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Re: Accessibility of Access Reports

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From: Chagnon | PubCom
Date: May 31, 2017 4:42PM

Since a database is essentially a table of sorts, why not export it as an Excel spreadsheet? Then you'd have at least some basic core accessibility built into the spreadsheet's matrix of columns and rows.

If you export it as a PDF, you're asking the PDF to convert the data into an accessible table, which is not really feasible at this time. You could run the PDF through a tagging utility, such as Acrobat's built in tag utility or one of the third party programs that do this. But none of them accurately recognize and tag the table inside the PDF.

It's been a while since I was in Access and can't recall if it has an Acrobat Ribbon bar at the top which could help make a better PDF. File/Print to Adobe PDF is not the route to take because it makes a digital print version without any tagging or structure whatsoever. File/Save as PDF is a Microsoft utility that doesn't make an adequately accessible PDF either.

If you do discover that Access has the Adobe Acrobat Plug-in (indicated by it having an Acrobat ribbon bar), the play around with the Acrobat Preferences in the ribbon, check to tag it for accessible PDF, and see if that improves the final file.

--Bevi

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Bevi Chagnon | www.PubCom.com
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