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What is the value proposition of CommonLook?
- Significant Cost Savings: CommonLook increases the speed of testing and remediation of PDF documents by 5 to 15 times (depending on document complexity) as compared to "manual" testing using screen readers and Acrobat's tags tree. Given that the cost of labor is typically the most significant component in a section 508 compliance project, the investment in CommonLook is typically recovered within 3-5 days. Users working with documents containing tables, forms and images will get the highest value out of CommonLook.
- Improved Accesibility Quality: The quality of documents corrected with CommonLook is significantly higher than "manual" testing because the internal structure of such documents is thoroughly examined and corrected. Furthermore, CommonLook makes it possible to test for section 508 compliance comprehensively and methodically. Reports provide evidence of testing.
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Why not simply run the Acrobat Accessibility Checker to test for compliance with section 508?
The Acrobat Accessibility and Section 508 Checkers do not check effectively for most of the section 508 checkpoints. Furthermore, the Accessibility Checker frequently passes documents whose content is not ordered properly resulting in erroneous reading by screen readers and handheld devices (PDAs and cell phones). Additionally, for checks such as the alternative text for non-textual objects, the checker merely verifies the presence of the alternative text but does not provide functionality for the user to verify the appropriatness of the text.
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What constitutes section 508 compliance for a PDF document on the internet/intranet?
Compliance with the checkpoints specified in § 1194.22 (Web-based Intranet and Internet Information and Applications). See http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/guide/1194.22.htm. Note that two of the checkpoints are not applicable to the PDF technology as indicated below.
- (a) Text Tags
- (b) Multimedia Presentations
- (c) Color
- (d) Readability
- (e) Serve-Side Image Maps
- (f) Client-Side Image Maps (not applicable to PDF)
- (g)&(h) Data Table
- (i) Frames (not applicable to PDF)
- (j) Flicker Rate
- (k) Text-Only Alternative
- (l) Scripts
- (m) Applets and Plug-Ins
- (n) Electronic Forms
- (o) Navigation Links
- (p) Time Delays
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Why is it harder to make PDF documents accessible than HTML?
There is a number of reasons, including the fact that PDF documents typically originate in a variety of tools (e.g. PDF Maker for MS Office, AutoCAD, 3rd party tools and a variety of PDF printer drivers, etc). When documents are converted to PDF, it is not uncommon for the order of elements within their internal structure to be incorrect (i.e. The order of elements in the structure does not reflect the reading order of data in the original document) or for key tagging information to be missing or incorrect (e.g. table structure).
Furthermore, the structure of PDF allows 3 independent views of the document (physical, content order and tags). These views can become inconsistent with each other which adds another significant layer of complexity to making a PDF document accessible. CommonLook greatly simplifies the process of making PDF documents structurally consistent, checking for compliance with section 508 checkpoints and remediating compliance problems.
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Is it possible to fully automate the testing for section 508?
No it is not possible. This is because some of the checkpoints require user input. For example, a text equivalent for a non-textual object should be verified by a tester to ensure it correctly describes the non-textual object. Also, the correct order of a document’s elements should typically be verified by a user, as the tagging process in Acrobat frequently results in missing key structural information (e.g. table headers) or incorrectly identifying or misordering the elements in the tags view -resulting in screen readers failing to read text in the correct order- or in the content view -resulting in handheld devices, such as PDAs, failing to display the document correctly.
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Can CommonLook perform fully automated tests?
CommonLook has been automated to the maximum possible extent. However, user judgment is required (but is greatly aided) in a number of checkpoints.
Organizations interetsed in automated assessment of the state of section 508 compliance of their PDF holdings, may want to consider the ECMF Product. ECMF provides functionality to spider through internet and intranet sites and perform bulk unattended verification of PDF documents.