The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a law that stops discrimination against people with disabilities in public places. ADA Title III covers businesses called “public accommodations”, such as colleges, stores, banks, hospitals, and restaurants.
In 2018, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said that websites also count as “public accommodations” under the ADA. This means websites must be easy to use for people with disabilities like vision or hearing problems.
It’s important to know that the ADA also applies to other parts of businesses’ online spaces, not just their websites. This includes things like emails, videos, and documents online, such as PDFs.
Why Should PDFs be ADA-compliant?
PDF, or Portable Document Format, is a popular way to share documents online. A PDF document has different parts, such as paragraphs, images, and tables, and each part is tagged. Assistive technologies, such as screen readers and text-to-speech devices, use these tags to convey the document properly to people with disabilities.
The ADA document remediation guidelines require PDFs to be fully accessible to assistive technology. Unfortunately, most PDFs are not tagged efficiently. Such untagged PDFs create information barriers for people with disabilities.
Read More: Types of PDF Standards and Compliances
How to Create an ADA-compliant PDF?
When you make an accessible PDF, remember these tips:
- Choose the Right Language : Make sure your PDF is set in the correct language. This helps screen readers understand the text correctly and avoids confusion.
- Begin with an Accessible Document : If you can, start with a document that’s easy to access. Then, change it into a PDF while keeping its accessibility features intact.
- Use Clear Headings and Structure : Arrange your information with clear headings and in a way that makes sense. This helps readers navigate through the document and grasp the content easily.
- Add Descriptions for Pictures and Charts: Make sure all important images, charts, and other non-text elements have descriptions. This helps people who use screen readers understand what’s in the images.
- Tag Tables and Forms Correctly: When you use tables and forms, tag them properly so they’re easy to navigate. Tables should have header rows and columns labeled correctly. Remember to use specific tags like
for the whole table and
for individual rows. - Ensure Good Color Contrast: Make sure there’s enough contrast between your text and background colors. This helps everyone read your content, especially people with vision problems like color blindness. To learn more about how color contrast works in ADA-compliant documents, you can check out our guide here.
- Use Easy-to-read Fonts and Consistent Formatting: When creating PDFs, it’s important to use fonts that are easy to read and keep the formatting consistent. This ensures that everyone can access the information without any difficulty.
- Make Links Easy to Understand: Hyperlinks in your PDF should have clear and descriptive text so that readers know where they’ll go when they click. This is especially helpful for people using assistive technology.
- Ensure Accessibility: After finishing your document, run a check to find any accessibility problems. This helps ensure everyone can use your PDF without trouble.
Read More: Common PDF Accessibility Errors to Avoid
Where Can You Utilize ADA-compliant PDFs?
Educational Materials: Schools and universities can make PDF versions of textbooks and handouts so that differently abled students can easily read them.
Government Documents: Government agencies can create PDFs of reports and brochures that follow ADA guidelines, making them accessible to everyone.
Healthcare Materials: Hospitals can make PDFs of patient forms and consent forms that meet ADA standards, allowing patients with disabilities to understand and fill them out.
Business Documents: Companies can produce ADA-compliant PDFs like employee manuals and marketing materials, ensuring all employees and customers can read them.
Legal Documents: Law firms can make ADA-friendly PDFs of legal papers like contracts and court filings. This means including things like alt text for images and clear headings so that people with disabilities can understand them too.
What Happens if Your PDFs Are Not Accessible?
If digital documents don’t meet ADA accessibility rules, they could become targets for lawyers looking to make quick money through lawsuits. These lawyers sue document owners and often win cases easily, leading to hefty settlement costs. On average, settling a lawsuit after getting an accessibility demand letter can cost $5,000, and some companies end up paying over $25,000.
From court decisions to digital rights activists, most agree that digital documents should be accessible to people with disabilities. Not following the rules is more costly and troublesome than just making documents accessible in the first place.
When you adhere to ADA digital accessibility guidelines, you also get added benefits like a better brand image and more users.
How to Remediate an Existing PDF Document?
Turning a regular PDF into one that meets ADA standards is called PDF remediation. It involves checking for issues that make the PDF hard to use for people with disabilities, like missing tags or wrong formatting, and fixing them.
Even though it sounds simple, PDF remediation can get tough when there are lots of PDFs to fix, especially if they have tricky elements. That’s why many businesses turn to experts like PREP to help them fix their PDFs.
Most experts know all about the rules for making PDFs accessible and can handle big projects with ease. They understand the sections of the rules that apply to PDFs and can handle even the most complicated fixes.
How can PREP Help in Creating an ADA-compliant PDF?
PREP is a PDF remediation tool that processes inaccessible documents and extracts data with the help of advanced AI technology. It ensures efficient data conversion into a logical format by understanding the context of each document. PREP also provides customized solutions for unstructured data.
The compliance guidelines undergo updates frequently, and these constant updates can make it challenging to keep up with compliance manually. However, the robust built-in ADA-compliant accessibility checker and PDF checker in PREP validate the document’s compliance with the WCAG and ADA guidelines. PREP can automate the remediation of complex documents in multiple formats at affordable prices and a quicker turnaround time.
Closing Thoughts
Creating accessible documents helps your organization in many ways –
- Adhering to compliance guidelines set by ADA, section 508 and WCAG
- Improving readability by assistive technologies
- Reaching a larger audience
- Establishing moral leadership
- Establishing an all-inclusive business strategy
One cannot emphasize the importance of PDF accessibility enough. When PDFs are marked up for accessibility incorrectly, people with disabilities may face navigation issues. The navigation problems result in non-compliance and heavy penalties of up to $150,000. Apart from all other benefits, your organization should make documents accessible because ‘it is the right thing to do.
Healthcare facilities and providers like hospitals and clinics (both public and private) come under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), ranging under Title II and Title III. It was made into action to avoid discrimination against people with disabilities. According to the law, people with disabilities must have equal access to all healthcare facilities and services. This means, not just the physical aspects of healthcare facilities need to be accessible, but digital assets need to be made accessible as well.How does Digital Accessibility Affect the Healthcare Industry?
According to the Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, healthcare providers are given great importance to care for people with disabilities. The law itself prevents the industry from discriminating against people with disabilities.
Moreover, as the world is becoming more digital today, even healthcare providers are increasingly taking their operations and activities online. Every primary healthcare giver has a website where you can find their complete information and even schedule appointments, treatment, and access your diagnosis. Patients can do more than that. They can even compare different doctors with the best reviews, pay their bills, or even access their test results. For these reasons, every healthcare organization must embrace the web and digital accessibility.What are the Legal Requirements Healthcare Providers Should Follow?
Every healthcare provider must comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level A and AA, as the ADA demands. If you fail to meet the legal requirements, you will face penalties.What Healthcare Documents Need to be Accessible?
Research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) concludes that 61 million adults in the US live with a disability. The above-stated figure confirms that almost 1 in 4 or 26% of the US population have a disability. However, there is still little to no thought given to their accessibility. For example, if buttons and links are placed close together, some individuals may find it challenging to click the link.
Moreover, even the layout and design can be a barrier for many. People with vision-related challenges find it hard to read content with less contrast between text and background. Screen readers or other assistive technologies cannot interpret images without an image description or alt text. This is why healthcare documents need to be made accessible. In fact, according to Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), discrimination based on sex, gender, age, race, nationality, color, and disability in certain healthcare activities or programs is strictly prohibited. This means you are required to make patient forms, documents, and communication available in accessible formats for patients with visual disabilities. If not, you will face legal issues.Here are the healthcare documents you need to make accessible for disabled individuals:
- Statements and Bills
- Pharmacy Directories
- Evidence of Coverage (EOC)
- Summary of Benefits
- Formularies
- Provider Directories
- Annual Notice of Change (ANOC)
- Patient Forms: Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
- Authorization, Consent, and Admissions
- Accessibility and Inclusion
Every healthcare organization that promotes accessibility in the digital format is ready to empower all patients regardless of their abilities. You become more inclusive and do your part in being ethically correct. Healthcare organizations with more accessibility choices help people with disabilities take control of their lives and preserve their independence – all while also saving themselves from expensive legal troubles!
From Word Documents to PowerPoint Presentations, your organization uses hundreds of documents each day! And, when you spend so much time creating and reading hundreds of such documents daily, it would be better to spend atleast a portion of this time making them compliant with the accessibility standards.
Here are the documents you can make accessible:- PPT
- Excel
- Word
- PDF – When someone talks about making a PDF accessible, they are referring to tagging the PDF.
Tagging a PDF gives it a structured presentation to the screen readers for easy readability.
There are no visible changes to the document format. However, they make it inherently more accessible for people who use assistive technologies to access the content.Here is what needs to be tagged in a PDF file:
- Searchable Text:
Assistive technology cannot read or extract words that are not searchable text. You won’t be
able to select text or make edits to them if the content in the document includes images. To tag a PDF, you will need to convert the scanned images into searchable text using optical character
recognition (OCR) before tagging other accessibility features. - Alt Text Descriptions:
Screen readers cannot read images or other interactive fields unless there are alternate text
descriptions added to them. - Fonts That Can be Extracted to Text:
An accessible PDF contains fonts with enough information to extract characters for purposes other than just displaying text on the screen. If there is no extraction, the screen reader won’t be able to play the Read Out Aloud feature. This is inconvenient for individuals with visual impairments who often are using screen readers.
- Reading Order and Document Structure Tags:
A speech-to-text or screen reader needs the PDF file to have a structure with proper reading order and document structure tags for properly presenting the text. You need to present proper reading order, like headings, sections, paragraphs, tables, lists, graphs, and other page elements.
- Interactive Form Fields:
PDFs containing forms that need to be filled out should be made interactive to make the PDF accessible.
- Navigational Aids:
Navigational aids in PDFs are hyperlinks, bookmarks, table of contents, headings, and tab order. They assist in making the document more understandable and accessible.
- Document Language:
When you specify the language of the PDF, it becomes easier for the screen readers to switch to that language.
- Searchable Text:
- PPT – Today, PowerPoint presentations are used for multiple reasons. For instance, in the corporate world for internal meetings, or sharing a presentation with a client. These slideshows heavily rely on visuals like infographics, images, texts, and charts. However, have you ever considered the experience of an inaccessible presentation for individuals using screen readers?
- Low vision or blind individuals won’t be able to understand the critical aspects since visual imaging holds a lot of importance.
- People who have are completely deaf will have difficulty hearing what the speaker says. The slides are just notes of what the speaker is explaining. So, that won’t serve enough information.
- Individuals with motor impairments won’t skim through the slides or wouldn’t click on the video sound.
Here’s what an accessible PPT should include in order to grant every individual the same access to information:
- Every type of video or audio should contain captions
- The pages of the presentation should have an adequate color contrast
- The meaningful content on the slide should be explained verbally
- Getting an ASL translator can also help immensely
- Always use easily readable fonts
- Make sure you give everyone enough time to process the information
- Excel – Excel spreadsheets have the image of storing so much data in their infinite cells that most organizations have a love/hate relationship with them. But have you ever wondered about making them accessible for everyone? It is easier than most people think it is!And here is how:
- Include titles to explain the set of data included in the spreadsheet
- Incorporate a message that indicates the end of a table
- Don’t format the blank cells
- Try to avoid merging cells as that is harder for the screen reader to grasp
- Images, graphs, tables, and charts should have alt text
- Word – Everyone loves Microsoft Word. It is the best tool for people who want to write professionally or academically.How can you make this handy tool accessible for everyone?
It is simple; keep reading:- Always use proper heading tags like heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, etc.
- Use bullets or numbers to make lists, or else the screen reader won’t be able to read it
- Every image should hold an alt text
- Don’t rely on colors to give crucial information
- Identity the document language
- Use their in-built accessibility checker to navigate a better understanding of accessibility
How Can PREP Help?
PREP is an AI-enabled technology that allows users to easily import PowerPoint (PPTX), Word Document (Docx), or PDF documents and performs a preliminary tag detection and labels the content with an auto-generated hierarchy-based tag structure. It helps your documents establish a logical sequence, making it easier for the screen reader users or assistive technology device users to navigate easily through the documents.
It allows you to annotate, assign tags, make corrections, and provide alternative text (alt text) for images as and when required. You can even check for compliance against Section 508, WCAG 2.0, PDF U/A, & ADA with PREP & built-in accessibility checker.
We offer customized solutions for every type of organization and professional at the most affordable costs! Contact us to learn more!
Digital accessibility is the process of designing websites, products, and technologies in a way that they can be accessed by every individual. This includes documents, videos, audio, hardware, websites, and other digital assets. Whether your user is visually impaired or has a cognitive disability, there are several reasons to make digital content accessible to everyone.Why is Digital Accessibility Important?
According to a statistic by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 26% of the adult US population has some kind of disability. Among this number, 4.6% of the population have a vision impairment, while 10.8% suffer from cognitive disabilities. We all know how heavily people consume digital content these days. And, with the above- stated figure, imagine the number of people who are restrictedg from accessing your contentbecause of their disability.If you are not working towards making your digital content obtainable to everyone by enforcing digital accessibility, then you are leaving out at least 2.2 billion of the global population who have visual impairments.
Apart from the “accessibility to all” issue, you also invite penalties and monetary damages to your business if you fail to adhere to the accessibility guidelines. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has highlighted website accessibility significantly. After digitalization gained popularity, the term ADA website compliance became common. According to that, you need to make your websites, applications (apps), or other digital properties accessible to every userRegardless of their abilities. And if you fail to comply with the rules, you are faced with penalties and other harsh expenses. Your business will be ordered to pay legal fees, and you will need to make the necessary fixes.What Makes Digital Content Accessible?
The WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) has established a framework of four core principles, which serve as foundational pillars for ensuring inclusive design. These principles are encompassed by the acronym POUR:
- Perceivable – This principle emphasizes that the digital content is perceived by all users, regardless of whether they read the information or use assistive technology. For example, People with color vision deficiencies perceiving information in charts and graphs using alternative text descriptions.
- Operable – Operable content means users can successfully navigate through buttons, controls, and navigation tools without any hassles, even when they use assistive technologies like screen readers or Braille displays. For example, People with physical disabilities navigating through a website using voice commands.
- Understandable – This principle ensures that the user interface and digital content are easy for everyone to understand, no matter how they are presented. For example, People with cognitive disabilities understanding website instructions through clear and concise language.
- Robust – Robust digital content ensures compatibility with various devices and assistive technologies, making it easy for all users to access.
What is the Difference Between Web Accessibility and Digital Accessibility?
Web accessibility refers to the principles that make a website and other content and technologies equally accessible to people with disabilities. Every website, tool, and technique should be developed in a way that everyone, whether they have a disability or not, can perceive, operate, understand, interact, and contribute to the web.Whereas digital accessibility includes web accessibility along with referring to the accessibility of everything digital videos, electronic documents, audio, animations, and mobile apps!Why Should Businesses Focus on Digital Accessibility?
Today, digitally accessible content is not an option anymore. A business should be ADA-compliant regarding web accessibility. Not only is it a legal requirement, but as a business owner, it is also your ethical duty to make sure whatever content you put on the internet is non-discriminatory towards people with visual or cognitive impairments.
Digital accessibility is also known to be a proven strategy for operational success. In fact, 71% of the users with a disability will leave your website if it is not accessible.
Here are other reasons why digital accessibility should be a focus of your business:- Improve User Experience – Accessible content is going to increase user experience for people with all abilities. It will make it easier for everyone to navigate and read text.
- Increase Sales Revenue – You lose many potential customers if you do not make your digital content accessible. And we are not talking about a few hundred, but significant population of people. It is believed that a business sees an increase in its sales revenue when there is an accessible design as it:
- Reaches a larger customer base
- Makes your site easier to use
- Improves your SEO rankings
- Drives innovation
- Eliminate Chances of Getting Penalized – In the United States, businesses must comply with the digital and web accessibility ADA.Your business will undergo costly lawsuits if you do not follow the rules and regulations set to make content accessible.
Incorporating Digital Accessibility
Previously, accessibility was only applied to physical, private, and public spaces. But today, as the world has taken a turn with the widespread of technology, it has expanded its wings to the digital world. Businesses, technologies, litigations, and others must push themselves further to achieve complete digital accessibility to stay inclusive and compliant with the laws. And as the internet continues growing to provide digital solutions, web developers need to level up and include elements of digital accessibility!
Making documents accessible is not an option anymore. It is a necessity. Today, in this digital world, it is especially important for your content to reach every type of audience, regardless of their abilities or if they are using assistive devices. Becoming more inclusive is the norm, and abiding by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is necessary to ensure that your document is accessible to everyone.
What is an Accessible Document?
An accessible document is a document that follows rules that increases its readability. This makes content consumption easier for people with disabilities and individuals using screen reader software.
Why is Document Accessibility Important?
For many individuals, it is easy to scroll through different websites, read thousands of documents daily, fill out forms, request online information, or read emails without the need to be assisted by technology or any external factor. But this can’t be said for people who use assistive technologies like screen reader software. Imagine you want to fill up a college application through an online document, but you find that none of the content is formatted correctly. It gets harder for your screen reader to comprehend what the page wants to convey. How frustrating is it, right?
Creating accessible documents, websites and apps allow individuals with visual or cognitive difficulties to skim through them smoothly. It helps them use document properties properly, and they can jump from one part of the document to another without problems. It creates a place of inclusivity and allows individuals with visual or cognitive impairments equal access to the content. Every public organization is required to adhere to document accessibility standards. However, not everyone can completely understand or follow the best practices for document accessibility.
How to Create Accessible Documents?
When you create accessible documents, you ensure that everyone who comes to your website, document or app can consume the content without difficulties. For this to happen effortlessly, you need to consider the best practices.
Here are the proper ways to make a document accessible:- Proper Heading Structure
Headings are the titles that give your document a meaningful structure. Using proper heading structure creates logic and makes it easier for screen readers to analyze when the paragraph text of one section ends and the next section begins. Accessible documents for individuals using screen reader technologies need a proper heading structure with appropriate heading tags like H1, H2, H3, H4, and so on. This helps the screen reader to navigate the document without difficulties. - Meaningful Hyperlinks
Documents that will be viewed digitally include hyperlinks to web pages for the convenience of navigation. Although they are easier for sighted people to track and reach the desired page, it needs to make more sense for people with vision or cognition challenges. The hyperlink must contain standalone information that conveys clear details of the link. You can do this by adding the full title of the destination webpage. However, when you are hyperlinking something, please avoid restyling it as it may get difficult for the screen reader to understand. - Alt Text for Images
When information gets too complex to describe in words, images are meant to add value and make it less complicated. Moreover, people with dyslexia or learning difficulties have difficulty processing content. So, images can prove to be one of the most valuable additions to a document. However, making documents accessible with images needs to be done correctly. For example, place images in a way that doesn’t obstruct the text flow. For an image to make sense to people relying on screen reader software to access a document online, you need to add alternative (alt) text to it. This helps the screen readers to convey the information described in the alt text easily to the reader. When you create an alt text, ensure you provide accurate information and describe what the image conveys. Moreover, it should be about 150 characters. - Appropriate Colors
Don’t use color to convey important information like an indicator of a document feature. For example, the color in a document should not convey the different heading levels. Moreover, there should be sufficient and appropriate contrast between the text and the document’s background color. This is because people with color blindness have a hard time reading content if it is not in the appropriate colors. Even a screen reader won’t be able to indicate when the color has changed. - Correct Fonts
There are no hard and fast rules as to what fonts can be used in an accessible document. However, most organizations prefer simple sans-serif fonts like Arial, Calibri, or Helvetica without fancy artistic modifications. These fonts are preferred in web designing because they are easy to read. Fonts that need to be avoided are light and thin as people with vision problems find it harder to read. - Easier Table Navigation
It is essential to make tables that allow users to access information more easily. Since tables are read from left to right and top to bottom, it is easier for a sighted user to read in that format. However, a screen reader reads the table from one word to the other. To make your document accessible for people using a screen reader, ensure that you keep the table structure as simple as possible. Do not merge cells or split them. Use table properties to head row headers and alt text. Add lists or columns if the information is not in data format. - Proper Video Captions
A caption in a video is the visual text representation of the video. It provides text narration of what is going on in the video. This is helpful for people who cannot hear or situations when audio is not available. YouTube has a feature that creates automatic captions for the video if you forget to add text to it. - Transcript for Video and Audio
People with partial or complete vision loss have difficulty watching a video. A text version of what is being shown on the screen is provided with proper transcripts. It is easier for the screen reader to comprehend. Moreover, even people with hearing loss benefit from reading the transcript playing on the screen. - Use Lists
No one likes to read complex information. In times like this, you need to break up the information into a numbered or bulleted list for people to grasp the content easily. This is necessary, especially for people using screen readers. It allows assistive technology to understand valuable information like where the list begins and ends, what items are on the list, and how many items are on the list. - Word Accessibility Checker
If you are creating a document on Microsoft Word, you can see a “Check Accessibility” feature in the Review section of your page. If you run this in-built “Accessibility Checker” feature, it will highlight and tell you when your document is having problems with accessibility. The best part is that it also provides information on improving document accessibility.
PREP's Document Accessibility Software
Are you searching for document remediation software that makes documents easily accessible? PREP is your one-click solution! Our document accessibility software remediates documents in 3 simple steps:
- Upload the document
- Review and modify it
- Get fully compliant document with PREP’s built-in accessibility report checker
Our sophisticated AI-detection tool is a fierce commitment to making the user experience accessible for everyone! Auto-save and auto-identify documents to digitally transform them, ensuring accessibility to everyone.
-
United States: 5900 Balcones Drive,
Suite 8078 Austin, Texas 78731 - India: Bangalore, Karnataka
Enquiries: contact@continualengine.comResources
Company
Newsletter
© Copyright 2024 PREP – All Rights Reserved | Privacy Policy | PREP is part of Continual Engine
Transform Documents into Accessible Formats
- Reliable, Intuitive, Cloud-based Platform
- Section 508, WCAG 2.1, & ADA Compliant
- Exponential Cost Savings of up to 50%
- Easy Inter-format Conversions
Get a Custom Quote
Transform Documents into Accessible Formats
- Reliable, Intuitive, Cloud-based Platform
- Section 508, WCAG 2.1, & ADA Compliant
- Exponential Cost Savings of up to 50%
- Easy Inter-format Conversions
Request a Demo
Skip to content