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

for

From: David Engebretson Jr.
Date: Jun 19, 2019 1:36PM

Yah, it takes a knowledge of parametric equations to find the needle sometimes.

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of <EMAIL REMOVED>
Sent: Wednesday, June 19, 2019 10:57 AM
To: 'WebAIM Discussion List' < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Word To PDF Accessibility: What Does and Does Not Transmit From Word To PDF

Duff, here's great example of the problems we're seeing on the Adobe open forums.
https://forums.adobe.com/message/11130092

Having been through similar problems in our shop, I'm leaning toward it being software problems with any combination of these programs:

—The source (authoring) program, such as MS Word or Adobe InDesign.

—The conversion utility that created the PDF, such as PDF Maker (Acrobat Ribbon) or MS export utility.

—Acrobat DC Pro, which she's using to check and correct the PDF.

—The screen reader software programs.

It's like looking for a needle buried in a haystack.

—Bevi
— — —
Bevi Chagnon, founder/CEO | <EMAIL REMOVED> — — —
PubCom: Technologists for Accessible Design + Publishing consulting ' training ' development ' design ' sec. 508 services Upcoming classes at www.PubCom.com/classes — — — Latest blog-newsletter – Accessibility Tips at www.PubCom.com/blog

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of Duff Johnson
Sent: Wednesday, June 19, 2019 10:15 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Word To PDF Accessibility: What Does and Does Not Transmit From Word To PDF

I'm not against naming & shaming vendors that do the wrong thing… so long as the problem can be clearly and convincingly demonstrated.

Indeed, this industry (and its users) suffers because the very same users (remediators, customers, AT users) are mostly (with the very honorable exception of Karen and some others) willing to put up with whatever dogfood the software vendors are serving. This is no less true for AT vendors than it is for the big companies.

> I've started documenting some of the "crappy" tagging we're seeing from all applications:
> https://www.karlencommunications.com/DocumentRemediation.htm
> <https://www.karlencommunications.com/DocumentRemediation.htm>

Once I am done with stuff on my immediate plate I will be happy to look at this.

> I'll send you as many examples as you need. Am currently working on how Footnotes/Endnotes are being lumped together and read as a single unit when you land on the first one in a document.

So it's tagged that way? That is bizarre, and no standard suggests that such would be correct.

> Am seeing if this tagging behaviour is unique to the Microsoft and Acrobat Pro DC tagging tools or if Foxit Phantom for Business and Nuance PowerPDF also produce this type of accessibility barrier.

As always, I will have two questions...

1) Is the content tagged correctly (i.e., per the document's semantics / PDF/UA), and
2) Is the interpreting software getting it wrong (i.e., even if it's correctly tagged)

As you know, I insist on distinguishing between these two questions, as (in my view) it's the only way to determine who needs to do what.

> For the scanned documents, I can send you all the sample files off list as there are about 15 of them and they won't fit in an e-mail, even attached to the PDF document about scanned documents.

Links are fine….

> Phillip and I have chronicled the problems in response to the original post with this subject line. He did list some of the things I missed so merging the lists will give you a good idea on the problems we are encountering.

OK

Duff.