Documentation, PDF Files and Accessibility

[christopher_phi]

This question is mostly for the documentation team. Occasionally I have seen some documentation show up as PDF files, for example: 

1. Canvas Account Role Permissions PDF 
2. Canvas Course Role Permissions PDF 
3. Canvas Icon Comparisons PDF 
4. Rich Content Editor Comparison Document (This started as a PDF file, but the community added the HTML)

There may be more out there, those are a few I have come across. Apart from usability concerns, it appears that content from those PDF files isn't showing in the community search and more importantly, the PDF files are also not very accessible (untagged, no title, contrast, etc...). 

I think it is great if you are providing a PDF version, but it would be great if it was offered only as an alternative to a more accessible, usable HTML version. 

#accessibility‌ #documentation‌

[CanvasDocTeam · Accepted solution]

Hello  @christopher_phi ,

Thanks for your thoughtful post. We will absolutely take all of this under consideration for future work to improve our resource documents. We recently created the landing pages that you linked to as a way to surface those documents in search results. (You can find direct links to all of the documents in the Resource Documents - Table of Contents‌.)

The reason why these documents exist in PDFs is because they are rather cumbersome to create and edit using the document tools in our community platform. However, we can absolutely look into more accessible possibilities whenever we transition to a new Community platform.

Thanks again!

Cody

[christopher_phi]

Thanks so much  @jivedocs_unfede ‌, I appreciate that reply. Is there a possibility that when you do publish PDF files that they are accessible? I'm sure there are individuals from the Accessibility‌ who would be willing to provide helps if that is something you are willing to do. Thanks!