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Re: Can Word and Adobe ACrobat on a Mac make accessible/tagged PDF files?

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From: Elizabeth J. Pyatt
Date: Mar 10, 2014 12:17PM

FWIW - I have successfully created a tagged PDF when I ran it through Open Office (which is free). Therefore the block isn't exclusively on the OS X side. This process does work, but any image ALT text you did in Word 2014 is lost in Open Office. Fortunately Heading styles are preserved so could work for a basic document.
http://accessibility.psu.edu/microsoftofficepdfmac

Another option is to use a dual boot Mac which opens both OS X and Windows and use the Word for Windows version to create the tagged PDF. I have heard that if you have a Retina Mac with about 16 MB RAM, dual booting works well. BUT I recommend Office 2013 since Office 2010 has some bugs with exports of tagged PDF. You also have to install twice.

At this point, I would say the easiest option of posting a .DOC file alongside a PDF file. Some people are concerned about lack of copy protection in a Word file, so you could deploy it on a a request only basis. I will say though that Acrobat readily exports most PDFs as more accessible Word files, so the lack of editing capability is no longer an absolute.

Hope this helps.

Elizabeth

P.S. There is Adobe Acrobat XI but this works best after you get a tagged file. If you have to hand tag a long Word file, it will get tiresome very quickly.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Elizabeth J. Pyatt, Ph.D.
Instructional Designer
Teaching and Learning with Technology
Penn State University
<EMAIL REMOVED> , (814) 865-0805 or (814) 865-2030 (Main Office)

210 Rider Building (formerly Rider II)
227 W. Beaver Avenue
State College, PA 16801-4819
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