Autotagging pdfs with accounting tables

[lauriek35850684]

I apologize if this is a newbie question, but I work for a small community college, and we feel like we are beating our heads against a wall with our tables. We have tables that tag beautifully - ones that have all appropriate headers and information.

Then we get to tables that were created on the fly by department members with no solidified standard on what these tables are defining without contextual clues from the surrounding page. We also are not able to modify the content at all. Then we also have accounting tables, such as the assets listing that is not set up for accessiblity standards at all.

I would like to manually create the tags and have done so but when I try to get the voice over to read them back, it gives me a 'warning: empty page' message. What I am doing wrong?

[yn]

Are the tables that give you that warning graphics? Were they mistakenly set to background/artifacts? What are you using to tag the tables and what screen reading are you using? JAWS? NVDA? That might help someone here to help troubleshoot a bit more.

[lauriek35850684]

We are opening them and tagging them using Adobe Acrobat DC Pro, using the autotag feature. We are in our infancy at trying to become accessible. These are PDFs that have been created from 2014 up until this month.

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

You have several questions in that post!

Taking them one at a time...

lauriek35850684  wrote

I would like to manually create the tags and have done so but when I try to get the voice over to read them back, it gives me a 'warning: empty page' message. What I am doing wrong?

What screen reader(s) are you using to voice the tables? Tell us the software, version, and platform.

And what software are you using to remediate the files?

If a screen reader doesn't see the page ("empty page"), then there's something wrong with how the document was tagged or how you made those tags. Without more info, can't give you a clue what's missing.

lauriek35850684  wrote

Then we also have accounting tables, such as the assets listing that is not set up for accessibility standards at all.

This is a shortcoming of the standards committees (ISO, WCAG, PDF/UA). Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) requires that financial statements, tables, etc. be presented in a required format...but our accessibility standards don't match what's needed. In the United States, GAAP is usually required by law so at this time, we have opposing laws (such thrills, eh?!).

Do your best to make these tables as understandable as possible, but don't violate GAAP which is the "stronger" law of the 2.

[lauriek35850684]

What screen reader(s) are you using to voice the tables? Tell us the software, version, and platform.

I'm simply using the voice over feature that comes with the Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, using it on Windows 10 Education.

And what software are you using to remediate the files?

Everything that we have done so far has been within the current version of DC Pro. I am so sorry if I'm not giving the total picture, I do know that the document was tagged back on February 5, if it that helps at all as far as version of software that generated the tags.

If a screen reader doesn't see the page ("empty page"), then there's something wrong with how the document was tagged or how you made those tags. Without more info, can't give you a clue what's missing.

I can see how the only using adobe acrobat is going to quickly become an issue. I am going to start looking at getting jaws setup. Is there any other software that you would recommend?

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com · Accepted solution]

Do not waste time testing any PDF with Acrobat's built-in Read Aloud utility.  (Note the use of bold!)

It is not a full-featured screen reader and will give you false positive and false negatives. It does not read (or interpret) tagged PDFs correctly. It does not conform to the PDF/UA standards (and Adobe is part of the ISO committee that writes the standards).

Use these screen readers instead:

• JAWS from Freedom Scientific. Your community college might already have a site license, which would be much cheaper than buying your own separate license. http://www.freedomscientific.com/
• NVDA an excellent free screen reader from NV Access https://www.nvaccess.org/
• Apple Voice Over (free with Apple OS)

And since you're a community college, you should be doing user tester with keyboard-based software, too, to accommodate your students with upper body, neurologic, or cognitive disabilities. Screen readers only test for those with vision disabilities.

Full accessibility requires more than just tags, so using appropriate PDF checkers is standard practice, too. Use any two of the following to get a reasonable check of the PDF:

• The built-in Accessibility Checker in Acrobat Pro (free)
• PAC3 from Access For All, a European nonprofit for accessibility. https://www.access-for-all.ch/en/pdf-lab/pdf-accessibility-checker-pac/downloading-pac.html  (free)
• Axes4 https://www.axes4.com/  

lauriek35850684  wrote

Everything that we have done so far has been within the current version of DC Pro. I am so sorry if I'm not giving the total picture, I do know that the document was tagged back on February 5, if it that helps at all as far as version of software that generated the tags.

Yes, that info helps. When the PDF was made a year ago, the software at that time was Word 2016/Office 365, Acrobat Pro DC:2018, and Adobe InDesign CC:2018.

All of those programs had major updates in the fall so the PDF wasn't created using today's current software. If you still have problems getting the PDF to pass the checkers, then I would suggest upgrading all of the software, opening up the source file, and re-PDFing it from current versions.

Best to you. And let us know your outcome!

—Bevi Chagnon

[lauriek35850684]

Thank you so much!!! This really helps!

[yn]

You might consider testing the page reading with the free NVDA screen reader. There is an option to donate, but if you scroll to the end of that table you can see that you can skip straight on to the download. Free is cheaper than JAWS

It's kind of wonky to use until you get familiar with it. It also may take a minute or two to load up. I suggest earbuds to not annoy neighboring office mates. Closing the app can be annoying (at least for me!), as the program icon kind of hides itself in my task bar, hidden icons list. Still, it's free and works pretty well.

As to the content of the page, have you looked in your Acrobat Pro Tags panel to see what's going on there?