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Re: How to make accessible flowcharts?

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From: Philip Kiff
Date: Feb 5, 2019 1:08PM

I'd be curious to find good solutions for flow charts in PDFs, too.

With some straightforward flowcharts it is possible to use nested lists,
with the list more or less representing the order of the steps
represented by the flow chart. And you can then use alternative text on
shapes and connectors to link things together appropriately in a way
that is at least somewhat readable by assistive technologies.

But there are other flowcharts for which there are simply too many
possible points where the flow must go back on itself or are supposed to
follow multiple different potential paths that lead to different levels
in the hierarchy. In  those cases, I've sometimes inserted long
descriptions in alternative text. But I think that is probably
inadequate for achieving real accessibility. In such cases, you should
be able to substitute a detailed text description of the workflow
directly in the visible text alongside the chart. But when remediating
someone else's document, I've not always been in a position to demand
the insertion of such text, especially when such a description does not
already exist in writing somewhere.

Phil.

On 2019-02-05 2:19 PM, Itzel McClaren (US - IFS) wrote:
> Hello, we have a flowchart in PDF and we are having a hard time figuring
> out what's the most efficient and effective way to make the flowchart
> accessible. Any suggestions?
>