In this lesson you
- Saw what Proof's automatic pass fixes on its own
- Saw which questions only a person can answer
- Saw why certifying waits for a person
Transcript
Two kinds of work
What the machine fixes, and what needs a person. If software can fix a PDF, why does anyone need to look at it? Because accessibility work comes in two kinds. Some fixes follow from the file itself, like its title or its language. There is one right answer, so a machine can make them. Others are judgments, like what a photo shows. Only a person can make those. Proof splits each document's work the same way, into the five steps along the top of this page. The first step, Auto, is the machine's share. The next three hold a person's questions. Objects is for pictures and tables, Reading is for the order a page is read in, and Visibility is for what every reader can see. The last step, Certify, is where the document is approved. A number on a step counts what is still open there. Red means a confirmed problem to fix. Amber means a person still has to review it.
What the machine fixed
Let's start with the machine's share, because that's work nobody on your team has to do. On this park notice, Proof's automatic pass made a new version of the file, and its receipt lists what it fixed. It set the title, which a screen reader announces when the file opens. It set the language, so the screen reader uses the right voice. And it set the tab order, so the keyboard moves through the page in sequence. Under Could not fix, the receipt names what is left, and the step where it waits. Here, that's the photo. It has no description yet, and only a person can say what it shows.
What needs a person
So why can't a machine finish the job? Because some questions have no answer inside the file. What a photo shows depends on meaning. So does whether a page reads in a sensible order. Proof keeps these questions few. It asks one question per picture, even when several checks look at the same picture. And it asks for one walk through each page, to confirm the order it reads in. On this notice, that's one photo, and one page with two reading checks. Where it can, Proof drafts the answer, so the person starts from a suggestion, not a blank box. Here, it has drafted a description of the photo. Every picture gets the same three possible answers. Describe it, when the picture carries meaning. It's text, when the picture is really words. Skip it, when it's only decoration. To keep a draft, the person chooses Use suggestion, or rewrites it first. By default, Proof doesn't write a draft into the file on its own. Your organization's automation policy decides that, and it has its own lesson.
Nothing left unchecked
An evaluator will ask a fair question. Can a check slip through without anyone deciding it? No. Every check that applies to this document ends in a verdict. Either a machine measured it, or a person answered it. A person's answer is recorded with their name and the date. And a check the machine couldn't run never passes quietly. It waits for a person, like any other question. To see every check at once, not only the open ones, choose WCAG Report. Each row says how many of its checks are still to fix or to review, how many passed, and how many don't apply to this file. Working from that report has its own lesson, Fixing one rule from the WCAG report.
A person signs off
Last, the certificate. Why can't Proof issue it as soon as the machine is done? Because Certify stays locked until every question is answered. Here, the card lists what's still open, the photo and the two reading checks. Once they're answered, a person approves the document. Approving uses one document from your balance, and issues the certificate. The certificate says which checks the machine verified, and which a person confirmed. Now you know what Proof does on its own, which questions it hands to a person, and why a person always signs off.
Recap
That's the end of this lesson.
Maple Ridge Community Health, its documents and its people are fictional, made for these lessons.