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Re: Issues with Adobe accessibility checker converting PPTx to PDF

for

From: Heather Mariger
Date: Feb 3, 2023 11:37AM

Greetings,

Is there an accurate list of the dos and don'ts out there? I would love to
get a copy.

Thanks,
H.

*Heather Mariger*
*Digital Accessibility Advocate*

*Pronouns: She/Her*

*Center for Academic Innovation*
*Chemeketa Community College*
*4000 Lancaster Drive NE - 9/126A*
*Salem, OR 97305*

503.589.7832

*****************
*Diversity is being invited to the party; inclusion is being asked to
dance. *
Verna Myers, author and speaker





On Fri, Feb 3, 2023 at 10:23 AM Steve Green < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
wrote:

> First I would make a couple of observations:
>
> 1. You can produce a highly accessible PDF from PowerPoint if you know
> what you are doing, but there are a lot of do's and don'ts. Very few people
> know what they are. Most of the guidance you can find is incomplete and/or
> incorrect.
>
> 2. It is very difficult to produce a highly accessible PDF from PowerPoint
> if it has already been created without following all the necessary
> guidelines. The built-in accessibility checker is virtually useless in this
> regard - it only addresses a small proportion of the things that need to be
> done.
>
> It is difficult to interpret the discussion between your colleagues
> without seeing the PowerPoint document. I would be happy to take a look if
> you want to send it to me.
>
> Steve Green
> Managing Director
> Test Partners Ltd
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of
> <EMAIL REMOVED>
> Sent: 03 February 2023 18:09
> To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> Subject: [WebAIM] Issues with Adobe accessibility checker converting PPTx
> to PDF
>
> Hi all,
>
>
>
> Hope your day is going well. I'm looking for some guidance regarding the
> aforementioned subject. One of our profs is having issues with PDF
> accessibility and specifically, the false positives when running the
> checker in Adobe. I copy here some exchanges regarding the problem they are
> having. But from what I understand, they are hoping to eliminate the false
> positives from the report as it requires more checking and it is already a
> lot of work. Is there anything more I can tell them, besides what has
> already been provided?
> A little background:
>
> After the prof reached out to an internal IT resource, they got this
> answer:
>
>
>
> "I've taken a look and I'm wondering whether you should not check off
> 'Enable Accessibility and Reflow with tagged Adobe PDF box' as it may be
> overwriting you accessibility pieces that you have done in pptx.
>
>
>
> That would be my first go-to in determining why this is happening and to
> simply NOT select that option (Enable Accessibility and Reflow with
> tagged Adobe PDF) as that option may be adding proper tags for headings,
> lists, hyperlinks, and other structural elements in the PDF document
> when it was already there in the pptx."
>
>
>
> The prof then replied (please see attached screenshots):
>
>
>
> "I followed your suggestion: I saved the PPTX as a PDF with the Enable
> Accessibility and Reflow with tagged Adobe PDF box unchecked. Below, I
> provide excerpts (in the form of screenshots) of the Adobe accessibility
> checker reports from when the box was unchecked and then from when the
> box was checked. It seems unchecking the box does not resolve the
> problem."
>
>
>
> They then got this reply:
>
>
>
> "The accessibility report in PDF is reading the textboxes that was
> created in the PPTX format as figures. It is still good to check what
> the reasoning is for PDF to be flagging these figures, but with a deeper
> analysis after the reports, it is clear that alt text was maintained and
> this was a false positive flag.
>
> As you said, doing a review of the errors from the accessibility report
> via text to speech to go through the flagged material may be beneficial
> to see if there is something going on with these error flags. Some will
> be an actual error where you will work on correcting and some will be
> false errors."
>
>
>
> And then they reached out to me to see if there was any way to resolve
> this at the source. I'm not a PDF specialist, so I'm turning to the
> community to see if there are any ideas about this. Please note the prof
> is already using the Accessibility Checker in PPTx and have the
> rudimentary knowledge to make their PPTx accessible using the MS
> accessibility checker. I apologize if this email is a bit confusing or
> if this is off-topic, but this is basically the only info I have. I
> would appreciate feedback on this issue.
>
> Thanks,
> Catherine
> > > > >