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Re: Accessible PDFs from Google Doc/Presentation

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From: Chagnon | PubCom.com
Date: Jan 7, 2016 1:46PM

With respect, Duff, is it Acrobat that makes lousy files? Or is it the lousy construction of the source Word (or Office) document that's the problem?

We're getting very good accessible PDFs from Word and PPT when the source files are constructed correctly and exported correctly with Acrobat's PDF Maker plug-in. I admit, there are some of the more complex items in Word that fail the conversion, but they are being addressed.

Plus, none of those extra programs make complaint PRESS files for those of us who must communicate both in print and digitally.

—Bevi Chagnon

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Duff Johnson
Sent: Thursday, January 7, 2016 12:46 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Accessible PDFs from Google Doc/Presentation

> At this time, Adobe's products still reign supreme for PDFs, whether you need a press-quality one for sending to the print shop, or an accessible one for electronic distribution.

With respect… not so. There are other products that do as good and in some cases a much better job of creating tagged PDF from MS Word files (for example) than Acrobat in its current incarnation.

Moreover, some of these tools - typically the ones oriented specifically towards accessibility - include far, far better resources than Acrobat provides for ensuring accessibility of PDF documents.

It's not my role to identify these vendors here.. but they exist, they aren't hiding and their products are available for sale today.

Duff.