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Just sharing this article of mine which was just posted today govloop.com/community/blog/pdf…

#PDFs are a real problem for #accessibility. They are also a real challenge for any government working to provide a modern, digital experience for their citizens.

We have to build to alternatives to PDFs.


PDFs Don’t Fit Into Gov Strategies for a Modern Digital Experience - GovLoop

Agencies still widely use PDFs, but they create accessibility issues for low-vision users and, among others, people on mobile devices.
GovLoop
#Accessibility #pdfs
in reply to Mike Gifford

Mark Conroy
Mark Conroy
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We've been building LocalGov Publications module for LocalGov Drupal to help councils stop publishing pdfs on their websites.

github.com/localgovdrupal/loca…

GitHub - localgovdrupal/localgov_publications

Contribute to localgovdrupal/localgov_publications development by creating an account on GitHub.
GitHub
This entry was edited (10 months ago)
in reply to Mike Gifford

Boris VAN HOYTEMA
Boris VAN HOYTEMA
• •

HTML is the format in my eyes. It can be opened nearly everywhere without having to install anything. It can be styled and printed without losing its semantic and machine readable properties.

I know of 1 exception: Microsoft's browser based collaboration suites. Those just show you the source and won't let you view them or open them in a new window.

#PDFs #accessibility

#Accessibility #pdfs
This entry was edited (10 months ago)

Mike Gifford reshared this.

in reply to Mike Gifford

Allusion
Allusion
• •

While I agree that PDFs are bad (and Acrobat in particular is garbage for marking up accessibility), I don't know how much difference switching formats would make.

I mean if a government employee is writing a document in Word and just massaging the text formatting until it looks right, it doesn't really matter if there's an export to PDF or an export to EPUB 3 or HTML 5 or DAISY button. You have to build the structural semantics into the document from the ground up for it to be usable, independent of format.

in reply to Allusion

Mike Gifford
Mike Gifford
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@giltay so much value in having food authoring tools that support best practices. Still, epub or MHTML will be easier to read on mobile devices. They will also likely be smaller and faster to load. Both are easier to fix if you don't have the source files. Even basic ordering of text will be more logical for screen readers.
@Allusion
in reply to Mike Gifford

Allusion
Allusion
• •

Fair enough, but as long as the authoring tool is Word (or any WYSIWYG desktop publishing software) you're going to end up with soup.

I suppose if you review the output file, it's easier to notice a messed-up structure and possibly fix it with epub/HTML than PDF, but that requires the time and effort to do so.

in reply to Mike Gifford

Mike McCaffrey
Mike McCaffrey
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I only wish there were a way to use HTML (or some other open standard) to deliver pages of content in a printable downloadable stand-alone file. I have no idea why none of the big standards players have done this.
in reply to Mike McCaffrey

Mike Gifford
Mike Gifford
• •
@mikemccaffrey mhtml works. Pretty straight forward to export from a browser. Encapsulates all the external bits.
@Mike McCaffrey
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