Rethink Your Solution
It's important to ask yourself first whether a PDF should be a PDF going forward. As already noted, PDFs are a legacy format. You can spend hours remediating a document or you can spend hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars on a PDF to remediate it, but as Lucy Greco states in The Problem With PDF, that doesn't mean the experience will actually be usable.
Some content is better to deliver as basic html that is searchable and mobile responsive, including:
- Job Aids: Job Aids can be converted to knowledge articles, which provides better semantics and broader support for assistive technology (for example, you can not use dark mode with a PDF).
- Project Updates: Project updates can be converted either to html articles on the website or to email announcements via our email marketing tool. Both provide a more accessible and usable experience. The email marketing tool also provides the benefit of send and click analytics.
Some content is too complex to be delivered in a usable and accessible PDF format. Examples of complex content that can't be made accessible to screen reader users in PDF format are:
- Complex Flow Charts
- Building and Campus Maps
- Calendars
- Interactive Forms
If you have content that falls under either of the above categories, please reach out to the Digital Experience team to identify a better solution.
In addition, we have developed PDF Usage Guidelines that all employees should review prior to remediating a PDF.