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Re: Word To PDF Accessibility: What Does and Does Not Transmit From Word To PDF

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From: chagnon
Date: Jun 18, 2019 12:10PM

The list is so-o-o long!

We're seeing a regression in accessible PDFs from any source program using
any of the available tools, not just Adobe's PDF Maker plug-in, Microsoft's
built-in converter, Fox It, Nuance Power PDF, or Axes4 PDF's utility.

The biggest problems are with Tables of Content, footnotes, and regular
tables.

Part of this comes from the development of the forthcoming PDF UA-2
standards, which are not yet completed nor published by the ISO. But
companies are beginning to build UA-2 "stuff" into their programs now, in
today's versions. Essentially, they are jumping ahead of the standard and
consequently, no A T knows how to process this stuff and present it to the
human being using the A T.

The main questions this community needs to ask and get answers for:

1. Why are we going backwards? Why are PDFs exported from Word today, with
the latest software releases, less accessible than they were 2 years ago?

2. Why do different companies interpret the standards differently? Aren't
standards supposed to, well, standardize things?

3. Any why are companies programming for UA-2 before it's ready and
released? Or even the law? Sec. 508 requires only PDF UA-1, not UA-2.

Any answers?

-Bevi

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Bevi Chagnon, founder/CEO | <EMAIL REMOVED>
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