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Re: questions about accessible pdfs

for

From: Joe Clark
Date: Feb 25, 2004 5:43AM

This discussion is already a major step up from the typical
shibboleth that "PDFs are not accessible!" which I am a bit tired of.

>Hi, we're working with a designer to develop a print user's guide
>for our PBS telecast on accessibility in online learning in April.

There's gonna be a whole show on that?

>We had asked her to design an accessible pdf but it appears that one
>can only do so on a PC rather than a MAC, which she uses (with
>Quark). Is this correct?

No. Acrobat 6 on either platform can adapt a PDF to tagged format.
InDesign and a few other programs can export them natively. Your
designer will have much less trouble if she uses InDesign, but in
principle you can adapt any PDF.

>We have decided, in the interests of expediency, to have her create
>a plain text alternative to the pdf guide.

Don't. If the Quark document has reasonably well-flowed text frames,
it should be a matter of a few minutes to add tags to the document,
run a full accessibility check, and correct the resulting errors
(chiefly language of text and alt texts for images).

--

Joe Clark | <EMAIL REMOVED> | <http://joeclark.org/access/>;
Author, _Building Accessible Websites_ | <http://joeclark.org/book/>;
Expect criticism if you top-post


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