A: UA stands for “User Accessibility” and ADA stands for “Americans with Disabilities Act”. Meaning the document complies with these standards for user accessibility.
PDF/UA
PDF/UA is the informal name for ISO 14289, the International Standard for accessible PDF technology. A technical specification intended for developers implementing PDF writing and processing software, PDF/UA provides definitive terms and requirements for accessibility in PDF documents and applications. For those equipped with appropriate software, conformance with PDF/UA ensures accessibility for people with disabilities who use assistive technology such as screen readers, screen magnifiers, joysticks and other technologies to navigate and read electronic content.
– Wikipedia: PDF/UA
ADA Compliance
ADA compliance refers to the Americans with Disabilities Act requirements that companies and organizations make every effort to make education accessible to those with disabilities including those who are visually and audibly impaired.
Format Details
PDF/UA and ADA Compliance is not a separate file-format, but instead uses the PDF format and features invented by Adobe Systems to ensure documents are accessible to all users.
Some of the features of a PDF/UA or ADA compliant PDF include:
- Searchable text
- Bookmarks for documents over 9 pages
- Document tags
- Alt Text used to describe an image to one visually impaired
- Logical reading order (left-to-right) in tables
- No background images or watermarks
- Table rows that don’t split across pages
- Document Title
- Form fields with tool-tips (descriptions)
