Situation
I am visually impaired, I am unable to read a PDF file attached to a web page. These are actually documents that are printed and then scanned. Their content is enclosed in an image.
Information
The PDF image is inaccessible to visually impaired and blind people using assistive technologies. Although it may contain text, reading is impossible because the file is perceived as a photo.
These files are usually very large and are not usable. It is not possible to select text or search within the document. The text cannot be copied and pasted elsewhere in another format.
Since the PDF image cannot be used by speech synthesis, it is still possible to extract the content using appropriate tools. Thanks to OCR (optical character recognition) technology, the text in images can be converted into real text. A TTS (Text-to-Speech) reader is capable of converting text into speech. In both cases, there is no guarantee that all the information has been correctly restored. And the user who had to spend time retrieving the content is unable to verify it.
All these obstacles to the accessibility of the document have the consequence of discouraging the reader.
Our recommendations
Choose file formats that support accessibility features such as tagged PDFs or word processing documents (Word, Libre Office) that allow easy navigation.
If for legal or other reasons you must send your readers a PDF image file, consider also sending an identical file in an accessible format. This will make your information readable by all users.
Explore more!
- Valentin Haüy: Accessibility of PDF documents ;
- Wondershare: How to copy text from a scanned PDF ;
- Adobe: Accessible PDF documents.
Status
Sent to staff: February 10, 2025