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Re: PDF U/A alternate description for links

for

From: Elizabeth Thomas
Date: Feb 15, 2023 7:03AM

Thanks Steve and Karen for your explanations. I have seen conflicting explanations from experts online on what the error means and how to fix it (e.g., add alt text to the link versus modifying the dictionary for the link in the PDF), so I really appreciate your responses. I have always ignored this error as a false flag, but wasn't sure if I was then creating a barrier for some users by doing so. So it sounds like there is no known negative impact for people using assistive technologies if I ignore this error.
Thanks for your expertise. PDFs are so fun (not!).
-Elizabeth Thomas

Sent from my iPhone

> On Feb 14, 2023, at 5:53 PM, Karen McCall < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
> And it gets "worse" when an automated tool tells you that the Link tag in a TOC needs Alt Text. First, if you add Alt Text to that Link tag, the concept of the TOC (text, dot leaders and page number) is lost in favour of the Alt Text on the link even though the screen readers read the TOCIs.
>
> And footnotes or endnotes shouldn't have Alt Text because they are references!
>
> I ignore any automated tool flagging Alt Text on links because: if It is one of my documents, I know I've done things correctly and I've double checked the Tags Tree; and if I am remediating a document, I've gone down the Tags Tree and checked that both parts of the link are there.
>
> This is why we manually test and why defining an accessible PDF or any other document by the results of automated tools is like chasing the wind. 😊
>
> Cheers, Karen
>
>