Obtaining software

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How to make a pdf accessible?

1. Obtaining software
2. Sample pdf for this presentation
3. Checking accessibility of the pdf
4. Tackling inaccessibility
5. Tips and helpful links

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Obtaining software

• The software used for this exercise is Adobe
  Acrobat X Pro not Adobe Reader available as
  below

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Sample pdf for this presentation
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Checking if the PDF is Accessible

• 1. Open pdf using Acrobat X (right click on
  file)
• The program is part of Adobe Web Premium
  (available from Run Advertised Programs under
  Control Panel)
• 2. Open Accessibility option from Tools

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The result pdf is not accessible
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What accessibility-related problems were found?

• .. images found with no alternate text
• .. text blocks found with no language specified
• .. elements not contained within the structure
  tags
• .. number of words found that contain characters
  with no reliable mapping to Unicode

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Accessibility Problem .. text blocks found with
no language specified
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Accessibility Problem .. elements not contained
within the structure tags

• According to the report, pages 2, 4 and 9 have
  document order problem.

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Accessibility Problem .. number of words found
that contain characters with no reliable mapping
to Unicode

• In this document there are 46 such occurrences
  and the problem in each case is

In a jam here because the help message says
missing character encodings cannot be repaired in
Acrobat and that one has to recreate the pdf file.
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Accessibility Problem ..images found with no
alternate text

• In this document there just one image and that is
  without alternate text.

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Accessibility Problem ..images found with no
alternate text.. continued
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Accessibility problems where Acrobat failed

• .. images found with no alternate text
• .. text blocks found with no language specified
• .. elements not contained within the structure
  tags
• .. number of words found that contain characters
  with no reliable mapping to Unicode

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Plan B Export the file to MS Word
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Inside word providing alternate text
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Inside word choose an encoding standard

• Word takes care of encoding by default but if you
  are working with text files in format other than
  .doc, .docx etc, then you can follow the
  instructions here
• http//office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/choose-text
  -encoding-when-you-open-and-save-files-HA010121249
  .aspx

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Back to Acrobat
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You have an accessible file
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Tip 1 Of the four types of problems discussed
above, which ones should be tackled first?

• Purely from personal experience, handle the
  issues at Word level first.

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Tip 2 Much better to create an accessible file
at source before converting it into pdf

• Wordhttp//office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/c
  reating-accessible-word-documents-HA101999993.aspx
  
• PowerPointhttp//office.microsoft.com/en-au/power
  point-help/ten-tips-for-accessible-documents-HA010
  337552.aspx
• InDesign http//help.adobe.com/en_US/indesign/cs/
  using/WSa285fff53dea4f8617383751001ea8cb3f-70aba.h
  tml
• Microsoft accessibility training sessions
• http//agimo.govspace.gov.au/2012/09/06/video-and-
  transcripts-of-microsoft-accessibility-training-se
  ssions/

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How to make a pdf accessible?

• Thank you