Accessibility

Always check that the PDFs you produce are accessible, the Quick Check feature in Acrobat 6 is helpful, easy to use and an essential first step.

That simply checks whether a document has structure, an advanced check will inform you whether a document has alternative text for its images and provide more information about the document, such as language and the document tree. I recommend that authors who regularly produce PDFs acquaint themselves with this feature and learn how to use it.

Creating PDFs direct from word ensures truly accessible PDF documents that fully utilise features such as re-flow, which make them more usable to hand held devices.

The least accessible type of PDF document is a scanned copy of a paper version.

Scanned documents

In January 2006 HSE took the decision to no longer publish scanned PDF documents on its website. This is because in a scanned document each page is an image, making the document:

• inaccessible to screen readers;
• inaccessible to search engines;
• huge file sizes; and
• ugly.

If a paper copy of a document is scanned in, it must be scanned in at 300dpi, and then processed through an OCR. The OCR conversion and subsequent proof reading should be considered a part of the scanning job. If it cannot be undertaken or you have any queries please contact HSE Online.

Background information and tips

• What is Optical Character Recognition (OCR)?
• Although scanning in at higher resolutions, such as 300dpi or above, creates very large file sizes, it does result in a much lower error rate from the OCR leading to quicker proofreading.
• One method of performing OCR is to use the 'Paper Capture' feature of Adobe Acrobat.