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Re: convert PDF to HTML in bulk

for

From: Giovanni Duarte
Date: Apr 18, 2012 6:06AM

Gijs,

I agree with Joe's statements below. I have used ABBYY successfully for many
types of conversions but I have never tried PDF to HTML. You may want to
give it a try but keep in mind that you will still need to check for
accessibility.
http://pdftransformer.abbyy.com/convert_pdf/

Another possible solution is from Naunce, the makers of Dragon Naturally
Speaking. They have a software called Omnipage and it also converts to HTML:
http://www.nuance.com/for-business/by-product/omnipage/mac/index.htm


Thanks,
Giovanni

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Joe Chidzik
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2012 5:33 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] convert PDF to HTML in bulk

I'm not aware of a service for bulk conversion of PDF to HTML, but I would
just make a few comments:

These PDFs may not be currently inaccessible; a PDF with a non-complex
layout, consisting of purely, or mainly, text, may be completely accessible,
regardless of whether it is tagged or not. Of course, there is accessibility
from the perspective of assistive technology, which can struggle with
complex, untagged PDFs, but there is also accessibility for users who may
not have access to a PDF reader, perhaps on their smartphone. In the former
case, a tagged PDF can help, in the latter, however, a HTML alternative may
be more beneficial.

When we've worked with clients who have similar numbers of PDFs archived on
their website, we have advised that they do not need to make all the PDFs
accessible at the same time. One strategy has been to convert the top 100
PDFs, for instance, and then display some clear text on the website so that
users wishing to access accessible versions of older PDFs can contact the
company and request them. The company could then source an accessible
version, forward it to the user, and also make it available on their
website.

This was a relevant approach because many of the thousands of PDFs in
question were several years old. It was not expected that many users would
be wanting to access them, and so it did not make sense, either financially,
or practically, to convert them all to accessible alternatives, HTML or
otherwise. For future PDF creation, however, a system was put in place to
ensure that they were created with accessibility in mind, helping to prevent
this problem re-occuring.

These points may not apply in the case you mention, but thought I'd mention
them for another viewpoint.

Regards
Joe

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Gijs Veyfeyken
Sent: 18 April 2012 08:24
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: [WebAIM] convert PDF to HTML in bulk

Dear List,

A client wishes to convert about 12000 publications in PDF to HTML to
improve accessibility.
Any suggestions of services, applications, software that qualifies?

Kind regards,

Gijs

---
Gijs Veyfeyken
AnySurfer - Belgian quality label for accessible websites A project of
Blindenzorg Licht en Liefde vzw Kunstlaan 24 box 21
1000 Brussels
Belgium



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