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Inspiring
August 11, 2020
Answered

Alt-text converting wrong from Word to PDF

  • August 11, 2020
  • 5 replies
  • 22381 views

We have a very long, very complex budget document we need to make 508 compliant. We are testing parts of the document to make sure we are doing things right in Word, so that we can limit accessibility issues when we convert it to a PDF. Currently I have a 12 page document with 21 charts in it. We labled each chart using the Edit Alt Text feature in word. They are labled like this: Line graph showing percentage change in Hillsborough County Taxable Property Values

When I use the Acrobat PDF maker to convert the document, then run the accessibility checker in Adobe, it has changed all of the alt text to somehting like this: Figure - P57#yIS1.

When I test the screen reader, and highlight the charts, it simply says "Blank".

So, even though we have entered descriptive alt text in Word, and even though some kind of alt text is showing on the charts (where it came from is a mystery), the screen reader still sees the chart as blank.

I tried saving as a PDF, instead of using the Adobe PDF maker, and when I do that, then it wants to see individual elements inside the chart as figures, and still does not convert the alt text we entered into the Word document.

I viewed the article for Alt-text not showing, and it was of no use. We have been told we should be able to add the alt-text in Word, it's even recommended to do it, but if it is not converting correctly or reading it correctly, what is the use?

I also noticed that even if I change the Alt Text Adobe, the screenreader doesn't read it and the tooltip (actual alt text) doesn't show up when you mouse over the chart.

 

I am including a link to Dropbox that contains both the Word Document and the converted PDF.

Alt Text Issues - dropbox with word and pdf 

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Tanvi Rastogi

Hi All,

With the September 2021 release, PDFs with missing/incorrect table headers are flagged in the Accessibility Checker and show as failed in the accessibility check result. We have made some changes for reverting the behaviour of Accessibility Checker to pre-September Release.
The fix is available with the latest update of Acrobat & Reader DC Continuous track: https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/adobe-acrobat-and-reader-21-007-2009x-optional-update-is-live/td-p/12412471. Apply the fix and then follow the steps mentioned here: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/table-header-fails-in-accessibility-checker.html.
As part of this update, we have also fixed the alt-text of images getting missed and issue in dragging and dropping elements in both the Tag and Order panels.
We have taken a note of remaining PDFMaker tagging issues to assess for overall impact and address them in upcoming releases accordingly.
Thanks for your patience.

-Tanvi

5 replies

Adobe Employee
January 18, 2023

Hi all

 

This is regarding your following feedback for Adobe Acrobat: 

Alt-Text of Charts, Images, Shapes is not passed from MS Word/Excel/PowerPoint files to PDFMaker generated PDF docs

With our latest Acrobat DC January'23 release, the issue reported by you has been addressed.

If your product has not already been updated, to get the latest product update, click on the menu Help --> Check for updates in the product.

For more information about the release, please refer to the Release Notes and the New Feature Summary web links.

Hope this helps in addressing the reported issue. We look forward to the continued feedback.

Thanks

Tanvi

Participant
January 18, 2023

@Tanvi Rastogi I have installed the latest release for Adobe Acrobat Pro and am experiencing now my workflows of converting MS Word files to pdfs exclude alt text in the resulting pdf. The workflow has not changed, only the version of Adobe and MS Word have changed per Adobe and Microsoft automatically applied updates.

AnandSri
Community Manager
Community Manager
September 29, 2021

Hi All!


Thanks for your time and patience.


The fix is available with the latest update of Acrobat & Reader DC Continuous track: Adobe Acrobat and Reader - 21.007.2009x Optional update.

 

Please install the latest patch, and let us know if you experience any issues.

See this article for detailed information about this release, bug fixes and how to update the app: https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/adobe-acrobat-and-reader-21-007-2009x-optional-up...


Regards,
Anand Sri.

Tanvi RastogiCorrect answer
Adobe Employee
September 30, 2021

Hi All,

With the September 2021 release, PDFs with missing/incorrect table headers are flagged in the Accessibility Checker and show as failed in the accessibility check result. We have made some changes for reverting the behaviour of Accessibility Checker to pre-September Release.
The fix is available with the latest update of Acrobat & Reader DC Continuous track: https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/adobe-acrobat-and-reader-21-007-2009x-optional-update-is-live/td-p/12412471. Apply the fix and then follow the steps mentioned here: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/table-header-fails-in-accessibility-checker.html.
As part of this update, we have also fixed the alt-text of images getting missed and issue in dragging and dropping elements in both the Tag and Order panels.
We have taken a note of remaining PDFMaker tagging issues to assess for overall impact and address them in upcoming releases accordingly.
Thanks for your patience.

-Tanvi

Participant
September 23, 2021

I would like to know when updates are sent out as well, I tested 508 during the summer on a huge 270+ page document and everything everyone noted was fine then and is not fine now. I have to push my document out early October so I had to manually fix everything this week and it took me a really long time to reapply all my alt text, fix the tables, etc. but Adobe actually doesn't even acknolwedge I fixed my issue and still flags it. Hoping the update helps so I just wanted to tag in to get the update. I will have to republish my doc once the adobe update comes out. 

Participant
September 23, 2021

Looks like it's at least made it to the devs through Acrobat UserVoice, so hopefully that means....something? Soon?

 

https://acrobat.uservoice.com/forums/590923-acrobat-for-windows-and-mac/suggestions/44183082-accessibility-errors-with-pdf-maker-update-sept-20

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Legend
September 23, 2021

Word from inside Adobe is that they have escalated the Alt-Text problem and we should see a "hot fix" soon.

 

Let's hope that's not a Carribbean type of "soon come."

 

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |
Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Legend
September 21, 2021

@showalters@Michele_Christian 

 

Please VOTE and comment about this problem at UserVoice https://acrobat.uservoice.com/forums/590923-acrobat-for-windows-and-mac/suggestions/44183082-accessibility-errors-with-pdf-maker-update-sept-20

 

Adobe works on the voting system: the more votes a bug or feature gets, the faster it moves up in the food chain. Posting in this forum doesn't give it much traction, but UserVoice does.

 

And please inform your colleagues and encourage them to vote as well.

 

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |
Adobe Employee
August 20, 2020

Hi

 

Can you share which OS, Acrobat and Office version are you using?

 

Thanks

Tanvi

Inspiring
August 20, 2020

I have two different computers that this is happening on:

 

PC is Windows 7

Laptop Windows 10

 

Both use Adobe Acrobat Pro DC Version 2020.012.20043

 

Both use Office 365, Word Version 1808, but I didn't create the word document, although I would assume the person who did would probably have the same version of Office/Word since we both work for the County.

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Legend
March 9, 2022
Hi,
Thank you for raising these accessibility issues. The post mentions about the following six bugs being introduced with the update that went live on September 14, 2021
1: Alt-Text from MS Word is not converting into the PDF. Instead, it is dropped and gibberish code is inserted 2: Every cell border on every table cell is being tagged as <P>PathPathPathPath 3: The underline on Hyperlinks should be tagged as artifacts 4: Borders and background shadings on Text Boxes are being tagged as a combination of <Figure>s and PathPathPath 5: Paragraph borders and shadings: same deal as #4 above.Per the PDF/UA-1 standard, they are visually decorative and should be artifacted 6: Dragging and dropping elements in both the Tag and Order panels is now broken.
Would like to mention that out of these, #1 and #6 were introduced with the Sep 14 update and remaining (#2, #3, #4 & #5) were present even in the Acrobat version prior to Sep 14 update. We apologize for the inconvenience caused by these issues.
Issue #1 and #6 were the regressions introduced with Sept 14th update and hence were fixed on priority with Sept 29th Update (Release Notes for September 29, 2021). With the latest version (22.001.20085) of Acrobat Pro DC released on March 7th (Release Notes for March 07, 2022), issues #2 and #3 have also been fixed. Issues #4 and #5 have been partially fixed so that PathPathPath tags won’t be part of the tag tree anymore. The remaining issue for #4 and # 5 (Borders and background shadings on Text Boxes / paragraphs are being tagged as <Figure>s) have already been added to our product backlog and those will be prioritized to be fixed in coming releases.
You can use the menu item Help → Check for Updates… to get the latest version of Acrobat Pro DC containing these fixes. Please try out the fixes and share the feedback as that will help us make our applications better from accessibility perspective.
Thanks & Regards
Tanvi Rastogi

@Tanvi Rastogi and

@AnandSri

and the Adobe Acrobat development team

and the Adobe Accessibility Team,

 

Thank you!

This update improves the lives of 1/3 of the world's population that must use assistive technology to read and use PDFs.

 

That's 2.5 billion people.

 

Oh ... plus all of the millions of workers, authors, and educators worldwide who are required to make accessible documents per their country's human rights laws that require all content to be accessible to everyone.

 

You've done a good thing for society.

Thank you!

 

|&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Bevi Chagnon &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;Designer, Trainer, &amp; Technologist for Accessible Documents ||&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;PubCom |&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Classes &amp; Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs &amp; MS Office |