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Re: PDF files and marking up data tables for screen reader users

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From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Nov 3, 2011 7:54AM

Andrew

Would you have a sample, properly makrd up table, PDF document for me
to test out?
Can you point to a specific website/chapter on marking up tables
accessibly with Acrobat Pro?
If not, I'll just point to your website ado.com/accessibility, or do
some digging around.
Thank you
-Birkir

On 11/3/11, Andrew Kirkpatrick < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> Birkir,
> You can make tables in PDF documents include all of the expected table
> objects, it doesn't matter whether the document comes from Word, PowerPoint,
> other applications, or a scanner even. However, there is a difference in
> the ease of authoring. Powerpoint will give you table tags in the resulting
> PDF if the standard table object is used, but not headings, which you would
> need to apply after the pdf is produced. Word can give you the TH tags, but
> if you create a more complex table from word you may need to add the
> headers/id or scope information in that PDF.
>
> Thanks,
> AWK
>
> Andrew Kirkpatrick
> Group Product Manager, Accessibility
> Adobe Systems
>
> <EMAIL REMOVED>
> http://twitter.com/awkawk
> http://blogs.adobe.com/accessibility
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Birkir R.
> Gunnarsson
> Sent: Wednesday, November 02, 2011 7:26 PM
> To: WebAIM Discussion List
> Subject: [WebAIM] PDF files and marking up data tables for screen reader
> users
>
> Evening all (or morning, if you are strange enough not to check your email
> last thing at night).
>
> I have seen a few PDF discussions on here, and I know Andrew and others are
> monitorring it, so I hope a PDF related question is ok.
>
> I have been asked to provide feedback on an opinion pole, produced by Gallup
> on behalf of an organization I work for.
> The report is in PDF format (originally created from Powerpoint, which is a
> very bad idea for accessibility).
> After some back and forth with them , and with some good advice, I've
> managed to get the report text tagged correctly, and it reads fine (the
> people I have communicated with at Gallup were not aware of accessibility,
> but they've been very responsive to my suggestions).
> As soon as the report gets to the point where the results of the individual
> questions are analyzed, the report is, more or less, just a series of data
> tables. Currently they are not marked up, and it would take hours of
> painstaking screen reading word by word, to get anything meaningful out of
> the mess.
> What is the current situation regarding tagging data tables in PDF files.
> Can they be read at a similar quality and accuracy levels and corresponding
> html tables (captions, scope, headings, row titles etc)?
> Even with accessible and tagged text, this report is nearly useless without
> that work being done, and I worry it would be extensive and probably enough
> so that it would behard to convince the company to do it (though I have not
> discussed it with them).
> Would it be more sensible to suggest they provide said tables in Word/Excel
> or HTML formats, or is there a fairly straight-forward way to tag tables, I
> am not positive, but I am pretty sure the tagging takes place inside Adobe
> Acrobat X.
> Thanks for any information on this.
> -Birkir
>