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Re: creation of Accessible PDF documents

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From: ckrugman
Date: Oct 30, 2011 3:54PM

I realize that this is a late post but there are serious issues with the
accessibility of some of the free software as I've previously stated Open
Office is not accessible for screen reader users. There are also problems
with some of the quality of documents produced by what I refer to as the
copycat PDF creator programs when an attempt is made to read the created
document with screen reading software.
Chuck
----- Original Message -----
From: "Eric Scheibler" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
To: "WebAIM Discussion List" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Sent: Friday, September 23, 2011 3:11 AM
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] creation of Accessible PDF documents


> Hello,
>
> ok misunderstanding. The reason why I wrote "especially not Adobe
> Acrobat" is that I want to prevent an answer like "just use Acrobat to
> correct this after export". My intension is, like Deborah also wrote, to
> give the students a way to produce a simple, accessible pdf document
> with free open source tools. Yes, the university has bought a few
> licenses of Adobe Acrobat but then 40 students must use two or three
> PC's and can't do it at home. And after the one exercise they will never
> do it again cause of missing software.
> I also searched for a method to do it with free software cause I pland
> to write a short tutorial. This should not be directed to professionals
> but to individuals who are interested in accessibility. This people
> don't buy expensive software to insure that pdf's are accessible too. To
> use Open Office or something similar would be a nice way for them.
>
> Just think about what would happen if we had the same situation for
> producing accessible html pages. Only one expansive software could
> create an accessible version of the page... how many web pages would be
> accessible today?
>
> I understand the first error but what about the second, the incomplete
> paragraphs and headings? Also an Open Office export error?
>
> If the errors can't be corrected by me, I have two choices: change it to
> use Acrobat with the disadvantages I listed above or stay with Open
> Office and the errors. What about the second option: how problematic are
> these errors for the user? I tested my pdf with Jaws and NVDA and can't
> find a problem while navigating. How would you rate that? Better such a
> non perfect pdf than nothing or if accessible then perfectly without
> errors?
> Or maybe I should include Acrobat in the exercise but also mention that
> they at least should use Open Office if they can't use Acrobat in the
> future.
>
> Best regards
> Eric Scheibler
>