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Re: PDF Tagging - layout tables.

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From: chagnon@pubcom.com
Date: Jul 13, 2022 3:59PM

Duff wrote: "The fact that PDF/UA has not yet caught up to PDF 2.0 shouldn't stop anyone from supporting ARIA in a PDF 2.0 context."

Ha Ha! Love your humor, Duff!

1: No document software at this time gives the content creator the ability to add ARIA to the content. That capability isn't in Word, PowerPoint, Adobe InDesign, or any of the online word processing programs A F A I K.

2: No conversion utility that exports a PDF from a document file (such as Adobe PDF Maker, FoxIt, etc.) builds ARIA into the PDF.

3: Acrobat does not have any tool or method for adding ARIA to an existing PDF.

And 4: ARIA isn't well supported right now by our assistive technologies, and most A T users don't even know it exists.

So there's a lot that prevents the industry from supporting ARIA in PDF documents. No tools, but lots of time and money to produce something of little value at this time. That's not a sane model.

Going back to the original post about being able to add the ARIA "Presentation" label to a layout table: If we could, it would nullify the entire table structure and the contents, which is not what is needed.

Instead, we need a way to artifact the table tags and structure while retaining the content in the table and their <P> <L> and other individual element tags.

Adobe could build that utility into Acrobat or a third-party could develop a plug-in to do that task, but I don't hear of anyone putting that utility on their to-do list.

No matter what the standards state, it will be a while before ARIA becomes viable in PDFs. Maybe the PDF Association, the trade association for all things PDF www.pdfa.org, could advise the industry on ARIA in PDF/UA-2.

— signed, Not Holding My Breath

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-----Original Message-----
From: Duff Johnson < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 10:36 AM
To: < <EMAIL REMOVED> > < <EMAIL REMOVED> >; WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] PDF Tagging - layout tables.

> But Duff, there is no PDF/UA-2. Yet.

That's right.

> So I'll correct my original statement to read:
> There is no Aria anything in the current PDF/UA-1 standard.

Yes, PDF/UA-1 is based on PDF 1.7, which does not include support for ARIA attributes.

PDF 2.0, however, published in 2017 and updated in 2020, does include support for ARIA attributes.

> Don't want people confused about the differences between the main PDF standard and the PDF/UA, PDF/A, PDF/X, etc. micro-standards (or subsets) that create targeted standards for different types of PDFs used for different purposes.

I agree; that's why I wanted to clarify that "the PDF standard” at this time DOES support ARIA… but to your point I neglected to also mention that PDF/UA (at this time) does not.

The fact that PDF/UA has not yet caught up to PDF 2.0 shouldn't stop anyone from supporting ARIA in a PDF 2.0 context.

Thanks, Bevi!

Duff.


>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of
> Duff Johnson
> Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 10:22 AM
> To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] PDF Tagging - layout tables.
>
>> There is no Aria anything in the PDF standard.
>
> This is not true. PDF 2.0 (ISO 32000-2) includes support for ARIA attributes on structure elements.
>
> See clause 14.8.5.2.
>
> Duff.