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Re: PowerPoint accessibility-alt question

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From: Paul J. Adam
Date: Apr 24, 2014 5:19PM

Does Windows include a Microsoft PDF viewer app by default that reads tagged, accessible PDFs? I thought Adobe Reader/Acrobat was the only way to view tagged PDFs with a screen reader on Windows?

Apple should totally make PDF's accessible directly in Preview but it also seems like Adobe could make Reader for OS X read tagged PDFs like they did for Reader on Windows.

PDFs are not accessible on iOS or Android either. Is that Apple & Google's fault or Adobe's? Seems like Adobe could make Reader apps for iOS and Android that read tagged PDFs if they wanted to. I think we can definitely blame Microsoft for not making MS Office accessible on OS X right!?

At least we always have the universally accessible, HTML format that works on ANY platform ;)


Paul J. Adam
Accessibility Evangelist
www.deque.com

On Apr 24, 2014, at 5:42 PM, Duff Johnson < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> John,
>
>> I will not defend Apple on this one, but the issue regarding the
>> inaccessibility of PDF in the Mac OS is with Adobe.
>
> Let’s be clear.
>
> The issue of Adobe’s support for Tagged PDF on the Mac is Adobe’s problem.
>
> The issue of Apple’s support for Tagged PDF is Apple’s problem.
>
> PDF is just PDF. There’s nothing Adobe-specific about accessible PDF.
>
>> The Adobe Acrobat Reader
>> simply does not work with VoiceOver on the Mac OS.
>> Like many legacy third
>> party applications for the Mac OS, including Microsoft Office for the Mac,
>> Adobe has not been willing to spend the money to rewrite the application to
>> work with VoiceOver.
>> In fairness, it would be an expensive process,
>> particularly for a piece of software that is given away for free.
>
> That’s fair - but most Mac users use Preview to read PDF files.
>
> The other way to look at it is this:
>
> Apple - the richest software company on the planet - is unwilling (so far) to make Preview, their PDF viewer, work with accessible PDF.
>
> I contrasted Apple and NVDA in this regard in a blog-post earlier this year:
>
> http://duff-johnson.com/2013/03/01/inaccessible-by-choice-pdf-on-macos/
>
>> Currently, as others have mentioned, you can view/read PDF files using the
>> free Preview application built into Mac OSX. But this will only read the
>> text and you will lose all of the tagging including headings and layout
>> features.
>
> This is 100% Apple’s choice - it has nothing to do with Adobe. No-one forced Apple to support PDF in Preview!
>
>> As for making accessible PDF documents with the Mac OSX, the last time I
>> checked, the only way was with LibreOffice (and perhaps OpenOffice). You can
>> make an accessible word publisher document and save it as a PDF and it would
>> retain the proper tagging. Honestly, I haven't checked that for several
>> years, but I would assume it still works.
>
> It does. OpenOffice will create a tagged PDF on the Mac. I just checked / confirmed.
>
> Thank you for the reminder / correction.
>
> Duff.
>
> > >