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Thread: Which Acrobat versions for creating accessible PDF's

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Number of posts in this thread: 5 (In chronological order)

From: Terrill Thompson
Date: Mon, Jan 31 2011 10:39AM
Subject: Which Acrobat versions for creating accessible PDF's
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Hi All,

In looking at the Adobe Acrobat Family Production Comparison page:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/matrix.html

That page provides some general (though inaccessible) information about which Acrobat version is required for accessible authoring, and there's a bit more detail provided in the detailed comparison (an untagged PDF linked from the main page). According to these docs...

Features that are available in Acrobat X Standard:
- Make PDF documents more accessible by adding tags to control reading order, and improve navigation is available in Standard
- Scan paper documents into PDF and automatically recognize text with improved optical character recognition (OCR)

Features that require Acrobat X Pro:
- Validate accessible PDF documents and check for possible accessibility problems
- Provide a reading order for pages or columns of text requires Pro

Has anyone created a more specific, comprehensive list of which accessibility features are available in the various flavors of Acrobat? I have the Pro version, but I've gotten fuzzy on how many of the features available to me are also available to people running Standard.

Thanks,

Terrill Thompson
Technology Accessibility Specialist
DO-IT, UW Accessible Technology
UW Information Technology
University of Washington
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = | 206/221-4168

From: Karlen Communications
Date: Mon, Jan 31 2011 10:57AM
Subject: Re: Which Acrobat versions for creating accessible PDF's
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You need Acrobat Pro to work with tagged PDF. I haven't ever considered
using the standard version with tagged PDF and I believe that Adobe states
that you need the pro version to work with tagged PDF. Might be on their
accessibility resource page.

So can't help with the features of each...just know you need pro or pro
extended. I think pro extended adds a multimedia or 3-D capability.

Cheers, Karen

-----Original Message-----
From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
[mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of Terrill Thompson
Sent: January-31-11 12:36 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List ( = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = )
Subject: [WebAIM] Which Acrobat versions for creating accessible PDF's

Hi All,

In looking at the Adobe Acrobat Family Production Comparison page:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/matrix.html

That page provides some general (though inaccessible) information about
which Acrobat version is required for accessible authoring, and there's a
bit more detail provided in the detailed comparison (an untagged PDF linked
from the main page). According to these docs...

Features that are available in Acrobat X Standard:
- Make PDF documents more accessible by adding tags to control reading
order, and improve navigation is available in Standard
- Scan paper documents into PDF and automatically recognize text with
improved optical character recognition (OCR)

Features that require Acrobat X Pro:
- Validate accessible PDF documents and check for possible accessibility
problems
- Provide a reading order for pages or columns of text requires Pro

Has anyone created a more specific, comprehensive list of which
accessibility features are available in the various flavors of Acrobat? I
have the Pro version, but I've gotten fuzzy on how many of the features
available to me are also available to people running Standard.

Thanks,

Terrill Thompson
Technology Accessibility Specialist
DO-IT, UW Accessible Technology
UW Information Technology
University of Washington
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = | 206/221-4168

From: Andrew Kirkpatrick
Date: Mon, Jan 31 2011 11:03AM
Subject: Re: Which Acrobat versions for creating accessible PDF's
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I don't have a list that is any better than the one on the site (which once had text underlying the dots used to indicate a feature, will forward your comment to the web team).

In general I usually break down the versions in a way similar to what you did:

Standard allows authors to create tagged PDF documents with the PDFMaker tool for MS-Office and from web pages, but does not allow authors edit the tags.

Pro allows both the creation and editing of tags. Authors can repair the accessibility of an inaccessible PDF file.

I'll also add that as with many aspects of PDF files that may need repair, a document that is authored correctly will not require that the reading order be adjusted. For example, an author using Word that creates columns in a document using Word's column feature will find that the reading order is correct in the PDF that is saved from that document. If the author instead uses text boxes to create columns then repair is more likely to be needed.


Thanks,
AWK

Andrew Kirkpatrick
Group Product Manager, Accessibility
Adobe Systems

= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
http://twitter.com/awkawk
http://blogs.adobe.com/accessibility


-----Original Message-----
From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of Terrill Thompson
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2011 12:36 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List ( = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = )
Subject: [WebAIM] Which Acrobat versions for creating accessible PDF's

Hi All,

In looking at the Adobe Acrobat Family Production Comparison page:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/matrix.html

That page provides some general (though inaccessible) information about which Acrobat version is required for accessible authoring, and there's a bit more detail provided in the detailed comparison (an untagged PDF linked from the main page). According to these docs...

Features that are available in Acrobat X Standard:
- Make PDF documents more accessible by adding tags to control reading order, and improve navigation is available in Standard
- Scan paper documents into PDF and automatically recognize text with improved optical character recognition (OCR)

Features that require Acrobat X Pro:
- Validate accessible PDF documents and check for possible accessibility problems
- Provide a reading order for pages or columns of text requires Pro

Has anyone created a more specific, comprehensive list of which accessibility features are available in the various flavors of Acrobat? I have the Pro version, but I've gotten fuzzy on how many of the features available to me are also available to people running Standard.

Thanks,

Terrill Thompson
Technology Accessibility Specialist
DO-IT, UW Accessible Technology
UW Information Technology
University of Washington
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = | 206/221-4168

From: John E Brandt
Date: Mon, Jan 31 2011 12:33PM
Subject: Re: Which Acrobat versions for creating accessible PDF's
← Previous message | Next message →

I have always used Adobe Acrobat (AA) Pro for my work and it has had all of
the accessibility checking features that I need.

I am a little troubled by this statement of the page you cited: "Check and
adjust documents to help ensure they are accessible to people with
disabilities." This feature is available in AA Pro but not in AA Standard
(unchecked). I think I would steer people away from AA Standard version
because of this. I think it was rather foolish for Adobe to consider this as
an option that they could market upon rather than as an essential element of
all of the paid versions.

BTW, a word of caution about the Accessibility Checker in AA Pro X - the
latest version. The directions that get produced in the Accessibility Report
(which is generated when you run the Accessibility Checker) were apparently
not updated between version 9 and version 10. In other words, the directions
for solutions to fix your documents are the directions for version 9 and
don't make sense for version 10. In the update, Adobe changed the Tools
extensively, reducing the number of tools and the steps used to accessing
them. In many ways the this is a major improvement. But if you try to follow
the directions for fixing an untagged/inaccessible PDF, you will have to
poke around for a while to figure out how to do things. I suspect that many
people won't bother.

I blogged about this and sent an e-mail to Andrew Kirkpatrick to find out
when it will be fixed. No word yet.

Here is my blog entry on the issue:
http://jebswebs.net/blog/2011/01/flaws-found-in-adobe-acrobat-pro-x/

~j

John E. Brandt
www.jebswebs.com
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
207-622-7937
Augusta, Maine, USA

-----Original Message-----
From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
[mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of Terrill Thompson
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2011 12:36 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List ( = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = )
Subject: [WebAIM] Which Acrobat versions for creating accessible PDF's

Hi All,

In looking at the Adobe Acrobat Family Production Comparison page:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/matrix.html

That page provides some general (though inaccessible) information about
which Acrobat version is required for accessible authoring, and there's a
bit more detail provided in the detailed comparison (an untagged PDF linked
from the main page). According to these docs...

Features that are available in Acrobat X Standard:
- Make PDF documents more accessible by adding tags to control reading
order, and improve navigation is available in Standard
- Scan paper documents into PDF and automatically recognize text with
improved optical character recognition (OCR)

Features that require Acrobat X Pro:
- Validate accessible PDF documents and check for possible accessibility
problems
- Provide a reading order for pages or columns of text requires Pro

Has anyone created a more specific, comprehensive list of which
accessibility features are available in the various flavors of Acrobat? I
have the Pro version, but I've gotten fuzzy on how many of the features
available to me are also available to people running Standard.

Thanks,

Terrill Thompson
Technology Accessibility Specialist
DO-IT, UW Accessible Technology
UW Information Technology
University of Washington
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = | 206/221-4168

From: Andrew Kirkpatrick
Date: Mon, Jan 31 2011 1:36PM
Subject: Re: Which Acrobat versions for creating accessible PDF's
← Previous message | No next message

John,
I don't have a public timeline to share, but this is a topic of discussion with the Acrobat team. I've shared comments from you and others as we set about making plans for Acrobat 11. Sorry I can't share more at this time...

Thanks,
AWK

Andrew Kirkpatrick
Group Product Manager, Accessibility
Adobe Systems

= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
http://twitter.com/awkawk
http://blogs.adobe.com/accessibility


-----Original Message-----
From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of John E Brandt
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2011 2:30 PM
To: 'WebAIM Discussion List'
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Which Acrobat versions for creating accessible PDF's

I have always used Adobe Acrobat (AA) Pro for my work and it has had all of
the accessibility checking features that I need.

I am a little troubled by this statement of the page you cited: "Check and
adjust documents to help ensure they are accessible to people with
disabilities." This feature is available in AA Pro but not in AA Standard
(unchecked). I think I would steer people away from AA Standard version
because of this. I think it was rather foolish for Adobe to consider this as
an option that they could market upon rather than as an essential element of
all of the paid versions.

BTW, a word of caution about the Accessibility Checker in AA Pro X - the
latest version. The directions that get produced in the Accessibility Report
(which is generated when you run the Accessibility Checker) were apparently
not updated between version 9 and version 10. In other words, the directions
for solutions to fix your documents are the directions for version 9 and
don't make sense for version 10. In the update, Adobe changed the Tools
extensively, reducing the number of tools and the steps used to accessing
them. In many ways the this is a major improvement. But if you try to follow
the directions for fixing an untagged/inaccessible PDF, you will have to
poke around for a while to figure out how to do things. I suspect that many
people won't bother.

I blogged about this and sent an e-mail to Andrew Kirkpatrick to find out
when it will be fixed. No word yet.

Here is my blog entry on the issue:
http://jebswebs.net/blog/2011/01/flaws-found-in-adobe-acrobat-pro-x/

~j

John E. Brandt
www.jebswebs.com
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
207-622-7937
Augusta, Maine, USA

-----Original Message-----
From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
[mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of Terrill Thompson
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2011 12:36 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List ( = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = )
Subject: [WebAIM] Which Acrobat versions for creating accessible PDF's

Hi All,

In looking at the Adobe Acrobat Family Production Comparison page:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/matrix.html

That page provides some general (though inaccessible) information about
which Acrobat version is required for accessible authoring, and there's a
bit more detail provided in the detailed comparison (an untagged PDF linked
from the main page). According to these docs...

Features that are available in Acrobat X Standard:
- Make PDF documents more accessible by adding tags to control reading
order, and improve navigation is available in Standard
- Scan paper documents into PDF and automatically recognize text with
improved optical character recognition (OCR)

Features that require Acrobat X Pro:
- Validate accessible PDF documents and check for possible accessibility
problems
- Provide a reading order for pages or columns of text requires Pro

Has anyone created a more specific, comprehensive list of which
accessibility features are available in the various flavors of Acrobat? I
have the Pro version, but I've gotten fuzzy on how many of the features
available to me are also available to people running Standard.

Thanks,

Terrill Thompson
Technology Accessibility Specialist
DO-IT, UW Accessible Technology
UW Information Technology
University of Washington
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = | 206/221-4168