In a bid to make digital documents more accessible, Adobe has announced a new feature: the Adobe PDF Accessibility Auto-Tag API, driven by Adobe’s AI and machine learning framework, Adobe Sensei. This innovation is particularly pertinent for small businesses, which often rely heavily on PDF documents for various aspects of their operations and could significantly benefit from increased document accessibility.
PDFs are a fundamental part of the digital world, with an estimated three trillion documents circulating globally. With the new Adobe API, companies, including small businesses, can save significant time and resources, all while improving legal compliance and enhancing customer and employee experiences.
Todd Gerber, VP Product Marketing at Adobe Document Cloud, commented, “making digital documents accessible to as many people as possible is both the right thing to do as well as a legal and business imperative for companies that want to compete globally.”
The news comes at a crucial time when over 90% of the trillions of PDF documents in circulation are at least partially inaccessible to individuals with disabilities. As government regulations tighten and user expectations grow, accessible customer experiences are becoming increasingly important, especially for small businesses seeking to broaden their customer base.
Until now, making PDF documents accessible was often a laborious, manual process requiring specialized skills and experience. The new Adobe API allows for automating 70-100% of the process, which could significantly streamline the operations of small businesses and save them valuable resources.
For instance, a global financial firm managed to automate 70-80% of their presentation accessibility process using the new Adobe API, cutting down the over nine-hour task for each presentation slide deck.
The Adobe PDF Accessibility Auto-Tag API leverages Sensei to automate the process of tagging PDF content structures such as headings, paragraphs, lists, and tables. This functionality is especially beneficial to small businesses that can apply the API to large volumes of existing PDFs, thus saving time and complying with the latest accessibility regulations.
Two additional features set to be launched this fall will further support businesses. The PDF Accessibility Checker, accessible via an API, will enable organizations to evaluate the accessibility of existing PDFs at scale. Furthermore, Auto-Tag in Acrobat Reader will enhance the viewing experience at no additional cost, with no need for separate plug-ins or downloads.
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