[Athen] PDFMaker vs. Word Add-in for pdf conversion

[Humbert, Joseph A]

I converted a 95% accessible syllabus Word document we use for our document accessibility trainings using both tools with no touch up and here are my results:

Accessible PDF converted using PDFMaker
317 errors according to PAC 2 checker<http://www.access-for-all.ch/en/pdf-lab/pdf-accessibility-checker-pac.html>
Error Categories

·         Font not embedded (3) – two were space characters, one was a sub-list bullet (not sure why these were dinged)

·         Path object not tagged (291) – This was the border for the table (these “paths” are not read out by JAWS or NVDA)

·         Alternative text missing – This was a decorative image that was given no alt text in Word

·         Alternative description missing for an annotation (18) – Every single link was dinged for this even though all links had descriptive link text (& read fine with screen readers)

·         PDF/UA identifier missing – According to multiple people this is never done automatically

·         Display of document title in window title – The local path to the document will display (and be read out) instead of the included document title. Fixed by checking a checkbox in acrobat

Accessible PDF converted using Word 2013 add-in
49 errors according to PAC 2 checker<http://www.access-for-all.ch/en/pdf-lab/pdf-accessibility-checker-pac.html>
Error Categories

·         Font not embedded (2) – both were space characters (but not the same ones as the PDFMaker plug-in)

·         Figure element on single page with no bounding box – ding both of the images

·         Warning : irregular table – The table in our sample syllabus has spanning rows on purpose

·         Warning: Part structure element used as root element

·         Invalid use of a Span structure element (18) – Each row of the table was dinged for this

·         Possibly inappropriate use of a Figure structure (2) – dinged both images

·         Alternative text missing for figure structure – This was a decorative image that was given no alt text in Word

·         Alternative description missing for an annotation (18) – Every single link was dinged for this even though all links had descriptive link text

·         XMP Metadata stream missing

·         PDF/UA identifier missing – According to multiple people this is never done automatically

·         <<dc:title>> in document’s XMP metadata missing

·         Display of document title in window title – The local path to the document will display (and be read out) instead of the included document title. Fixed by checking a checkbox in acrobat

The PDFMaker had more errors, but it did not seem to make a real world difference. The only real difference that I could tell between the two was that the Word add-in converted PDF announced the decorative image, but the PDFMaker one did not.

Thankx,
  Joe

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Joe Humbert
Principal Accessibility Analyst
Assistive Technology and Accessibility Centers
Indiana University
johumber at iu.edu
(317) 274-3478
From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Howard Kramer
Sent: Tuesday, April 28, 2015 5:44 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network
Subject: [Athen] PDFMaker vs. Word Add-in for pdf conversion

(Note: I also posted this on the WebAIM list)

I've noticed there are two contradictory views regarding PDFMaker vs. the Word/Office Add-in for Office 2010 and 2013. I've heard from some folks that the Word Add-in works fine and just as well as the PDFMaker Add-in. On the WebAIM site (http://webaim.org/techniques/acrobat/converting), they state, regarding the Word Add-in that:

The tagging process may not be quite as good as with the Adobe add-in, but most content, such as heading levels, lists, and alternative text for images is exported.

Is the above the general consensus or is this still up for debate. I'd like to know how strongly to recommend PDFMaker over the native Word Add-in.

Thanks in advance,
Howard

--
Howard Kramer
Conference Coordinator
Accessing Higher Ground
303-492-8672
cell: 720-351-8668

AHEAD Association of Higher Education and Disability

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