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Re: Technical PDF Accessibility Question

for

From: McDonald, Jennifer
Date: Jun 8, 2011 2:03PM

Hi Duff,

Yes, content is being added to an existing pdf, positioned using x-y
coordinates. The shell PDF files being used are government forms, so we
don't have an option to modify those to include form fields.



-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Duff Johnson
Sent: Wednesday, June 08, 2011 2:33 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Technical PDF Accessibility Question

Jennifer,

I don't understand the question... see below....

On Jun 8, 2011, at 3:18 PM, McDonald, Jennifer wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I have a question about some specific PDF files that are used on my
> website. These files are forms, that are pre-populated with user
> information dynamically (using iText). The PDF files are tagged, but
> when the information is populated online, that information is not
> tagged.

If the files are forms (ie, they include fillable form-fields), then the
information should be populated directly into the fields. No new tags
required (assuming the fields are themselves properly tagged).

> I'm not aware of a way to tag an "empty" space in the shell PDF file.

...and that should not be necessary... unless you are adding content to
the page itself instead of populating a form-field. In which case I
would say: "Don't do that - make the PDF a fillable form and populate
the fields instead".

Duff Johnson, CEO
Appligent Document Solutions

22 E. Baltimore Ave
Lansdowne, PA 19050
+1 610 284 4006
+1 617 553 1934 (direct)
<EMAIL REMOVED>
http://www.appligent.com
http://www.twitter.com/duffjohnson



> When JAWS 12 first opens the file Adobe opens the Accessibility
> Settings Window: Reading Untagged Document. This is the window that
> gives you the "Reading Order Options". If I leave this selection
> defaulted to the recommended setting (Infer reading order from
> document)
> - the only information read on the PDF file is the text that has been
> populated (essentially name, address, phone number, etc). If I change
> the selection to "Left-to-right, top-to-bottom reading order" or "Use
> reading order in raw print stream" all of the text is read correctly.
>
> If I was a person relying on the screen reader to read this PDF I
> would probably choose the recommended setting, and then determine that

> the PDF was inaccessible when it was not properly read. I would not
> think about changing that selection. It's my goal to have this PDF
> file work correctly with default settings, but I'm at a loss.
> Googling "pre-populate PDF Accessibility" has gotten me nowhere.
>
> Any ideas or information if anyone has dealt with this before would be

> appreciated.
>
> Jeni
>
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