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<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=187343322-19072013><FONT color=#0000ff
size=2 face=Arial>Hey Sean,</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=187343322-19072013><FONT color=#0000ff
size=2 face=Arial></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=187343322-19072013><FONT color=#0000ff
size=2 face=Arial>Thanks very much. Very much appreciated.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=187343322-19072013><FONT color=#0000ff
size=2 face=Arial></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=187343322-19072013><FONT color=#0000ff
size=2 face=Arial>Nicaise</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=187343322-19072013></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=2 face=Arial>----- Think not with your EYES and you
shall have a perfect VISION! ---</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV><BR>
<DIV lang=en-us class=OutlookMessageHeader dir=ltr align=left>
<HR tabIndex=-1>
<FONT size=2 face=Tahoma><B>From:</B>
athen-list-bounces@mailman1.u.washington.edu
[mailto:athen-list-bounces@mailman1.u.washington.edu] <B>On Behalf Of </B>Sean
Keegan<BR><B>Sent:</B> Friday, July 19, 2013 10:59 AM<BR><B>To:</B> Access
Technology Higher Education Network<BR><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Athen] Automating
accessibility tagging of PDF<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>Hi Nicaise,
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>For automating MS Word to tagged PDF - this is something we have built into
our SCRIBE tool and it makes the assumption that the document author will
include the appropriate accessibility information into the MS Word file. This
includes using headings, text descriptions for images, using tables
appropriately, etc. Remember, you are limited as to how much accessibility
information you can include into a MS Word document compared to the full markup
possible in a tagged PDF. To get the full set of tags, you would need to use
Acrobat Pro or another tool (e.g., NetCentric's CommonLook PDF), but then you
are no longer automating the process.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>What I am (attempting) to do within my institution is to provide an
automated tool that will support the basics of converting an MS Office document
to tagged PDF. With this framework, I can then work with document authors to say
"do these five things and the major accessibility issues are no longer an
issue". From there, I can begin to work on more specific cases in which such
automation may not be an option (e.g., PDF forms, math, foreign language
documents, etc.).</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>The plugins we used to automate this process in the SCRIBE tool were from
Cognidox - <A
href="http://www.cognidox.com/products/opensource/officetopdf">http://www.cognidox.com/products/opensource/officetopdf</A> </DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>The Robobraille/Sensus Access converters (online, free) will also support
the automatic conversion of MS Word and PowerPoint to tagged PDF - <A
href="http://sensusaccess.com/">http://sensusaccess.com/</A></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>I do know that some people have scripted Open Office to perform this
functionality as well as Open Office can save out a tagged PDF, but I never
really had any success with that workflow (most likely due to my lack of
abilities).</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>For automating PDF to tagged PDF - this one is a bit more problematic as
accessibility is more than just "tagging" a PDF. While the tagging can be useful
for creating that document structure, when it is automated you do not know with
what accuracy the tags have been applied. Further, automated processes will not
be able to add text descriptions to images, appropriately mark up data tables,
and may not be accurate in specifying a heading structure.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>In our SCRIBE tool (and also available via the Robobraille/Sensus Access
tools), we do support the automated process of tagging a PDF by default by using
the recognition capabilities of Abbyy Finereader. For the most part, this
functionality has worked well in delivering a tagged PDF in which the logical
reading order of the a document is controlled. We are not doing anything special
and are relying on the capabilities of the OCR engine to recognize a page layout
and put the text into the appropriate order. So, while we can automate the
output of a tagged PDF from any PDF document, it only provides organization to
the reading order and no other support for image descriptions, etc. That part
has to be completed manually.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>To automate at least some of the process, my suggestion would be Abby
Finereader Corporate Edition as this supports a Hot Folder model where you can
dump files, have them processed, and then specify the output location. You can
also go with Abbyy Recognition Server, but this is VERY expensive and does not
do more in terms of automating PDF tagging.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Some may argue the AT applications don't take into consideration all the
possible PDF tags, so what's the point and it's better to focus on the basic
tagging capabilities. To a certain extent, I think it really depends on the
types of documents you are creating and/or retrofitting and the population of
individuals you are serving. For example, if you are dealing with documents that
are not that complex, then an automated process may give you exactly what you
need. On the other hand, if you are dealing with documents that include a
complex visual layout (e.g., magazine layout, lots of images, etc.), then you
may find an automated process alone does not work all that well.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Hope this helps.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Take care,</DIV>
<DIV>Sean</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Sean Keegan</DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV apple-content-edited="true">
<DIV
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<DIV>
<DIV>Associate Director, Assistive Technology</DIV>
<DIV>Office of Accessible Education - Stanford University</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV></DIV></DIV><BR>
<DIV>
<DIV>On Jul 19, 2013, at 9:28 AM, "N Dogbo" <<A
href="mailto:ndogbo@gmail.com">ndogbo@gmail.com</A>> wrote:</DIV><BR
class=Apple-interchange-newline>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">
<DIV lang=EN-US
style="WHITE-SPACE: normal; TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; WORD-SPACING: 0px; FONT: medium Helvetica; ORPHANS: 2; WIDOWS: 2; LETTER-SPACING: normal; TEXT-INDENT: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px"
vlink="purple" link="blue">
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=054312516-19072013><FONT color=#0000ff
size=2 face=Arial>Hi Sean,</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=054312516-19072013><FONT color=#0000ff
size=2 face=Arial></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=054312516-19072013><FONT color=#0000ff
size=2 face=Arial>Yes both-- MS Word to tagged PDF and PDF to tagged PDF. So
any help, resources and advice you can send out would be greatly
appreciated.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=054312516-19072013><FONT color=#0000ff
size=2 face=Arial></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=054312516-19072013><FONT color=#0000ff
size=2 face=Arial>Thanks a million!</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=054312516-19072013><FONT color=#0000ff
size=2 face=Arial></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=054312516-19072013><FONT color=#0000ff
size=2 face=Arial>Thx,</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=054312516-19072013><FONT color=#0000ff
size=2 face=Arial></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=054312516-19072013><FONT color=#0000ff
size=2 face=Arial>Nicaise</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=054312516-19072013><FONT color=#0000ff
size=2 face=Arial></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=2 face=Arial>----- Think not with your EYES and you
shall have a perfect VISION! ---</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial></FONT><BR></DIV><FONT size=2
face=Arial></FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>