[Athen] [EXTERNAL] - Accessible PDFs without Acrobat

[Andrea L. Dietrich]

Using Microsoft’s built-in tools is great if you’re starting from scratch building the document. But often we work on remediating preexisting PDF files (I work a lot with document conversion for students, and we get publisher PDFs.) Are there any good tools to use if you’re forced to start with a PDF file? Or is it better to convert the PDF to Word, fix up the order and such, and then turn that into a PDF?

-Andi :)

From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of chagnon at pubcom.com
Sent: Monday, December 7, 2020 3:03 PM
To: 'Access Technology Higher Education Network' <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] [EXTERNAL] - Accessible PDFs without Acrobat

We find that Microsoft’s built-in PDF export utility (in Office 365) does a much better job, comparable to Acrobat’s PDF Maker plug-in which comes with Acrobat Pro.
In most cases, MS’s matches Acrobat’s conversion. And it’s free.

But your IT department will have to make sure they keep MS Office up to date: earlier versions of their PDF export utility were awful.

Another alternative is FoxIt’s PDF plugin, but given that FoxIt makes the one built into Microsoft Office, why would you pay for what’s essentially the same product?

Question: wouldn’t it make more sense (and cents!) to train your faculty and staff in how to make accessible documents? Doing the job right from the start is always more cost effective than remediating everything after it’s made.

It’s a teach-a-person-to-fish strategy.

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From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu>> On Behalf Of Greenfield, Mark
Sent: Monday, December 7, 2020 11:39 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>>
Subject: Re: [Athen] [EXTERNAL] - Accessible PDFs without Acrobat

We are exploring the use of AxesPDF (https://www.axes4.com/).  It doesn’t require Acrobat Pro, and in my experience is easier to use than Acrobat Pro.   Remediating PDFs has been an ongoing challenge for us because we don’t have a campus-wide license for Acrobat Pro and most faculty don’t have it.

Mark

Mark A. Greenfield
Web Accessibility Officer
Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
406 Capen Hall
State University of New York at Buffalo
Buffalo, N.Y.  14260

telephone: (716)645-2811
e-mail: markgr at buffalo.edu<mailto:markgr at buffalo.edu>



From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu>> on behalf of "Hayman, Douglass" <dhayman at olympic.edu<mailto:dhayman at olympic.edu>>
Reply-To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>>
Date: Monday, December 7, 2020 at 11:12 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>>
Subject: Re: [Athen] [EXTERNAL] - Accessible PDFs without Acrobat

Rachel,

My institution provided me with a laptop to work from home which has both Microsoft Office and also Acrobat Pro to let me work on remediation of documents.  Are your remote staff having to use their own computers?

Doug Hayman
IT Accessibility Coordinator
Information Technology
Olympic College
dhayman at olympic.edu<mailto:dhayman at olympic.edu>
(360) 475-7632 (currently working remotely and don’t have access to this phone)

From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu>> On Behalf Of Rachel Ford
Sent: Monday, December 7, 2020 7:56 AM
To: athen-list at mailman12.u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at mailman12.u.washington.edu>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] - [Athen] Accessible PDFs without Acrobat

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Hello All,

With our faculty working from home, I’ve run into an issue where some faculty don’t have access to Acrobat Pro to create accessible PDFs. Does anyone have a good alternative to Acrobat or just generally using PDFs? Any suggestions would be really helpful.

Thank you,

Rachel Ford
Web Accessibility Manager
Henry Ford College

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