i++) {

var f = this.getField(this.getNthFieldName(i)) ;

if (f.type != "button") // do I have to change the word between " " with the name of my button which I put on my PDF? name of button is "Valider"

{

f.readonly = true ;

}

}