Alt text tag not sticking

Hi Mike,
Some comments and observations.

The process you describe seems, to me, a little odd.
Are the PDF files you are working already tagged output PDFs?
If not, have you used Acrobat Pro to add tags?
Or, have you manually tagged the elements?
Have you used the TouchUp Reading Order tool?
If tagged, are you tagging images as something other than "Figure"?

If you have an untagged PDF with an image on a page, try this...
Open the TouchUp Reading Order tool.
Advanced > Accessibility > TouchUp Reading Order
With the TURO tool open draw a rectangle to bound the image.
Click on the Figure button in the TURO tool to tag the image as
a Figure.

Now, click the number adjacent to the "Figure - No alternate text exists."
to select the Figure tag. Right click. The context menu will
provide the choice "Edit Alternate Text"

Select "Edit Alternate Text" - the dialog box that appears has the field for text entry of the alternate text.

Simplistically put, alternate text is an attribute of the tag, not a tag itself. It is typically associated with the Figure tag element where it is required.
It can be used with some other tags. However, in some cases, this will
"mask" content that you want available to the screen reader.

If the content is not appropriately tagged, getting the attribute set can be problematic.

I am so glad this question was asked. The steps that Mike described are what Adobe 8 Professional provides as the fix for the missing Alt text. (When the Accessibility Report is run and the Alt tags are missing.) My problem was that when I followed Adobe's steps, the fields were greyed out for entering any alt text.

Thankfully, the steps that you provided DO work (using TURO). I should have popped over here on Monday (5/19) because I would have saved hours of time trying to rework the darn newsletter that I'm working on.

:)

Kimberly

Kimberly,
I've encountered the greyed out situation as well. In each case, it was because the pdf had not yet been tagged. I'm curious if your experience was from a different reason.

And ain't it annoying when the fix Adobe 8 Pro provides thru the Accessibility Report is so onerous!!!!

Mike

I think it WAS because the document wasn't tagged yet. The tagging, reading order and whatnot are all new to me. I was also hoping that I'd be able to add a button to have the document read out loud, but I've discovered on another thread that this isn't available yet. (Drat.)

I literally spent about five hours on Monday trying to figure out how to add the darn alt tags. It would be nice if the alt tags added in the original document (Word, Publisher, etc.) would transfer to the PDF file.

I've been given the "task" to make sure our website(s) and documents are all 508 compliant. For the most part, so far we've been lucky because at least our websites are basically compliant, other than a few missing alt tags that will be fixed shortly. And, thank goodness, our sites aren't graphic intensive or any of the other "bling" that fancy websites have.

I am using Adobe 7 and I am trying to change the reading order of a document, everytime I fix one thing the reading order jumps back out of place is this normal if not, what do i do about it?

This can be achieved.
Set the Alternate Text in the authoring file. Less labor than post processing the output PDF.

From MS Word/Publisher
Confirm the accessiblity option is selected in the PDF Conversion setup.
Select the image/object. Right click for the context menu.
Select Format Picture/Object.
Under the Web tab, enter the desired Alternative text.
Output PDF is Tagged.
The Figure tag is present and its AltTxt is there.

For the remainder of the content in MS Word/Publisher, ensure you have proper Styles used.
In MS Word go with a specific template (*.dot file) you make.
Stay away from adulteration of the default Normal.dot.
Use the Adobe PDF > Change Conversion Settings to set things up.
Output to PDF via Convert to PDF (icon on the tool bar).

From FrameMaker - park the "figure" in an anchored frame, go to the anchored frame's object attributes. Enter desired text in either the Alternate text or the Actual text field. Remember to select and setup "Tags" in the PDF Setup.

khall_007 - are you using Acrobat Pro or Standard?

Be well...

I've done this and the Alt text does not convert with the document nor are the images tagged as figures. I'm using MS Publisher. (Is the only accessibility check box the one located on the Security tab for the PDF Conversion setup?)

Kimberly

Kimberly,
My apology... a case of not "measuring twice... "; I've Publisher 2002 on an older laptop with Acrobat Pro 7 and use it infrequently. I glanced at Publisher, as it were, when I added it to my post. Sort of an after thought.
Actually, upon reflection, I knew better. I have found, on Adobe's site, only three applications mentioned that support tagged output PDFs.
FrameMaker, InDesign, & MS Word.
For MS Word, I believe this only in the Windows OS.

Having to provide Section 508 accessible output PDFs from an authoring application that does not support tagged output puts one in an ackward position. Not being able to setup most, if not all, the tags upfront engenders a significant workflow obstacle. All of the output PDFs have to be manually tagged. Whenever the source information changes, the entire manual tagging must be done over again. This adds significant time to the task and almost assures that there won't be consistency from one change to the next.

A resource that might be useful -
[url=http://www.adobe.com/enterprise/accessibility/training.php]Accessibility training resources[/url]
Tutorials, How-To Guides, Courseware (scroll to page bottom).

Be well...

Thank you! :) At least I know that it is the software and not me. That's really a bummer about MS Publisher. I hate how objects jump around in Word. I guess the good news, for me, is that our newsletter is only four pages long and will be released every other month.

(Now if only the Read Out Loud feature could be added as a button to a PDF, I'd be a happy person.)

Thanks so much for your help!

Kimberly

From a post by Lori,

Perhaps those who actively rely on Section 508 accessibility will have assistive techology active on their computer and, when Acrobat/Reader has the Section 508 accessible PDF "in hand", the content will be "read".

If so, this would make a read aloud button unnecessary.

Be well...

That's what I am hoping! At least we can provide directions on how to run the Read Out Loud feature. I'm thinking maybe a button that opens a pop-up window with large print directions. We are trying to make sure that we don't "assume" anything.

Thanks for all of your help!

Kimberly