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Barrierefreie PDF-Dokumente automatisiert erstellt am Beispiel der MAK Collection, ZB MED

Abstract

The EU Directive 2016/2102 obliges all public sector bodies to design their websites and mobile applications as well as documents (i.e. in particular also PDF documents) and digital administrative processes accessible. However, the first report of the Federal Republic of Germany to the European Commission on compliance with the accessibility requirements of websites and mobile applications of public sector bodies for the period from 01.01.2020 to 22.12.2021 turned out to be sobering.

What compliance with the EU Directive means in concrete terms for the generation of PDF documents is explained in the paper using as example the documentations and methods of the MAK Collection, which are issued quarterly by ZB MED as Open Access publications on the publishing platform PUBLISSO. Using the open source application Apache Formatting Objects Processor (FOP), ZB MED succeeded in generating these journal issues with their complex design automatically in accessible PDF format. The PAC audit tool, which can be downloaded free of charge, provides valuable support in uncovering problematic areas and working through them step by step. With an optimized template the additional effort for similar PDF documents in terms of guarantee accessibility is kept to a minimum.