In today’s world, much of our work happens on the internet. When we send a PDF through email or put it on a website, it becomes a digital document. Making sure these digital documents are easy for everyone to use, including those with disabilities, is really important now that everything is digital.
If a document has things like color, language, font size, or style that are hard to understand, it can be tough for people with impairments. That’s where the idea of accessible PDFs comes in. Converting PDFs to make them accessible is an important step to ensure that everyone can easily use and understand the information in them.
Benefits of Using Accessible PDFs in Business
1. Avoid Litigation
According to reports on legal matters, there’s been a big increase in lawsuits about digital accessibility since 2020. These lawsuits cover things like making websites and PDFs accessible. It’s causing a lot of trouble for many industries, especially smaller businesses.
The number of these lawsuits is expected to keep going up. Now, making sure digital experiences are accessible is a big deal in all areas. Some well-known cases, like those involving Domino’s Pizza, have been in the news because they got into expensive legal trouble.
Courts have made decisions against websites and documents that are not accessible to people with vision or disability challenges. This is seen as breaking the law because it denies equal rights to information and services.
The good news is we can avoid these legal issues by making our PDFs and digital stuff accessible. This not only helps us follow the law but also makes our content available to more people, creating a diverse and inclusive environment for our organization or business.
2. Meet Government Regulations
Because more people are using the Internet, many countries are making laws to ensure websites and digital stuff are accessible for everyone, especially those with disabilities. In Canada, the US, and other places, they follow the WCAG 2.1 AA rules, which are guidelines for making digital things accessible. These rules are often mentioned in legal agreements.
In the US and Canada, there are specific government rules at both the national and state/provincial levels. But the main idea is this: websites and digital documents should be accessible to everyone, following regional accessibility standards. If they aren’t, it can lead to expensive legal issues, big fines, and losing potential customers. Using PDF Remediation services can be a smart way to make your PDFs accessible for everyone.
3. Make Documents Accessible to Clients & Customers
Make your website better for people with vision problems and disabilities, like a big group of potential customers. Improving web accessibility not only helps your organization connect with new clients but also with future ones. If you sell products with PDF guides, it’s super important to make sure those PDFs are easy for everyone to use.
Around 1 in 3 Americans (62 million people) and about 1 in 4 Canadians (6.4 million people) have low vision or a disability. That’s a lot of potential customers, with the power to spend more than $495 billion annually in the US and over $60 billion in Canada.
4. Protect & Grow Your Brand
Be a responsible business and protect your brand by making your organization welcoming and accessible for people with disabilities. Use tools like screen readers, magnifiers, speech-recognition software, text-to-speech software, alternative input devices, and Braille displays to make information accessible to everyone.
5. Increase Readability & Understanding
In different areas, around 28-34% of people might face challenges like low vision or disabilities that make it hard for them to read regular PDFs. To make your PDFs accessible means making them easier to read and understand for everyone.
6. Gain a Competitive Edge
In the busy online world, businesses need to shine among the rest. If you make things easy and welcoming for everyone, you’re not just helping those with disabilities—you’re also getting ahead of the competition. A study even says that 60% of folks pick where to shop based on a company’s values and being real. So, by being friendly and genuine, you not only make things better for everyone but also win over more customers.
7. Better Experience for Users
When you organize your documents nicely with clear headings and a good order, it’s better for everyone who visits your website. When you fix up PDFs, you can also make sure the information is still up-to-date. This makes it easier for people without disabilities too. For example, if someone is using a small screen like a phone, they can read the PDF easily if it’s structured well. Also, people who like using the keyboard more than a mouse can smoothly move between form fields if the tab order is set up correctly.
8. Search Engine Friendly Website
Even though you might see PDFs as things separate from your website, search engines do try to read them. However, if your PDFs are not accessible, the search engine bots can’t understand them. When you make your PDFs accessible, it helps search engines learn more about your website. This might make your website show up better in search results.
Closing Thoughts
So, there you have it – making our PDFs accessible isn’t just about being nice; it’s a smart move for businesses. It keeps us out of legal trouble, connects us with more customers, and makes our brand a shining example of inclusivity. Let’s make the internet a friendlier place for everyone – one accessible PDF at a time!
