FormA11y - A tool for remediating PDF forms for accessibility: Designing a PDF Form Remediation Tool

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Web Accessibility

Background:

• PDF documents often lack accessibility features, requiring manual remediation.
• Existing research primarily addresses accessibility for static documents, not interactive forms.
• PDF form remediation is complex, repetitive, and overwhelming for creators.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate challenges in PDF form accessibility remediation.
• To develop a tool, FormA11y, to simplify and improve PDF form remediation.
• To evaluate FormA11y's effectiveness against industry standards.

Main Methods:

• Developed FormA11y, a novel tool for PDF form remediation.
• Conducted a within-subject user study with 20 participants.
• Compared FormA11y's performance against Adobe Acrobat for PDF form remediation.

Main Results:

• FormA11y enabled users to remediate PDF forms 2.8 times faster.
• The tool resulted in more accurate accessibility in remediated PDF forms.
• User study demonstrated FormA11y's efficiency and effectiveness.

Conclusions:

• FormA11y effectively addresses the challenges of PDF form remediation.
• The tool offers a significant improvement in speed and accuracy for creating accessible PDF forms.
• FormA11y contributes to a more inclusive digital environment by simplifying accessibility efforts.