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Re: Accessibility of Access Reports

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From: JP Jamous
Date: Jun 1, 2017 5:54AM

I totally agree. I was thinking of that myself last night.

I have not touch Access in over 10 years, but exporting the MDB file to an XLS file should still be an option. From there, use Excel to handle any accessibility concerns. Excel can be quite accessible if you know its shortcuts and use it with JAWS. It will also allow you to tag PDF files as far as I know.

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Chagnon | PubCom
Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2017 5:42 PM
To: 'WebAIM Discussion List' < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Accessibility of Access Reports

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
Technologists, Consultants, Trainers, Designers, and Developers for publishing & communication
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-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Ryan E. Benson
Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2017 5:51 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Accessibility of Access Reports

> Is there a way they can export the data into a PDF format to create
accessible reports?


The last time I poked around the answer was no. If there is an update, I'd love to know.

> Is there another file format they can use in the export process (Word,
Excel) that would be easier to create an accessible table/report?

My only suggestion is to take the PDF, save that as a Word doc - which you can do in Acrobat Pro. Make that accessible, and convert that back to a PDF`

--
Ryan E. Benson

On Wed, May 31, 2017 at 4:56 PM, Krack, Joseph@DSS < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
wrote:

> Good afternoon group! I have a question about Access or more
> specifically about reports developed from Access. One of our
> divisions in our Department has an Access database out of which they
> develop pdf reports that they have been posting. They are not tagged
> and when Auto-tagging the report in Acrobat Pro there are problems. I
> don't have access to the Access database and so am not familiar with how they develop the report.
>
> Is there a way they can export the data into a PDF format to create
> accessible reports? Is there another file format they can use in the
> export process (Word, Excel) that would be easier to create an
> accessible table/report?
>
> I have not been able to find a lot of information about this online,
> and was hoping someone here may have experience working with Access
> and would possibly be able to help.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Joe