What is AB 434?
The AB 434 (Assembly Bill No. 434) is a California regulation that requires state agencies to be certified for accessibility compliance with the WCAG 2.0 (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) Conformance Level AA standard by July 1, 2019.
Since January 1, 2017, the state agency’s PDF must have been in compliance with Sections 7405 and 11135, which also reference a well-known ADA (Americans with Disability Act) Section 508. AB 434 reinforces previous requirements by mandating state agency’s or state entity’s Chief Information Officers to every two years sign and provide a certificate of compliance starting before or on July 1, 2019.
PDF Creation in InDesign and Typesetting to meet California AB 434 Requirements
Ebookconversion.com is USA based vendor used by many deferral agencies to create 508 compliant PDF files to meet the ADA requirements. We can remediate and create AB 434 compliant PDF. We are 100% committed to following the guidelines drawn in section AB 434 compliance in regards to PDF Creation in InDesign, MS Word, and Typesetting. We have highly skilled manpower and technical staff who work with great attention to detail and will make sure you get what you are looking for.
The Problem We Address
By the time online accessibility becomes a priority, many organizations, particularly state agencies and Universities, find they have thousands of inaccessible PDF documents online, along with MS Word documents (doc), Excel spreadsheets (xls), and PowerPoint slide shows (ppt). Sometimes the cost of remediation encourages shopping for services overseas, only to find that the remediation suffers from a lack of accessibility experience or a language and cultural barrier. As a USA-based vendor for Federal agencies for creating accessible documents, we can help your agency to meet AB 434 requirements for documents.
Our Approach for Non-conformance PDF
If you need to meet the standards like WCAG 2.0/2.1, ISO-32000, or PDF/UA for your documents, we can help you to create a new PDF and remediate current non-conformant files. We will meet the requirements of 508 compliance and AB 434.
If you are facing any of the following errors or validation errors then it is time to contact us.
- PDF is Untagged: The PDF contains no tags – Documents without tags do not provide information describing the logical structure and relationship of elements to users of Assistive Technology. This issue is a violation of Section 508 and WCAG 2.0 Success Criterion 1.3.1
- Order is Not Specified: The tab order is not specified for at least one page of the document. This issue is a violation of Section 508 and WCAG 2.0 Success Criterion 1.3.2
- Primary Document Language not Set: The document language has not been set. This issue is a violation of section 508 and WCAG 2.0 Success Criterion 3.1.1
- Document Properties are Not Filled Out Properly: The Title, Subject, and Author fields in the document properties have not all been properly populated. This issue is a violation of HHS Guidelines and WCAG 2.0 Success Criterion 2.4.2
- Background content was deleted: The accessibility checker shows content that was untagged and not marked as an artifact. In most cases, this is introduced when background content is deleted from the tag structure rather than marked as an artifact. This issue is a violation of section 508 and WCAG 2.0 Success Criterion 1.1.1.
- Untagged Annotations Present: The accessibility checker shows annotations present that have not been tagged. In most cases, this is due to hyperlinks that were created but never tagged. This issue is a violation of section 508 and WCAG 2.0 Success Criterion 1.3.1.
- The document is a Scanned Image: The document is a scan of a paper hard copy that has not had an Optical Character Recognition run. This issue is a violation of section 508 and WCAG 2.0 Success Criterion 1.4.5.
- Content Flashes more than 3 times per Second: There is content in the document that flashes/flickers/strobes more than 3 times per second which can cause seizures. This issue is a violation of section 508 and WCAG 2.0 Success Criterion 2.3.1.
- Bookmarks Unavailable for Document >=10 pages: The document contains at least 10 pages and does not contain proper bookmarks. This issue is a violation of section 508 and WCAG 2.0 Success Criterion 2.4.5.
- Bookmarks are inaccurate: There are multiple bookmarks to the same place, incorrect titles/names, or locations are out of order. This issue is a violation of section 508 and WCAG 2.0 Success Criterion 2.4.5.
- Comments, Annotations, or Tracked Changes are Present: The document contains collaborative markup from the original source file that is inaccessible and should be removed before public distribution. This issue is a violation of section 508 and WCAG 2.0 Success Criterion 1.3.1.
- PowerPoint Converted to PDF has Speaker’s Notes in Separate Layer: Assistive Technology cannot access speaker’s notes created in this manner. This issue is a violation of section 508 and WCAG 2.0 Success Criterion 1.3.1.
- PDF fails General Accessibility Check: The Adobe accessibility checker has flagged an error. This issue is a violation of Section 508 and WCAG 2.0 Success Criterion 4.1.1.
- PDF Fails Assistive Technology (AT) Review: An AT review was performed on the PDF and it was determined to be unusable for those who rely on AT to properly interpret and understand the content. This issue is a violation of Section 508 and WCAG 2.0 Success Criterion 1.3.1
- Resizing Text Causes No Change or a Loss of Content: When text is resized to 200% with the built-in magnification tool, content is either not resized or becomes unreadable. This issue is a violation of WCAG 2.0 Success Criterion 1.4.4
- Document Title is not Showing in Title Bar: Filename shows in the title bar instead of the document title. This issue is a violation of WCAG 2.0 Success Criterion 2.4.2.
Other errors found in documents leading to a nonconformant file.
Color:
- Distinctions Beyond Color-Only are Missing
- Color Contrast is Insufficient
- Charts/Graphs rely on Color-only Legend
Links:
- Links are Tagged Incorrectly
- Generic Link Text is Present
- Links are Only Identified Visually by Color
Images:
- Image is Missing Alternative Text
- Alternative Text is Incorrect
- Decorative Images are not Tagged as Background
- Complex Images are Missing Detailed Descriptions
- Organizational Charts Lack Text-only Versions
- An alternative is not Equivalent
- Informational Image is Tagged as Background
- Group of Related Images not Tagged in an Accessible Manner
- Content is not Appropriate as in Image
Tag Structure:
- Tag Structure does not Reflect Logical Reading Order
- Informational Content is not Tagged
- Content is Incorrectly Tagged
- Nonstandard Tags are Used and Improperly Mapped
- Table of Contents Entries are not Correctly Tagged
- Footnotes interrupt an unrelated paragraph
- Tagged Text does not Match Visual Text
- Nonstandard Text is Used
- Footnotes/Endnotes are not correctly tagged
- Language not Set for Foreign Words or Phrases
- Paragraph Tagging is Insufficient
- Paragraph Tagging is Excessive
Tables:
- Tables Used for Layout Purposes
- Tabular Data Lacks Table Structure
- Incorrect Table Structure
- Irregular tables
- Table Headers Missing TH Tags
- Missing Header Cell Content
- Missing Header Cell Content
- Table Header and Data Cells are not Properly Associated in a Table with Multiple Column and/or Row Headers
- TH Tags Used on Data Cells
Lists:
- Visual Lists are Incorrectly Tagged
- List Item Identifiers are Missing
- Multiple List Items are Combined
- Nested Lists are Incorrectly Tagged
- List items are Broken into Multiple List Structures
Headings:
- Heading Tags are Missing
- Heading levels Improperly Structured and/or Skipped
- Heading Tags Used on Decorative Text
- The heading does not Accurately Describe Section of Content
Forms:
- Form Fields are not Tagged
- Form Fields are not Tagged
- Tab Order for Forms Does Not Match Visual Order
- Required Field Indicator is not Provided
Ignoring such inaccessibility violates WCAG, Section 508, PDF/UA, and all such accessibility standards because they leave serious challenges for the disabled in the PDF. This, in turn, violates regulations such as Title II and III of the ADA, California’s AB 434, Washington’s Policy 188, and others — all leaving the PDF open to judicial complaints from the Office of Civil Rights and private-sector lawsuits regardless of what testing software shows.
How we can help you with Section AB 434 compliance for PDF Remediation Services?
With many years of experience, we are the leader in document accessibility and compliance.
- A completely in-house process ensures your confidential documents remain secure
- AB 434 compliance and WCAG specialists on staff
- Strict quality control procedures keep your data secure, accurate and confidential
- Validation is done for Section AB 434 compliance and WCAG 2.0 standards
- We offer an economical solution that is quick and accurate remediation options.
- Alternate options to make your non-conformant PDF go live on the website. Contact on how we can help with current PDF files.
Call us for more information about our Section AB 434 compliant PDF eBook Conversion Services at (515) 865-4591.