Accessibility Audit for Corporate PDFs
Estimated reading time 2 minutes, 32 seconds
One quick thing before we begin, what is WCAG 2.0 AA and Section 508?
WCAG 2.0 AA and Section 508 are accessibility standards that ensure that digital content is accessible to individuals with disabilities. These standards ensure that users with disabilities, such as those with visual or auditory impairments, can access and use digital content with ease.
For an enterprise marketing executive, it’s important to care about these standards because accessibility is not only a legal requirement but also a way to expand your potential audience and improve the user experience for all stakeholders. By ensuring that your digital content is accessible, you are making it more inclusive and welcoming to a wider range of users. This can lead to increased engagement, customer satisfaction, and loyalty, which can ultimately benefit your bottom line.
Moreover, failing to comply with these standards can result in legal consequences, such as lawsuits and fines. So, it is crucial for enterprises to take these standards seriously and ensure that their digital content is accessible to all users.
What CURTIS Digital did
Brookfield Properties, a leading real estate company, approached CURTIS Digital with a request to ensure the accessibility of their twice-yearly corporate magazine. The magazine is a comprehensive publication, with each issue consisting of approximately 80 pages. With the increasing importance of accessibility and the need for compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Brookfield wanted to ensure that their magazine was accessible to all their stakeholders.
Challenge: Brookfield’s corporate magazine was in need of an accessibility audit to comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 AA and the Section 508 standards. The magazine contained various elements such as images, graphics, links, and annotations, making it crucial to ensure that these elements were accessible to all users, including those with disabilities.
Solution: CURTIS Digital’s team of experts was up to the task, and they started by modifying the PDFs to make them WCAG 2.0 AA and 508 compliant. The experts checked various elements of the magazine, including reading order, alt text for images and graphics, properly nested links, tagging of all elements and annotations, tab order, color contrast, and color and meaning.
Outcome: The experts used both Adobe Accessibility Checker and PAC3 to check the PDFs, and the results showed that the magazine was now compliant with the WCAG 2.0 AA and Section 508 standards. Brookfield was pleased with the outcome, and CURTIS Digital has been asked to perform this task for every issue since its inception in 2021.
Conclusion: CURTIS Digital’s expertise in accessibility and their deep understanding of the technology helped Brookfield Properties achieve their goal of making their corporate magazine accessible to all their stakeholders. The results of the accessibility audit showed that the magazine was now compliant with the WCAG 2.0 AA and Section 508 standards, ensuring that it was accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. The partnership between Brookfield Properties and CURTIS Digital has been a success, and Brookfield continues to rely on CURTIS Digital’s expertise to help them achieve their accessibility goals.