PDF Documents
Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format developed by Adobe Systems for representing documents in a manner that is independent of the original application software, hardware, and operating system used to create those documents. A PDF file can describe documents containing any combination of text, graphics, and images in a device independent and resolution independent format. These documents can be one page or thousands of pages, very simple or extremely complex with a rich use of fonts, graphics, color, and images. PDF is an open standard, and anyone may write applications that can read or write PDFs royalty-free.
[Source: Wikipedia]
Invented by Adobe Systems, Adobe® PDF is a publicly available specification used by standards bodies around the world for more secure, reliable electronic document distribution and exchange. Adobe PDF has been adopted by governments and enterprises to streamline document management, help increase productivity, and reduce reliance on paper. Today, Adobe PDF is a standard, reliable format for the electronic submission of drug approvals to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and for electronic case filing in U.S. federal courts. It is also a standard format used for advertising pages, in newspapers and magazines. Various corporations use PDFs to ensure that their different documents look exactly the same no matter what type of browser they are viewed on. People also use PDFs when they want to create documents that cannot be altered. As an open file format specification, PDF is available to anyone who wants to develop tools to create, view, or manage PDF documents. More than 1,800 vendors offer PDF-based solutions. Because PDFs are so prevalent, it is crucial that they be accessible to users with disabilities.
[Source: http://www.adobe.com, American Foundation for the Blind]
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Impacts of Accessibility Issues
Accessibility issues associated with PDF documents impact users with the following disability types: