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Re: Captions and Alt-text

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From: Jonathan Metz
Date: Mar 5, 2013 8:13AM

Hi,

I replicated your problem and I think I found a workaround that seems to be a usable solution. I'll list everything I did to get to that workaround, but note that I only worked on a single page document.

I created the alt tags in Bridge first, manually changing the text in the Description area.

I added a text box, an H1 and an H2 with some basic paragraph style for P. I mapped all those out in the Export Tagging section.

In InDesign, I selected the Object Export Options, under Alt Text I chose from Alt Text Source "From XMP:Description". Tagged PDF tab options were "Based on Object, From Structure"

I added a image of an illustration. The Object Export Options shows the Alt text. I add a separate text box for the Caption.

Here's where I tried your methods and had the same results as you did. What I eventually ended up with was to anchor the image in the text (In my case, I put it in the H2 so I could find it easier). Then I took the separate Caption text box and anchored it in the same spot. I exported the PDF.

The result is that it now shows the following:

<Document>
<Article>Article 1
<Story>
<H1>
<H2>
H2 text
<Figure>
Image (74):w264 h:266
<Story>
The Impulsive Paradigm <-------------This was what I chose for the caption text.
<NormalParagraphStyle>
<NormalParagraphStyle>
<NormalParagraphStyle>
EtcÂ…

This fixed the issue of the document with two separate Articles, one with all the document tags and one with all the figure tags.

And the alt text is preserved.

Does this Help?

Jonathan Metz
Web Specialist
Altarum Institute


From: Chagnon | PubCom < <EMAIL REMOVED> <mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> >>
Reply-To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> <mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> >>
Date: Monday, March 4, 2013 2:03 PM
To: 'WebAIM Discussion List' < <EMAIL REMOVED> <mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> >>
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Captions and Alt-text

I've had a few responses to this problem directly from some list members, so
let me describe the problem with more detail for everyone.

Short demonstration:
The document has 2 paragraphs of body text, with a sidebar (boxed text in a
separate frame) anchored in between the 2 body text paragraphs.

Note that I'm using "sidebar" as the example here, but this applies to
anything in InDesign that requires a separate text frame, such as a small
photo caption, a long caption on a complex statistical graphic, pull quotes,
accessory text, or anything else that's not part of the full body text
story.

The final good code should look like this (I'm leaving out closing tags for
simplicity):
<root>
<sect>
<p>This is the first paragraph of body text.
<sect>
<h2>This is the heading of the sidebar.
<p>This is the sidebar text.

<p>This is the second paragraph of body text.

Instead, here's what is generated from InDesign:
<root>
<sect>
<p>This is the first paragraph of body text.
<sect>PathThis is the heading of the sidebar.This is
the sidebar text.

<p>This is the second paragraph of body text.

Essentially, everything inside the anchored sidebar is jumbled together
inside a <sect>/<section> tag and the individual tags for <h2> and <p> are
lost, as well as the concept of individual paragraphs of text that a user
would need to navigate the content.

In a PDF, the portion you see above in the demo - <sect>PathThis is the
heading of the sidebar.This is the sidebar text. - usually can't be accessed
by AT, so many AT users won't even know it exists.

Plus, <sect> tags are parent-level tags for organizing the content, not
intended to hold the actual live content. So this is a misuse of <sect>
tags.

For those using InDesign, this affects versions CS 5.5 and CS 6 (earlier
versions of InDesign do not have the tools needed to create accessible
documents).

We were told that Adobe's InDesign engineers would be addressing this
problem, but that was 1.5 to 2 years ago and still nothing.

This is not a small issue for graphic designers, and is preventing many
publications from being fully Section 508 compliant and accessible.

-Bevi Chagnon
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