Printer-friendly page
Screen-friendly pageComparison PDF Testing Tools
Overview
In Fall of 2010, an audit of the PDF files in admissions, financial aid, provost, and chancellors office for accessibility was performed. The results showed almost all the files were non-accessible. The individuals in charge of the PDF files had no knowledge of the techniques to make a PDF file accessible and almost all asked if there were tools available to help. After researching available tools, it was decided to look at how well these tools perform and do the tools alone give accurate reports of the accessibility.
Project Questions
- How effective and reliable is each tool in analyzing the accessibility of a PDF file?
- Are the results of the tool's evaluations consistent with one another?
- Is one tool better than another?
- Does the use of these tools save the developer time over manually checking for PDF accessibility?
Results
In reality, the automatic checking of the tools in this test are limited. For most of the tests, the tools either could not check for the test or required a manual followup after the test was performed.
Tagging
| Test | Reader 9 | Reader X | Pro 9 | Pro X | EGovMon | PAC | CL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contains Tags | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Finds No Tags | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDF as image (scanned) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Images
| Test | Reader 9 | Reader X | Pro 9 | Pro X | EGovMon | PAC | CL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Images: # of images in document | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Images: Alt text found | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Headings
| Test | Reader 9 | Reader X | Pro 9 | Pro X | EGovMon | PAC | CL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Headers (C): # headers in document | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Headers (C): Hierarchy | No | No | Manual | Manual | Manual | Manual | Manual |
| Headers (I): # headers in document | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Headers (I): Hierarchy | No | No | Manual | Manual | Manual | Manual | Manual |
| Blank Header | No | No | Manual | Manual | Manual | Manual | Manual |
| Header Styled as Text | No | No | Manual | Manual | Manual | Manual | Manual |
Title
| Test | Reader 9 | Reader X | Pro 9 | Pro X | EGovMon | PAC | CL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Title Shows as Tag | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Title Shows in Properties | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Lists
| Test | Reader 9 | Reader X | Pro 9 | Pro X | EGovMon | PAC | CL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # of Lists | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Tagged as List | No | No | Manual | Manual | No | No | No |
| UL v OL | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Children | No | No | Manual | Manual | No | No | No |
Tables
| Test | Reader 9 | Reader X | Pro 9 | Pro X | EGovMon | PAC | CL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # of Tables | No | No | No | No | No | No | Manual |
| TH Usage | No | No | Manual | Manual | No | No | Manual |
| Col-Row Spans | No | No | No | No | No | No | Manual |
Forms
| Test | Reader 9 | Reader X | Pro 9 | Pro X | EGovMon | PAC | CL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # of Elements | No | No | No | No | No | No | Manual |
| Type of Form Element | No | No | Manual | Manual | No | No | Manual |
| Tooltip Exists | No | No | Manual | Manual | No | No | Manual |
| Tab Order | No | No | Manual | Manual | No | No | Manual |