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From: Farough, David (CFP/PSC)
Date: Wed, Mar 17 2021 8:07AM
Subject: help with pdf remediation
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Good morning;
I am really in a quandary with regard to this document.
It was created using adobe indesign 16.0
I am having problems getting the language settings to work in certain parts of the document when using acrobat reader.
I see similar issues with both Jaws and nvda.
Consistently throughout the document the French language setting is not being honored for headings and tables.
The first part of the document where authors and organizations are listed the language is honored for graphics and figures but not for text.
The document language is specified as French in the advanced tab of the properties for the document.

Strangely when I open this document using Foxit Phantom PDF, I do not see these issues.

Can anyone suggest anything that might address these issues?
Are there particular tagging issues from InDesign that might explain this>?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions
David

From: chagnon
Date: Wed, Mar 17 2021 9:27AM
Subject: Re: help with pdf remediation
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Coincidentally, I was just reviewing this issue last week with one of Adobe's lead engineers.

There are several factors that can throw off how the language is recognized by the AT:
1. How the designer set up the source file in InDesign.
2. How InDesign's internal export utility coded the language attribute into the PDF.
3. And how screen readers sometimes miss the language setting when voicing the PDF.

Details for each factor are below. Note, we're talking about "local" language settings that are used to specify one paragraph or word in a different language from the main document. The main "global" language setting is different and is set in the PDF's Properties (aka, metadata).

[Long explanation follows]

1. The source InDesign File.
The InDesigner needs to create a new Paragraph Style or Character Style for each foreign language in the document. In the style settings, set the local language under Advanced Character Formats.
Remember, use a Paragraph Style if the entire paragraph will be in the foreign language, and a Character Style if only a letter or few words will be in it.

2. The exported PDF from InDesign.
Open the PDF and examine the Tags tree.
The Paragraph style will add the language attribute to the <P> tag. You'll see this in the Content (left) tab in the Properties dialogue for the tag (and not in the Tag or middle tab).
The Character style will add the language attribute to the yellow bankers box container or a <Span> tag that encases the letters/words.

The resulting PDF is not like Word, which puts the language attribute in the Tag tab (middle tab) of the Properties dialogue, not in the left tab.

Why are there 2 places in PDF to identify the language? Was told so that we can get granular control of it. But that, to me, just allows for potential problems that you're having, detailed in 3 below.

3. Screen reader recognition of the 2 places where language is specified.
Our testing of both JAWS and NVDA did not show any problems with the language attribute being on the Tag or Content in the Properties dialogue. Both screen readers picked up the language as we'd expect.

However, I would not be surprised that different AT with different preference settings would miss one method but work with the other.

Suggestion:
Be sure your screen reader software is upgraded to the latest version.

In Acrobat, try setting the language in the Tag tab rather than in the Content tab. Or maybe put it in both tabs.

Let us know if that resolves the problem.

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From: Farough, David (CFP/PSC)
Date: Wed, Mar 17 2021 2:41PM
Subject: Re: help with pdf remediation
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Thank you!!!

That solved the problem.
Needless to say, I have a lot of work ahead of me.
Just to say, in most cases so far the lang in the content tab was set to en u. and the lang in the tag tab was set to French.
So I guess we know where Jaws was picking it up from.
Incidentally my version of Jaws is current.

It does not appear that I can declare a language for a section or paragraph and have it apply to the whole unit. Is my conclusion correct?
I have tried this on a section and on a paragraph and it only applied for the first item in the tag.
Needless to say, this is a big Pain.

I am seeing some unusual tag types in this document. Story seems to be mapped to section.
Should I leave them alone? Does it matter?

Needless to say I am new at this so I expect that I will learn a lot through trial and error.
Thanks again for all your help
David