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Re: PowerPoint accessibility -alt question

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From: Duff Johnson
Date: Apr 24, 2014 1:11PM


> The last time I experimented with this (and reported my results to the
> List[1]), I discovered that the PDFs I made with "Save as PDF" on my Mac
> conform to PDF version 1.2, which is compatible with Acrobat *3*.

As of 10.9.2 Mac OS claims to create files at PDF specification 1.4, published in 2001.

PDF 1.4 includes tagged (and thus accessible) PDF as one of many improvements over PDF 1.3, but Apple isn’t yet supporting this feature when creating PDF files.

> That might explain why it is so
> difficult to find a solution that "just works" on the Mac.

There are two issues: creation and consumption. They are quite distinct.

Regardless of the files Apple’s software creates they could still choose to support accessibility when encountering Tagged PDF files.

At this time, however, Apple has chosen not to support accessibility features in PDF for either authors or readers. :(

Duff.