{"id":269,"date":"2020-08-14T20:30:53","date_gmt":"2020-08-15T03:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idwerkz.com\/blog\/?p=269"},"modified":"2020-08-14T20:30:57","modified_gmt":"2020-08-15T03:30:57","slug":"cleaning-up-other-peoples-pdf-accessibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idwerkz.com\/blog\/31-days-to-a11y\/cleaning-up-other-peoples-pdf-accessibility\/","title":{"rendered":"Cleaning Up Other People’s PDF Accessibility"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Let\u2019s face it \u2013 sooner or later you are going to find yourself wanting to use a PDF in your online course that someone else created. You might already have one that you are getting ready to send out to your students right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No judging, I\u2019m just saying I understand how common other peoples\u2019 PDF\u2019s tend to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More often than not, these PDF\u2019s can be found alone, without the source document they were created from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wherever you may be finding these PDF\u2019s without source documents, they likely have one thing in common: accessibility problems. Happily, there is something you can do to enhance the accessibility within Acrobat Pro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember the \u201cMake Accessible\u201d Action Wizard from Day 1 of PDF Accessibility?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, now you do!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Engage the Action Wizard tool and select \u201cMake Accessible\u201d. Acrobat Pro doesn\u2019t care that you didn\u2019t author the PDF. Acrobat Pro won\u2019t even ask if you have copyright clearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the \u201cMake Accessible\u201d action wizard has finished tagging and guessing what kind of content is in the PDF, you can now go through and correct any mistakes in content identification. You will perform this task with the Reading Order tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Introducing the Reading Order Tool<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Reading
The Reading Order tool.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Reading Order tool in Acrobat Pro can be found in the Accessibility Tools panel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Reading Order Panel<\/strong> [A]<\/strong> found in the Navigation Pane, should not be confused with the Reading Order tool<\/strong> [B]<\/strong>, launched from the Accessibility Tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Acrobat
Remember the difference, it can be confusing at first.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Reading Order tool can be used to identify different types of content, examine the reading order, and eliminating irrelevant data from the reading order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NOTE: For best results, set your view to display one full page at a time.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Activate the Reading Order Tool<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

From the Accessibility Tools, click on \u201cReading Order\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Reading
Reading Order Button<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Reading Order tool will appear as a floating panel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Acrobat
Acrobat Pro Reading Order tool.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Position the Reading Order tool so you can see your page content as well as the Reading Order tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Acrobat
Reading Order tool engaged.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Notice the content is contained in boxes, and that these boxes are displaying either numbers (the reading order) or letters (content types) in the upper left hand corners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can switch between displaying reading order or content types in the bottom part of the Reading Order tool, by selecting the appropriate choice under \u201cShow page content groups\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Reading
Switch between displaying content order or structure types.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Clean Up Your PDF<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

With the Reading Order tool activated, we are ready to begin identifying the content we want to keep and getting rid of the content we don\u2019t want in the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the following example, we have some empty paragraphs cluttering up the bottom of the page. We don\u2019t want our students to waste time identifying and examining empty paragraphs, so we will use the Reading Order tool to identify the empty paragraphs as \u201cBackground\/Artifact\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"miscellaneous
Empty paragraphs should be assigned to Background\/Artifact with the Reading Order tool.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Identifying content as Background\/Artifact removes it from the reading order, so users won\u2019t be bothered with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Identify Content Types<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes Acrobat will mistakenly assign content with the wrong label, for instance, identifying text as a paragraph when it should have been identified as a Heading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the Reading Order tool, you can fix that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Select the content chunk you want to re-assign by clicking the little while label in the upper left corner of the content chunk. You will notice that your cursor changes into a little hand when you place it over the label.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Selecting
The white hand means you are clicking on the right spot.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With the content chunk selected, click on the appropriate content type from the Reading Order tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Content
With your content chunk selected, assign a content type from the Reading Order tool.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Notice the label change on your content chunk to reflect the new content assignment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edit Alternate Text<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Another accessibility enhancement you can perform with the Reading Order tool is adding or correcting alternate text descriptions for images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the Reading Order tool activated, select an image (figure) in your PDF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the image selected, right-click on the content type label and select the \u201cEdit Alt Text\u201d option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Edit
Right-click the image to reveal the Edit Alternate Text… option.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Enter the alternate text description that is appropriate for the image, or else click the \u201cDon\u2019t Add Alt-Text\u201d button to mark the image as decorative only.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Acrobat
The Alternate Text editing window in Acrobat Pro.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Work your way through each page of the PDF until all of the content is properly identified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check Reading Order<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

After you make changes to the content structure of a page by reassigning or removing content, you should check the reading order to make sure everything is flowing properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can get a quick view of the reading order by switching the Reading Order tool from displaying \u201cStructure Types\u201d to \u201cPage content order\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Reading
Choose Page content order or Structure types.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If the reading order needs to be adjusted, click the \u201cShow Order Panel\u201d button to open the Order Panel within the Navigation Pane on the left-hand side of the Acrobat Pro window. With the Order Panel open, you can drag the content into the correct sequence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Run Accessibility Checker<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It is always a good idea to run the Accessibility Checker after you finish editing your PDF. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the Accessibility Check doesn\u2019t discover any new issues, congratulations! You can save and close the PDF, knowing you have provided a level of accessibility that should allow most people to read the information you are sharing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"illustration
Happiness is being finished with PDF Accessibility!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Some PDF’s are Special Cases<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Most simple PDF documents can be made accessible using the process we\u2019ve just covered, but sometimes you will find a PDF with complicated layout and\/or complex content, and those kinds of PDF documents can be very challenging to make accessible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes it might be easier to come up with an alternate access strategy, or convert the PDF to a different type of document where the content can be communicated in an easier way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember, PDF documents can come from many different places and technologies. Sometimes the source of the PDF simply does not create a data structure that can be made accessible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tomorrow I will cover how to ensure your data makes it out of MS Word and into Acrobat Pro with as little confusion or loss as is possible, and I will show you a free tool that might be able to help take your problem PDF and make it into something a little less problematic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until then – thanks for reading!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s face it \u2013 sooner or later you are going to find yourself wanting to use a PDF in your online course that someone else created. You might already have one that you are getting ready to send out to your students right now. No judging, I\u2019m just saying I understand how common other peoples\u2019 … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Cleaning Up Other People’s PDF Accessibility”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,40],"tags":[9,41,44,45],"class_list":["post-269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-31-days-to-a11y","category-how-to","tag-a11y","tag-pdf","tag-reading-order-tool","tag-turot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/idwerkz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/idwerkz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/idwerkz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idwerkz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idwerkz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/idwerkz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":284,"href":"https:\/\/idwerkz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269\/revisions\/284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/idwerkz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idwerkz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idwerkz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}