[Athen] Rec's for PDF remediation on a giant scale

[Deborah Armstrong via athen-list]

It might be a bit off-topic but we have to remember our task also is to decrease the number of inaccessible PDFS being even now created.
I think there’s the attitude among faculty – at least ours – that they can create any classroom materials they want and disability services will take care of making them accessible.
It is important I believe for people authoring the materials to ensure they are created as accessible documents.
I’m often finding the original document was reasonably accessible, but then its creator “printed” it to a PDF image and archived that, rather than archiving the original document. It is that attitude of archiving the PDF that creates the problem in the first place.
I think it is the read-only nature of PDF files that makes them attractive including that they look just like the printed equivalent while saving paper. But you can always print the original document on an as-needed basis as well. The read-only nature of a PDF is attractive to teachers who don’t want their stuff altered, but everyone who remediates a PDF knows it’s not actually read-only.
I wish epub was more popular!
Working to change the attitudes of document creators costs more time than money. Often we have little of each, but with budget constraints, we can at least attempt to get people on board with creating accessible materials in the first place!
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