Documents and PDFs
This page is for editors who upload documents and project managers who set the rules. Documents are content: an inaccessible PDF linked from an accessible page is still a barrier. EN 301 549 has a clause of its own for non-web documents (clause 10), and many public bodies publish large numbers of reports, forms and minutes as files.
Contents
- Page first, document second
- Before you upload a document
- How Exponential delivers files
- The built-in PDF export
- Scanned documents and old files
- Related pages
Page first, document second
Publish information as a web page whenever you can: it reflows on phones, follows the visitor's zoom and color settings, is found by search, and can be translated in Exponential's language versions. Offer a document in addition only when people need one (to print, to sign, as the formal version).
Before you upload a document
Check in the program that made the document, before exporting to PDF:
- To do: Real headings (the program's heading styles), in order.
- To do: Alternative text on images and charts.
- To do: Tables with a marked header row.
- To do: Document title and language set in the document properties.
- To do: Meaningful link texts.
- To do: Enough contrast; color not the only signal.
- To do: Exported as a tagged PDF (an accessibility option of the export dialog in most office programs).
- To do: Checked with an accessibility checker for PDF.
In the link on the page, say the format and size: "Council minutes, 12 May (PDF, 300 KB)".
How Exponential delivers files
- A file is uploaded into a file field (or as a file object in the media library) and delivered through
content/download, which checks that the reader may read it; uploads other than images are never served directly from the storage directory (13.2 What the web server must never hand out). - Exponential does not change the file. It does not check or repair its accessibility: what you upload is what visitors get.
- Uploading many files at once and the options of the upload are described in Images, media and uploads.
The built-in PDF export
Setup > PDF export makes one PDF of a node, or of a part of the tree, generated once or on the fly (PDF exports, PDF export). The repository documents no tagging or PDF/UA support for this export, so treat its output as an untagged PDF: useful for printing and archiving, but not as the accessible version of your content. Keep the web pages as the primary, accessible form.
Scanned documents and old files
- A scan without text recognition is an image: unusable with a screen reader. Run text recognition and check the result, or publish the text on a page.
- For large archives of old documents your law may allow exceptions for documents published before a given date; ask your legal counsel and record the decision in your accessibility statement. Offer the content in an accessible form on request.
Related pages
- Accessible content for editors
- Files and downloads
- Images, media and uploads
- Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.
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