As with all complex images, you need to provide blind people with the same information in text form that the image conveys to sighted people. You are absolutely right in your point that a PDF image will be of no use to screen reader users.
And to answer your specific question, making just the text labels on the floor plan accessible (i.e. showing them as plain text), would not help because the labels themselves do not convey any information outside the context of their position on the plan.
The WCAG (on which the government accessibility regulations are based) puts it this way: "All non-text content that is presented to the user has a text alternative that serves the equivalent purpose". In other words, it must provide the same information as text. This is clearly also our moral duty to blind users of our websites.
The UK's Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations (PSBAR), on the page of exceptions does, as mentioned earlier in this thread, except maps as such. But it then goes on to say "maps - but you’ll need to provide essential information in an accessible format". So it is not exempting anyone from providing the essential information to blind people that the map conveys. "In an accessible format" basically means in text form for screen readers and other assistive devices.
The exception then goes on to mention an example, of an "address", because this exception is specifically for "maps", which usually appear on websites to direct users to a street address. This example isn't intended to mean that, whatever the kind of map you have, an address is the appropriate substitute.
I would also say it is rather stretching things to even call a floor plan a map. They are two different things!
Decide what information is conveyed
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So let's get back to how we can help blind people in your case of floor plans. As with any complex image, first consider what information the image conveys to it's intended users.
Presumably your plans of the University's buildings are to help students and staff get to any room they may want. Floor plans convey two things to sighted people:
⦁ where the rooms are in the building
⦁ and the corridors, doors, and staircases and/or lifts they need to follow to get to each room
So in some way you need to encapsulate this in text form. The accessibility best practice way to explain any complex image is to provide either a button beside the image that will reveal the text alternative, perhaps as a drop down panel of content, or a link to the same alternative text on another page. As an accessibility consultant myself, auditing websites for different organisations all the time (including, recently, many public sector organisations for compliance with the PSBAR), this is what I would require. Without it I would fail the website or document.
How to do it
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So I would suggest, for your building floor plans, that you first start with a short text instruction of how to get, from the entrance, to the lifts and/or staircases. (If there are several entrances, then that is needed for each entrance.)
Next provide a list showing which floor each room is on. This may be a list for each floor, or a list for the whole building. (We frequently see that kind of thing in shopping malls and large department stores, where they will provide a map then a list of the departments or shops on each floor.) Or if your rooms have well known names, a single alphabetical list may suffice. (If the first digit of each room number shows what floor it is on, just state that at the start.)
Then, for each floor, you need to also provide text directions on how to get to each room. Something like: "Second floor: in leaving the lift, turn left along the corridor for rooms 1 to 10 (first room from the lift is 10). Turn right for rooms 11 to 20 (first room from the lift is 11). Even numbered rooms are on the right, odds on the left."
Follow the above, and you have cracked it. Blind screen reader users will now be able to find their own way from those directions without having to ask other people (there may not be anyone around), or ring phone numbers (that are out for lunch), or anything else.
BTW, blind people may not be the only people to use this alternative text version. Some people just find the plans difficult. People with poor vision may prefer to use the text version; some may want to zoom it up to quite high zoom levels, or reverse the text and background colours which wouldn't be possible with the image.
One last thing, the floor plan image itself should be given an alt text saying what it is, and mentioning the button or link beside it. E.g. "Plan of second floor, click button above for text description".
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