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

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From: Sébastien Delorme
Date: Nov 7, 2011 5:15AM

Birkir,

Sorry I'm so late in answering you :s
Andrew and Steve gave good examples.

Let me add AcceDe Manuals to it.

Here you can find two examples of tagged data tables :
http://www.pdf-accessible.com/IMG/pdf/tagged-exercise-book.pdf
(pages 6 and 7)

In AcceDe PDF Manual (http://www.pdf-accessible.com/en/accede-manuals/),
from page 57 you can find too more explanation about :
- tagging rows, cells and headers,
- linking the headers with their corresponding cells for “basic” data
tables and foor “complex” data tables (cells linked to their header by
an ID).

Regards,

Sébastien Delorme
<EMAIL REMOVED>

Tél. 01 45 26 77 89 / Port. 06 10 70 16 01
Fax. 09 57 59 77 97

----------------------------------------------------------------

Atalan
Accessibilité numérique et sensibilisation au handicap
Plus d'informations sur www.atalan.fr

Atalan est coordinateur du projet AcceDe www.accede.info

Le 03/11/2011 15:51, Andrew Kirkpatrick a écrit :
> Birkir,
> Steve beat me to it, but just to point out that the PDF6 technique includes a working example. http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/2011/WD-WCAG20-TECHS-20110929/working-examples/PDF6/table-example-repaired.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 Steve Faulkner
> Sent: Thursday, November 03, 2011 7:48 AM
> To: WebAIM Discussion List
> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] PDF files and marking up data tables for screen reader users
>
> hi Birkir,
>
> This WCAG 2.0 PDF techniques document may be of use: Using table elements for table markup in PDF Documents
> http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/WCAG20-TECHS/pdf.html#PDF6
>
>
> regards
> SteveF
>
> On 3 November 2011 06:54, Birkir R. Gunnarsson
> < <EMAIL REMOVED> >wrote:
>
>> 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
>>>