What is PDF/UA?
PDF/UA (PDF/Universal Accessibility) is one of PDF subsets, which is designed to store any electronic documents in order that they be accessible to people utilizing assistive technologies and make PDF data accessible to everyone, which includes those who are hearing impaired, suffering from bone fractures, or are color-blind. The aim of the new standard is to let users with disabilities gain a way to interact with digital content. The PDF/UA specifications primarily target people with disabilities, such as the blind using text-to-speech screen readers. The PDF/UA format is developed, supported, and standardized by AIIM (Association for Information and Image Management). In 2007 the International Organization for Standardization commenced PDF/UA review as an ISO standard.
PDF/UA is not meant to be a techniques (how to) specification, but rather a set of guidelines for creating accessible PDF. The components and their structure are highly dependent upon which objects (graphics, text, multimedia, form fields) are to be present in the PDF file. The specification will describe such components and the conditions governing their inclusion in a PDF file in order to be considered accessible for a particular document type. The mechanisms for including the components in the PDF stream will be left to the discretion of the individual developer, PDF generator, or PDF viewing agent.
About PDF subsets
- PDF/UA for creating PDF files that are universally accessible for people with vision impairment or limited mobility.
PDF/E for creating, viewing, and printing documents used in engineering workflows.
PDF/X for creating, viewing, and printing print-ready or press-ready pages.
A PDF/H variant (PDF for Healthcare) is being developed. However, it may consist more of a set of "best practices" than of a specific format or subset.
You can go to 4 subsets of PDF for details information for copamparing these four subsets.
