Nearly four years in the making, AIIM’s PDF/UA Committee today agreed to submit their draft standard to ANSI to be submitted to ISO as an ISO NWI (New Work Item). It’s the first formal step from the Working Group’s document to begin the full international process.
AIIM and Adobe launched the PDF/UA effort knowing that development of an ISO standard for accessible PDF would be a long haul. The PDF/UA committee is to be commended for bringing their draft document to this point. The core members of the committee have each made invaluable contributions, and it’s been my pleasure to work with them all.
In particular, I want to acknowledge Greg Pisocky, Adobe’s “customer-facing” accessibility specialist, for his commitment to and perseverance in PDF/UA’s cause. Greg has the (unenviable) job of both explaining Adobe’s software to government and other users while representing accessibility interests within Adobe itself. On the PDF/UA committee, Greg has minuted our twice-monthly meetings for four years, located outside resources and provided critical real-world knowledge and experience to help guide our efforts. As PDF/UA clears the first hurdle on the way to becoming an ISO standard, the Committee (and frankly, the cause of accessibility itself) owes Greg a round of applause.
I look forward to updating readers of this blog with more information about the progress of PDF/UA as it inches towards standards-hood.
(Full Disclosure: I’ve chaired the PDF/UA committee since 2005)
Originally posted on Duff Johnson’s PDF Perspective blog for acrobatusers.com.
By Duff Johnson