Creation of Accessible Documents

This is the first in a series of Market Updates on the creation of accessible documents. It concentrates on the creation of accessible PDF files from word processing and desktop publishing systems.

Document creation is one of the major parts of personal productivity.

An accessible electronic document is one that can be read easily by a person with a disability. The possible disabilities include various degrees of vision impairment, muscular-skeletal disorders (that limit the ability to use traditional controls such as a mouse), dyslexia, and learning difficulties.

Documents in a language other than the native language of the speaker can be difficult to access, and with the internationalisation of the web this is becoming a more common problem. Some of the issues and solution to this problem are shared with access for the disabled so it will be considered in this report.