Looking for Ideas: Force Text to Speech to Read Alt Text not EPS Content?

[ynwtf]

This is a cross-post also over in the Accessibility forums, but someone suggested I place it here as well for more perspective.

We have a PDF made up of text and EPS artwork. This is mostly tables and graphics. We have set everything up in InDesign for as best as we know, given all that we have researched for 508 PDF exports. We are near the final steps in setting up the final exported PDF and now see that text to speech is reading both Alt Text and the EPS text content, where the EPS content reads unorganized due to being charts and tables.

We have tried tagging the content within Acrobat as background tag and even figure tag, hoping to force the reader to ignore the graphic content (I'm talking bar chart data graphics) to only read the Alt Text that we have created. When tagged as background, the element is simply no longer available to try applying Alt Text to. When tagged as a Figure, the reader does read the Alt Text first, but then continues to read the graphic text content immediately after.

Unfortunately, returning to InDesign to change a tagging style, convert to JPG, or even convert text to outlines in Illustration is not an option as that would effectively reset every compliance edit and test that we have spent several days applying back to zero when exporting the new PDF.

Are there any other options, from within Acrobat, to group, disable, or otherwise change how the reader reads the graphic content to only see the Alt Text? I'm look for best practice stuff here. Worst case, out of the box would be helpful too.

Thank you all for your thoughts and guidance.

[hammer0909]

The eps text is content and therefore the reader wants to read it even though it's tagged as a figure. This is inconvenient, but not considered a failure condition. My suggestion was going to be to outline the text to prevent it from being read but you've already indicated that this isn't an option. So given your parameters, I don't see a way around it. What software are you using to read the PDF?

[ynwtf]

@Chad Chelius

That makes sense, I mean the fact that this is not a 'failure' condition. It is just an awkward condition

So in this context, what is best practice for AI/EPS artwork use? We do a lot of technical illustration and tech manual type work here. I've never been a fan of converting to JPG or converting text to outline as it creates more risk during development due to tracking source artwork, editing, saving, then relinking the document or overwriting the linked document. Either way, there would be additional steps that create risk. Much of our work compounds over time. Say we create a document with 50 illustrations this month, then publish for 508 compliance. Based on feedback that I'm seeing (not just here!) would be to use JPGs or outlined text as a final format. In 6 months edits return from the industry based on tech updates or what have you. If we outlined our text, then we could no longer edit that text.

I feel like I am missing something very obvious here in workflow, but I also feel like I am stuck between two ideal paths: one is set in preparation for efficiency when dealing with future changes, while another is set to provide for 508 compliance. From my perspective, these two paths seem mutually exclusive. Where is this bridge?

Stumbling around yesterday, I did find under the content tab in Acrobat Pro and option to Edit Object. This opened the file in Illustrator. I would assume that I could then convert text to stroke, and re-save similar to how a vector smart object can be edited within a Photoshop layer. This makes me nervous though!

To answer your question, we have been using Acrobat Pro to make PDF edits for 508 while testing checks in PAC2. We recently started using NVDA in addition to the basic Acrobat reader. Do you have any suggestions?

Slightly off topic, but where do people find training for such things! Any class that we've tried is mostly superficial A-B-C level education and never gets into the nuts and bolts of anything.

Thank you very much for the reply!

[Luke Jennings]

This suggestion falls under the out of the box category. Save the .eps files as .ai. Create a new layer named Outline and copy/paste in place everything from the original (live type) layer to the new layer. Select all text objects and convert to outlines. Save.

Make a new corresponding InDesign layer named Outlines, place the .ai file into both layers at the same location, then use Object layer options to turn on the desired layer for each InDesign layer.

Export to a layered PDF. By turning on & off the PDF layers in Acrobat, you can control the speech of the charts.

When the charts need to be edited, you will need to remember to re-create the outlined layer.

I don't know how this will affect the 508 compliance.