Government agencies make ample use of PDFs, but it’s an inhospitable format for low-vision users, people who use screen readers, and individuals who access government websites via mobile devices. PDFs do not, in other words, make government more accessible.
Making websites accessible to users with disabilities is increasingly a priority at all levels of government. Documents are not as well known or understood as websites when it comes to accessibility.
There is no question that the documents we create today need to be accessible for future generations. This is especially true for U.S. Federal Government agencies; preserving their legacy is not only incredibly important, but mandatory. Organizations like the National Archives Records Administration are responsible for collecting and maintaining documents from every branch of government.Read… Read more »
Last week, I was able to attend the 2013 Personal Democracy Forum in New York City. This conference and community is about the present and future impact of digital technologies on our democracy. While listening to many of the thought-provoking and passionate presentations, there were a few different ideas that really spoke to me. HereRead… Read more »
The Civil Servant 2.0 books have been widely read in the Netherlands and are now also available in English: Download the Civil Servant 2.0 book (pdf, 2.1 Mb) The first book (2008) explains the significance of web 2.0 for government in terms of its internal organisation, its relationship with the public, and the working methodsRead… Read more »
Adobe are running a series of education sessions on “PDF Accessibility Education Sessions for the Australian Government” in March 2011. These are to help Australian Public Servants with PDF authoring skills, after an AGIMO/Vision Australia study which was critical of the accessibility of Portable Document Format documents for people with a disability.In my view theRead… Read more »
What? You’ve never thought about the fun you can have with a PDF or Acrobat? Are you still thinking that PDF is merely a way to view a document and that Acrobat is the way to generate PDF? Well, let’s see if we can get you thinking beyond PDF’s heritage. (If you are already aheadRead… Read more »
As part of a Google fellowship that I received on behalf of Public Performance Systems, I spent the last two days at the Personal Democracy Forum up in New York. I’ll finish up our discussion on a Performance Management Framework in the next few days but I wanted to first report on a number ofRead… Read more »
My blog from the conference: http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/06/personal-democracy-forum-confe.html The first day at the Personal Democracy Forum conference revolved around the freedom to experiment, necessary infrastructure, and the need to change.