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Re: SmartArt and Alt Text

for

From: Jonathan Whiting
Date: Feb 8, 2023 2:34PM

This thread prompted some discussion within our group, which led me to do some testing of my own. As Nick and Karen already outlined, accessibility of SmartArt is a mess in Office, but I was curious about he accessibility of PDFs created from these files. I used Adobe PDFMaker (AKA the Acrobat tab) in Word and PowerPoint 365 for Windows for these tests.

In Word, SmartArt alt text was never preserved. The only technique that I could get to work was Karen's recommendation to cut and paste as a picture.

In PowerPoint, alt text added to the main SmartArt image was preserved in the PDF. That was the only positive thing uncovered in my testing. Alt text added to individual parts of a SmartArt graphic was lost, even when the main graphic did not have alt text.

Interestingly, if there was no alt text added in PowerPoint, then the text in the image was converted to the alt text. This technique should not be used in place of deliberate alt text--most SmartArt images convey more than what is contained in the text. Plus, the spacing between the blocks was often lost, causing words to run together.


Jon

Jonathan Whiting
Director of Training, WebAIM

From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > on behalf of Lori Schulze < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Sent: Friday, February 3, 2023 7:35 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] SmartArt and Alt Text

Thank you everyone for your insight and expertise. As always, it was
helpful.


*Lori Schulze* | Director
Center for Educational Networking (CEN)
6412 Centurion Drive, Suite 100
Lansing, MI 48917
517-908-3904
<EMAIL REMOVED> | www.cenmi.org<;http://www.cenmi.org>;

*The Center for Educational Networking is an Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act (IDEA) Grant Funded Initiative through the Michigan
Department of Education, Office of Special Education.*


On Fri, Feb 3, 2023 at 8:39 AM Karen McCall < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> I've written about this and suggest that you create your SmartArt in the
> application so that the colours and fonts match the Word or PowerPoint
> content, then select the SmartArt graphic, Cut it from the document, then
> paste it as a picture and give it Alt Text.
>
> There are relationships between SmartArt pieces that cannot have Alt Text
> added so any relationship is lost, as has been mentioned.
>
> As someone using JAWS, I can add the text parts and to some extent
> graphics for those that allow graphics but have no idea what the SmartArt
> really looks like or whether I'm representing the relationships correctly.
>
> I'm using Microsoft 365 Insider Channel and this issue has been around as
> long as we've had SmartArt. It is the same problem with grouped
> shapes/connectors. Create the effect/organizational thing you want, group
> the objects, Select them, cut them from the content and paste as picture
> then give the picture Alt Text
>
> Cheers, Karen
>
>