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Reading order for footnotes

Forum Index > Accessibility > Reading order for footnotes
2010-01-19 07:37:12
minerva
Registered: Jan 19 2010
Posts: 6

I need to create a 508 compliant PDF from a Word document. Word footnotes were used and the Convert to PDF option was used to build the PDF. I am using Word 2003 and Acrobat 9 Pro. Based on what I have read it sounds like the appropriate links from the footnote references and the footnotes themselves have been created within my PDF -- when I tab through the PDF it will stop at each footnote reference and clicking on the reference itself will take me to the footnote text.

How should I be dealing with the reading order? It looks like the footnote text will always be read at the end of the page on which it appears -- this is obviously not ideal since it could be in the middle of a sentence.

Apologies for the novice questions, I've been having a hard time finding good documentation on how to handle this.

Thank you!

My Product Information:
Acrobat Pro 9.2, Windows
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2010-01-19 21:55:46
#1
daka630
Expert
Registered: Mar 1 2007
Posts: 1420
Hi,
Basically, you are observing expected behavior (as described in ISO 32000-1).

Be well...

Be well...

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2010-01-20 06:08:29
#2
minerva
Registered: Jan 19 2010
Posts: 6
Thanks for the reply, however, I am still uncertain about the "best practice" for dealing with footnotes for 508 accessibility in terms of reading order - i.e., do I do nothing? Do I change the reading order so that the footnote is read immediately after the footnote reference?

Thanks.
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2010-01-21 18:14:27
#3
daka630
Expert
Registered: Mar 1 2007
Posts: 1420
Hi,
Think of footnotes and endnotes as a codicil to a will.
The will (PDF page's central text flow) is "amended" by the codicil (the footnote/endnote is an ancilliary part of the content - not a direct part of the main text flow).
Neither footnotes nor endnotes are intended to obstruct, or interfer with the main text content flow on the media (paper or electronic file (PDF, Word, whatever)).
As such, it would not be appropriate to force a user of AT to interrupt using "central content" such that a footnote or endnote had to be "read" prior to resumption of use of the "central content".

In sum, if the footnote(s) or endnote(s) are properly placed in the structure tree (open Tags Panel & walk the tree with "Highlight Content" selected) then you are good to go.
AT "walks" the structure tree for the user. If the user only want to "see" a particular tag, AT processes that instruction. If the user only wants to have the main page content delivered, that is done; no "speed humps" of footnotes/endnotes - they can be "looked at" when desired by the user.

So, again, if the structure tree is well formed, I'd not fiddle with "read order".
A good discussion of walking the tree and read order is in Duff Johnson's eSeminar [url=http://www.acrobatusers.com/learning_center/eseminars_on_demand]"Tech Talk: Making PDF files comply with Section 508"[/url].

Be well...

Be well...

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