Adding Alt Text to Charts Converted From Word/Excel

Report · Oct 23, 2019

I can't figure out how to add alt text to charts without getting accessibility errors. I'm converting Word docs to PDF, and the docs have embedded Excel charts.

If I enter the alt text in Word or Excel before converting, the Adobe screen reader reads it correctly, but I fail the "Nested alternative text" check. If I convert to PDF without the alt text, I don't get the error, but the screen reader recites the data without the necessary context. I tried converting the chart to a figure using Reading Order, so that I could add alt text in Adobe, but that only converted the chart area to a figure. I still had to deal with all the data points inside. The tags are below (when I converted it to a figure, the first <Span> was <Figure> instead).

Is there an obvious solution I'm missing? I'll take a not-so-obvious one at this point, too.

Report · Oct 23, 2019

First, which method are you using to export the PDF from Word? Either:

Export from the Acrobat Ribbon in Word (aka, PDF Maker)
File / Save as Adobe PDF
File / Save As / PDF (Microsoft conversion)
File / Print / Adobe virtual printer (not recommended for tagged PDF)

Which version of Word are you using?

And which platform are you on?

Report · Oct 24, 2019

Thanks for responding. The problems I described above came when I exported with File / Save As / PDF (Microsoft). I also tried the other two (but not virtual printer). When I used those methods, the screen reader read the alt text, then also recited the chart data. Plus, I got more table errors that required cleanup, so I'd prefer to avoid those methods, if possible. The first method seemed to be cleanest export, except for this one major issue.

I'm using Word for Mac on an Office 365 subscription, updated to the latest version.

Report · Oct 24, 2019

Unfortunately, you're bumping up against the bleeding edge of the state-of-the-art.

The internal elements that make up charts (labels, axis numbers, pie/bar/line slices, etc.) are being tagged by various conversion utilities and picked up by screen readers. It's a nightmare for everyone.

Sure wish Adobe, Microsoft, and other software companies involved would correct this problem in the source document and let the screen reader get only the Alt-text on the entire figure, not read all the flotsam and jetsam of the individual chart parts.

How our shop handles this crud:

Using the Content panel in Acrobat, locate all of the individual chart parts that we don't want announnced and artifact them. (Right-click on the element, Artifact \ Page element.)
Leave one remaining element and add the Alt-text to it.
If the document has a large number of charts, ensure that an equally large supply of your "substance of choice" is on hand to ameliorate the pain. (In our shop, it's jumbo lattes and double-espresso brownies.)

Some background behind this mess:

When you use File / Save As / PDF, you're using a Microsoft utility built into Word. Since the PDF file format has been a public standard for 10+ years, any company can make a PDF exporter/converter. And given that this is an Adobe forum, it's inappropriate for any of us to comment on what Microsoft does with its PDF converter.

In our shop, we mainly use PDF converters by Adobe because they give better results, in our experience. But sometimes with a particular document, or type of elements that are in the document, or the version of the software, another manufacturer's product does a better job. And sometimes it will do a better job on one type of element, like tables, but trash everything else.

We all are bumping up against the bleeding edge of the state-of-the-art.

Report · Oct 24, 2019

Well, damn. I was really hoping the answer would be "click this button," not "find a way to numb your pain" (the documents I'm working on have a lot of charts). It seems like I could achieve the same result in Reading Order, by highlighting each element and archiving it, then making the last element a figure with alternate text. Is there a reason it's better to go through the Content panel? I ask because my charts in the Content panel look like this:

In other words, no individual parts to archive here. But your technique worked perfectly when using Reading Order. Thanks for the help!

Edit: I think I figured out the difference. When I convert a document with Adobe, and the document doesn't have alt text in Word, the Content panel for the chart looks like the above (no individual elements) and Reading Order is the way to fix it. If the Word doc has alt text for the charts, the Content Panel includes all the data, which need to be redefined as artifacts. The original alt text is still attached to the first element of the chart, so I don't need to re-enter it. Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction. This was driving me mad yesterday, but I feel like I have a better handle on it now.