BRF/PDF Braille Ready Formats for the Blind
Making your website accessible for all kinds of users is essential so you do not exclude anyone from interacting with your website’s content. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are over 2.2 billion people throughout the world who have some sort of visual impairment - that is no small number. By creating accessible documents for your website, you are taking a step towards equality and are helping make the internet more user-friendly for everyone. In this article, we’ll discuss what accessible documents are, how to format them so they can interact with your website, and why you should consider learning more about the enablement of your website for blind and other visually impaired consumers.
Resources For Making Your Website More Accessible
The best resource to learn more about making websites fully accessible for people with disabilities is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). The WCAG extensively cover how to optimize a website’s usability for all sorts of disabilities and is an excellent comprehensive resource. However, since this resource is so vast it can be difficult to comb through all of their guidelines. To help get you started, we created a simple 5 step guide to making your website more accessible to introduce the different ways you can improve your website for all users. If you are interested in learning more about how to make your website fully accessible for people with all types of disabilities but don’t have the time to read through the WCAG’s complex guidelines, then you should look into organizations like accessiBe who help organize this information and make it easier to understand.
For our purposes in this article, we will focus solely on website optimization for visually impaired persons and explain how to use braille format BRF files and PDF accessibility tools to make your website user-friendly.
What are Accessible Documents for the Visually Impaired?
Firstly, what does accessible format mean? A document created in an accessible, or alternate, format is designed so that people who are unable to read print can access information, both online and in person. This includes people who:
Are blind
Are color blind
Are moderately visually impaired
Have a learning disability that prevents them from reading
Sadly, many websites are not created to be accessible for people with disabilities. According to a study conducted by accessiBe, 98% of US-based web pages are not accessible for people with disabilities. Failing to use accessible documents, like BRF files, prevents people with visual or reading disabilities from using the internet to complete basic tasks such as:
Applying for jobs online
Accessing important information
Using online educational materials
Purchasing goods and services online
You can be the exception and make your content accessible online by using structured electronic files specially designed for people who can’t read regular website print. These structured electronic files for blind and visually impaired people are called Braille Ready Files (.brf or BRF). BRF files save braille text in a compact form and replace braille symbols with ASCII characters. This allows conversion of the document into a format that a computer can read, so web content can be shown on a Braille notetaker or embosser.
There are also tools that allow you to convert a PDF file so that it is accessible to visually impaired persons as well. We’ll discuss how to create and format each of these files below.
Braille Translator Software for Creating BRF Files
To properly format a BRF file so that it compiles with braille formatting rules, you need to use external BRF applications. Liblouis is a very useful, and free, open-source braille transcription software that translates and back translates BRF files. Creating BRF files is a fairly complex process so a braille transcription program like Liblouis is essential for creating an error-free BRF source file. Liblouis provides extensive instructions on how to use their software to back-translate a regular web file into a BRF file. You can view these instructions on their website.
Making PDFs Accessible
In addition to creating BRF files to transcribe website content, you can also use Adobe Acrobat to make a PDF accessible for all users. Adobe Acrobat comes with the following accessibility features:
All Users Deserve Equal Access to Your Website
Accessibility makes a huge difference in people’s lives. At Moser Consulting, we believe that everyone deserves equal access to the digital information they need. We hope this article has inspired you to assess the availability of your website for all of your users. If you have questions about optimizing the accessibility of your website we are happy to help, feel free to reach out.
