Accessibility News February 2025
Release of Techniques for Accessible PDFs
The PDF Association has announced its initial release of Techniques for Accessible PDF, a set of guidelines intended to support developers, document authors, and remediators in producing accessible PDF documents.
The aim of these guidelines is to provide additional clarity and guidance on accessibility within PDF, and aim to align with ISO 14289—the international standard for accessible PDF—and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). The release is designed to address accessibility across a wide range of use cases, from standard office documents to more complex layouts generated by desktop publishing applications.
Within the guidelines, the document provides 18 techniques and 20 common failures as “Fundamental,” in this current release grouped in the following areas:
- Basic Technical Rules
- Text
- Content
- Logical Content Order
- Appropriate Semantics
The guidelines aim to be 'vendor netural' so as to cover all software that creates PDF documents from complex desktop publishing tools like InDesign to Microsoft Word and other platforms.
The PDF Association indicates they have quarterly updates planned to address additional use cases following further consultations with their stakeholders.
Accessibility Updates to Google Products and Services
Google has recently announced a range of accessibility improvements across its product suite, including updates to TalkBack on Android devices on update 15.1
This has included updates across the accessibility features for Pixel, Android, Chrome, Workspace, and YouTube.
Among the updates, TalkBack on Andorid, the inbuilt screen reader, received several updates, including:
- Refined gesture controls - allowing a double-tap to either open a single link directly or present a list of multiple links;
- Improvements to navigate between search results; and
- More detailed customisation options for reading controls and navigation settings.
You can find the full list of TalkBack 15.1 updates here.