Accessibility of PDF Format

Designing Accessible Communities strives to assure that its web site lists materials that are available in .HTML format, .TXT format or other equally accessible formats. Sometimes, important resources are found that are available solely in PDF format.

Though PDF files are not currently universally accessible, some circumstances necessitate their use in this format. Therefore, some of the resources on our web site are in PDF format only and we list them because we consider that the importance of the information outweighs the fact that they are available only in this one format.

Whenever possible, when a resource is only available in a PDF format, a link will be provided identifying resources that help in accessing PDF files.

PDF FILE ACCESS: Users will require Adobe Acrobat Viewer in order to view and print these documents. Adobe Acrobat Reader is free and can be downloaded from: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html. General instructions for Viewing PDF Files will assist you if you are unfamiliar with PDF-formatted files.

Since PDF documents may not be readily accessible to screen readers and may not be formatted for visually impaired users, the following tool can be used to convert PDF documents into plain text or plain HTML documents.

PDF Accessibility
http://www.design.ncsu.edu/cud/general_g/gpdfaccess.htm