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Re: PDF and Run Together Text

for

From: Monir ElRayes
Date: Jan 28, 2011 2:15PM

Bev,

I understand where you are coming from - and I don't want this post to sound
like an ad for the CommonLook or PAW tools- but the there are indeed many
instances where even a tagged MS Word - generated PDF can be extremely
difficult and tedious to make accessible without the proper tools. All it
takes, for example, is a complex table or one that has linked headers or a
form. The text running together problem is another example of an issue that
would take a user - even one with considerable experience - many hours to
remediate. While using an automated tool takes seconds. I would be glad to
demo some real life examples, if you are interested, to show how the use of
tools can save countless hours and improve the quality of the final product.

I think accessibility is best served by recognizing that training is very
important as is the use of proper tools.

Best Regards,

Monir ElRayes
NetCentric Technologies
www.net-centric.com
 
-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Bevi Chagnon |
PubCom
Sent: Friday, January 28, 2011 12:29 PM
To: 'WebAIM Discussion List'
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] PDF and Run Together Text

CommonLook is a third-party tool that can be used to add accessibility to an
existing PDF.

It gets mixed reviews from users.

The best way to make an accessible PDF is to create a correctly structured
and tagged source document (such a Word or Adobe InDesign file), then export
it to PDF and add the finishing 508 touches to it.

But many people are given PDFs that they then must make accessible, and
CommonLook has some tools that make this process easier to do, such as
controlling accessibility in tables in a PDF.

I usually recommend that my clients purchase good accessibility training
rather than CommonLook. But being an accessibility trainer, I'm a bit biased
on that topic!

-Bevi Chagnon
: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :
: : : : : : : : : : : : :
Bevi Chagnon | PubCom | <EMAIL REMOVED> | 301-585-8805
Government publishing specialists, trainers, consultants | print, press,
web, Acrobat PDF & 508
Online blog: www.pubcom.com/newsletter

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Andrews, David B
B (DEED)
Sent: Friday, January 28, 2011 10:01 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] PDF and Run Together Text

At the risk of seeming stupid -- what is the Commonlook tool? Is this
something in Acrobat Pro, or something else?

Dave



-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Monir ElRayes
Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2011 3:54 PM
To: 'WebAIM Discussion List'
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] PDF and Run Together Text

The CommonLook tool automatically detects (and corrects) "text running
together" problems.

Monir ElRayes
President
NetCentric Technologies

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Duff Johnson
Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2011 3:33 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] PDF and Run Together Text

On Jan 27, 2011, at 9:54 AM, Andrews, David B B (DEED) wrote:

> I have a PDF that visually looks correct, I am told. The Master was
> done
in Quark Express, and a PDF exported. Accessibility elements, (alt-text)
etc. was done in Acrobat, reading order, tables etc. Everything is fine
except that in speech and Braille some of the words in regular text portions
are run together without spaces. I have seen this before, many times and
don't know the cause, or solution.

This is difficult to evaluate without seeing the file itself. Feel free to
send it to me directly for review.

Absent that, my first thought is: "Quark? Oh no!" Tagged PDF from a Quark
source can be very tough - opening in InDesign and converting to PDF from
there generally produces better results (from an accessibility point of
view).

The problem: there are about 35 ways in which authoring applications can
create text on a PDF page, and not all of them are conducive to
accessibility.

Duff Johnson
Appligent Document Solutions
http://www.appligent.com
Blog: http://www.appligent.com/talkingpdf
Tweets: http://www.twitter.com/duffjohnson