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Re: [External Sender] Citation superscript

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From: Philip Kiff
Date: Nov 23, 2019 7:34AM

Regarding superscripts:
Some programs (MS Word for example) automatically shrink the font-size
of superscripted text slightly. When possible, I increase the font size
back again to make the superscript numbers more readable. In MS Word or
InDesign you can create a style that you can apply to do this. I have
noticed that some organizations place superscripted citation numbers
inside brackets, and some do the same thing without using superscript at
all. I don't recall having seen any guidance or recommendations
regarding these practices written down anywhere.

Regarding footnotes and how to format them in a PDF:

Using in-page links as several other have described is one method, and
that formatting is creating by default for properly formatted footnotes
in current versions of MS Word when you use Acrobat DC Pro to generate a
PDF. However, there seem to be issues with some screen readers sometimes
in accessing such in-page links. Maybe this is related to Jonathan's
suggestion that this might be connected to how the PDF specification
defines links (I didn't know that!).

Another common practice when "remediating" PDFs with footnotes is to
move the tags containing the footnote content up in the tag order so
that the footnote content follows directly after the footnote number
appears in the text, or directly after the paragraph within which the
footnote number appears. For screen readers, then, it won't matter if
the in-page links work, since the content appears immediately afterwards
to the screen reader regardless. By leaving the in-page links, you also
serve low vision users who may employ high magnification levels, since
it still allows them to click on in-page links that will move the
visible cursor location. There are a couple places where you can find
accessibility specialists recommending that footnote content be moved in
the tag order to appear beside their respective citations/references,
but I don't think that this is required by the PDF/UA standard. It is
more of a best practice, than a standard, I think.

Finally:
Someone named Ted Page wrote up a blog post suggesting that perhaps a
JavaScript solution is the best way of formatting footnotes in a PDF.
Although I personally have neither implemented nor tested this method, I
nevertheless suspect that some variation of it could well be the model
that most closely approaches the ideal method currently available for
screen reader users using current technologies. I have not seen any
guidance or recommendations to this effect anywhere, this is just my
random opinion. Here is a link to Ted Page's post:
https://accessible-digital-documents.com/blog/accessible-pdf-footnotes-endnotes/

Phil.

On 2019-11-22 19:25, Jonathan Avila wrote:
> If I recall correctly -- in PDF 1.7 you can't have a link move focus move to a tag -- only a page ore view. Oddly enough you can move to specific tags with bookmarks. I believe newer versions of the PDF format address this -- but the support by tools may not be there yet.
>
> Jonathan
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of glen walker
> Sent: Friday, November 22, 2019 6:50 PM
> To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] [External Sender] Citation superscript
>
> CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
>
>
> This is a nice article on accessible footnotes. It goes through creating a basic footnote and then adding features, such as a link back to the main text.
>
> https://www.sitepoint.com/accessible-footnotes-css/
>
> But this is an html solution. You need a PDF solution? A similar concept should still be possible. I know when creating a Word doc, I can have in-document links so can jump to a footnote then jump back. I think that's preserved when saving as PDF.
>
> On Fri, Nov 22, 2019 at 7:56 AM Brian Lovely via WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
>> I assume we are talking about footnotes. The best way to handle these
>> is to provide some visually hidden text that explains what the link
>> is, like <a><span class="vh">footnote </span>2</a>. When the link is
>> activated, focus should be placed on the relevant footnote. It would
>> also be good (particularly for a long document with lots of footnotes)
>> to have some mechanism for returning focus to the link.
>>
>> On Thu, Nov 21, 2019 at 4:41 PM Leah Roderman <
>> <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>>
>>> My organization produces long documents that are intended to be
>>> printed and are distributed in PDF. We have one that has over 150
>>> note numbers in superscript for citations that are listed at the end
>>> of the document. I went looking for a best practices guide about
>>> formatting those and have run into conflicting information about
>>> how screen readers parse superscript.
>>> I'm hoping someone on this list has expertise: if you have a
>>> resource for this specific usage, please let me know.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>>
>>> - Leah