[Athen] Update: PDF Maker problems

chagnon at pubcom.com chagnon at pubcom.com
Mon Oct 4 07:45:48 PDT 2021


If you're making correctly formatted Word documents, then they'll retain the
accessibility when exported to PDF and won't have accessibility barriers to
those who use screen readers or any other type of device. Same with
PowerPoint and Adobe InDesign.

A correctly formatted source document is required before exporting the PDF.

If there are problems with the PDF, look at 2 major errors:

* Incorrectly formatted source document.

* Wrong settings when the PDF was exported.

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Bevi Chagnon | Designer, Accessibility Technician |
<mailto:Chagnon at PubCom.com> Chagnon at PubCom.com

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From: Bossley, Peter A. <bossley.5 at osu.edu>
Sent: Monday, October 4, 2021 8:21 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network
<athen-list at u.washington.edu>; chagnon at pubcom.com
Subject: RE: [Athen] Update: PDF Maker problems



Susan,

As a former student who always asked for Word / RTF as my format, I don't
disagree with you. On the other hand, from an institutional perspective, the
reality is that lots of people around campus are going to use PDF. With that
as a backdrop we really need to have a good way of making them accessible.
It is pretty annoying when we train folks to use the Acrobat tools because
they (usually) work better than the other methods just to have this happen.






Peter Bossley
Deputy ADA Coordinator
ADA Coordinator's Office - Office of Institutional Equity
260 Younkin Success Center, 1640 Neil Ave, Columbus, OH 43201
614-688-3028 Office
<mailto:bossley.5 at osu.edu> bossley.5 at osu.edu / <http://ada.osu.edu/>
ada.osu.edu

_____





From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu
<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> > On Behalf Of Susan
Kelmer
Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 2021 9:53 AM
To: chagnon at pubcom.com <mailto:chagnon at pubcom.com> ; Access Technology
Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu
<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu> >
Subject: Re: [Athen] Update: PDF Maker problems



All of this mess just reinforces, to me, that PDFs should NOT be being
produced/remediated and given to students using screenreaders. I don't have
these problems with well-formatted Microsoft Word or HTML files.



Sometimes I feel like a bit of a dinosaur, steadfastly continuing to create
really great quality Word and HTML files for my students with VI, and not
even attempting to make a PDF accessible for them, or to create a PDF as
output.



Until Adobe gets its act together, there is absolutely no reason for me to
waste time trying to make PDFs work. It is not "easy" or "fast" to
remediate a PDF file, and even more importantly, the resulting PDF output is
not effective! Why are we collectively banging our heads against the wall,
as if there weren't a different path we could (and should?) be following?



Just my cranky .02 this morning.





Susan Kelmer

Alternate Format Production Program Manager

Disability Services

Division of Student Affairs

T 303 735 4836


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