Equal access to information for all.
Adobe enhances document accessibility with an automated solution using Adobe Acrobat Services APIs.
99%
Faster accessibility processing, with 4,000 files checked in 4 hours
Objectives
Enhance accessibility for all PDF documents on the company intranet
Reduce time spent checking accessibility of intranet content by adding automated processes
Free skilled employees from manual accessibility remediation tasks
Comply with reader expectations for accessible documents
Results
4,000 PDF files processed for accessibility in four hours, saving tens of thousands of hours
99% of documents remediated automatically, with fewer than 40 documents requiring manual remediation
Provide skilled employees with more time to create valuable Inside Adobe content
Deliver readable PDF files to employees faster, improving experiences and compliance
Putting accessibility first
Inside Adobe is the one-stop digital gateway that employees rely on to find important company news, information, and resources. For Ray Brulotte, Senior Manager of Inside Adobe, it’s essential that the site serves all employees equally.
“Accessibility is core to our mission on Inside Adobe,” says Brulotte. “We need to reach all of the Adobe family and that includes people who might be hard of hearing or visually impaired. All of the information posted on Inside Adobe must meet certain levels of accessibility.”
Providing information that all employees can easily access and read, without delays or special requests, underscores Adobe’s commitment to serving every employee — a commitment that translates to higher satisfaction and retention.
Understanding documents through structure
Employees access Inside Adobe for many reasons. They might need to review benefits and compensation information, understand career and development resources, or catch up on the latest company news. Inside Adobe provides information as web pages and downloadable PDF files through a web portal built on Adobe Experience Manager Sites & Assets as a Cloud Service. In the past, turning documents into accessible PDF files — supporting screen readers, keyboard navigation, responsive design, and color contrast — was challenging.
Brulotte and the Inside Adobe team had to manually check every PDF for accessibility before publication. Accessible documents have all content properly tagged to identify headings, paragraphs, lists, and tables with alt text for images and figures. For an employee using a screen reader, these tags identify readable text, describe visuals, read content in the correct order, and navigate between sections efficiently. Inaccurately tagged documents can create confusion and frustration for employees by skipping over important content or jumping between sections out of order.
It typically took an experienced employee — someone skilled in Adobe Acrobat and knowledgeable in accessibility standards — to manually check and tag documents. For a text-based document, editing the document to comply with standards might take minutes, but for documents with complex layouts, images, tables, and diagrams, it could take hours or days.
Maintaining accessibility with automated checks
Adobe assembled a task force to build a solution that makes accessibility fast, accurate, and automated. Inside Adobe teamed up with Adobe Document Cloud experts, including David Lynch, Senior Digital Strategist for Document Cloud, Accessibility; Rob Haverty, Senior Product Manager, Accessibility; and Graham Hutchinson, Group Manager, Adobe Professional Services. Together, they created an accessibility workflow that uses Adobe Acrobat Services APIs, specifically PDF Accessibility Auto-Tag API and PDF Accessibility Checker API.
Adobe Professional Services integrated the new workflow directly into Experience Manager Assets. When an author uploads a PDF, PDF Accessibility Checker API first checks the document to determine whether it has appropriate accessibility tags. If the document fails, PDF Accessibility Auto-Tag API automatically tags content before running it through PDF Accessibility Checker API again. If the document passes the accessibility check, it gets published. Otherwise, the author is alerted to manually review the document. Integration makes the workflow extremely easy to use, as authors don’t need to take any extra steps to maintain accessibility.
“By eliminating a lot of manual remediation, our team can focus more on creating content that connects with Adobe employees.”
Ray Brulotte
Senior Manager of Inside Adobe
Addressing accessibility compliance 99% faster
While Acrobat also includes the same functionality as PDF Accessibility Checker and PDF Auto-Tag APIs, working with APIs allows the Inside Adobe team to automate processes and deliver them at scale. Brulotte took advantage of this scale to enhance accessibility for Inside Adobe’s archive of 4,000 PDF documents, many of which outline important corporate policies. Using the API workflow, the team processed all files in about four hours — something that could have taken tens of thousands of hours for skilled workers to do manually.
Part of the speed comes from the accuracy of automated tagging. Fewer than 40 documents — less than 1% of the archive — required manual remediation. Even these cases were far faster, as the checker and tagging raised the level of accessibility and left the author with fewer issues to handle. Inside Adobe typically uploads up to five new PDF documents a week — ranging from office emergency action plans to benefits documentation — and authors no longer need to worry about scheduling hours of accessibility remediation into their schedules.
“We cannot overstate what a game-changer the API-based workflow is,” says Brulotte. “Typically, the people spending time ensuring materials are accessible are highly skilled. By eliminating a lot of manual remediation, our team can focus more on creating content that connects with Adobe employees.”
“The Professional Services team did an amazing job to accelerate implementation. We couldn’t have done it without them.”
Rob Haverty
Senior Product Manager, Accessibility
Relying on expert support
Adobe Professional Services provided essential expertise to integrate the APIs into the DAM to create a seamless, automated workflow. Having proven the concept with Inside Adobe, the Professional Services team is ready to help customers inside and outside of Adobe reap the benefits of automated accessibility processes.
Lynch also sees big potential for the APIs as part of on-demand content requests, such as when automatically generating invoices or account information for customers. Normally, a customer might need to reach out to customer service to receive accessible versions of these documents, but by creating custom workflows including Acrobat Services APIs, companies could achieve accessibility compliance and deliver better customer experiences without extra time and manual effort.
“The Professional Services team did an amazing job to accelerate implementation,” says Haverty. “We couldn’t have done it without them.”
“Companies now recognize that accessibility isn’t just the right thing to do — it’s a business imperative.”
David Lynch
Senior Digital Strategist for Document Cloud
Serving key populations worldwide
According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 16% of the world’s population has some sort of disability. Not only does prioritizing accessibility create better experiences for everyone, it also opens companies up to new markets. For instance, maintaining appropriate color contrast helps all readers quickly understand documents on different screens and lighting conditions. And while adding layered navigation is required for screen readers, many people like how it helps them skip directly to information they need.
“Acrobat Services APIs allow organizations to easily add accessibility to any Adobe document workflow to benefit everyone,” says Lynch. “Companies now recognize that accessibility isn’t just the right thing to do — it’s a business imperative.”
