Guidelines

The accessibility features available in the Expere Engine and Expere Authoring Tools are designed to enable implementation of tagged PDF content that is screen reader accessible, compatible with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 as verified by the Adobe Acrobat DC accessibility checker.

While the Expere Engine enables the option to render tagged PDF outputs, each organization is responsible for creating the content markup to support specific accessibility features in accordance with their own business requirements. Each organization is therefore responsible for the markup of tags within content and for determining the application of accessibility features for their own business requirements and desired user experience.

Important: Wolters Kluwer Financial Services’ core competency does not involve understanding of all requirements of the Americans with Disability Act (ADA). As such, Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, Inc. cannot and will not warrant that the Solution delivered by it will comply with all requirements of the ADA.

The guidelines for using Expere Engine to generate accessible documents with the appropriate markup tags for use by screen reader tools include the following:

  • The content author is encouraged to develop standards and guidelines in how the features are utilized.
  • Accessibility features are available for dynamic and embeddedPDF documents. Accessibility features are not enabled for use when creating or editing static documents.
  • Accessible PDF outputs require the use of Apache FOP for print formatting. Apache FOP 2.8 is the version used by Expere for all FOP-based transformations to PDF output.
  • Accessibility features are implemented through tagging mark-up in the content and not through style sheet processing. The look and feel of PDF outputs in terms of ADA Standards for Accessible Design are not addressed in the features described in this guide.

About Apache FOP 2.X

The Apache FOP Version 2.6 and newer implements a subset of the W3C XSL-FO 1.1 recommendation and provides improved handling of requirements, support for complex font scripts, improved attribute-based flow name mapping, and other updates.

Apache FOP is deployed with the Requirements Editor during installation and is also deployed in the Expere Testing System and Expere Engine.

Note:
  • The Requirements Editor FOP Engine currently states "FOP 2.6;" initially, the Engine was updated to FOP 2.6, with a corresponding interface change to the Requirements Editor. The Engine has since been updated to FOP 2.8; a corresponding interface update will occur to the Requirements Editor in the future.
  • Content authors must structure the content to work with Apache FOP standards.