<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)"><style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Aptos;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;
mso-ligatures:standardcontextual;}
span.EmailStyle19
{mso-style-type:personal-reply;
font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;
color:windowtext;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-size:10.0pt;
mso-ligatures:none;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#467886" vlink="#96607D" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>Hi Debee,<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The sample PDF you sent was created by McGraw-Hill using Paper Port Capture, which is a scanning program to convert printed documents to digital PDFs.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I can’t tell what settings the user had when making the scan, but the resulting PDF is indeed not accessible. Although tagged, it doesn’t have the correct tags and the text is an image wrapped up in various tags rather than live, machine-readable — and accessible — text. McGraw-Hill missed the next step, which is to OCR (optical character recognition) the digital graphic file, and then correctly tag the resulting live text.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Technically, there’s nothing preventing McGraw-Hill from making this fully accessible. In my firm’s dealings with them and other educational publishers, we’ve found the corporate attitude is to either do the minimal amount of work to make documents sort-of-accessible, or just ignore accessibility entirely. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>We’ve trained many employees of several of the publishing houses and found that our students eventually leave the companies for other jobs rather than try to turn around the corporate culture<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Such a sad outcome for people like you who need these documents to be fully accessible. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I think they need to hear directly from you about the barriers you experience with their files. The creator of the digital file is listed in the PDF’s File / Document Properties (a.k.a. metadata). Possibly you can contact her directly?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>—Bevi Chagnon<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none'>From:</span></b><span style='font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none'> athen-list <athen-list-bounces@mailman12.u.washington.edu> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Deborah Armstrong via athen-list<br><b>Sent:</b> Friday, January 10, 2025 3:28 PM<br><b>To:</b> 'Access Technology Higher Education Network' <athen-list@u.washington.edu><br><b>Subject:</b> [Athen] McGrawHill connect and accesssibility<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Attached is an inaccessible PDF and an OCR’D version of it that describes accessibility for McGrawHill Connect lab textbooks with integrated assignments.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>As a screen reader user, I’ve taken several classes using these labs and find them mostly accessible.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>However, their guide is woefully out of date. Also it’s plain silly that the guide describing accessibility is itself not accessible!<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>If there’s an accessibility consultant out there who wants to make some extra money, contact this publisher and offer to update this document. They really need to do it.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>--Debee<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>