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I want to have the reader use the alt text while ignoring the actual text

New Here ,
Jan 25, 2019 Jan 25, 2019

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I have to make an ADA PDF for the web that wants to use things like ";)" and ":D" but I don't want the reading software to say "semicolon closed parenthesis" I want it to use my alt text of "Winky face." I set up tags, I made separate text boxes for the faces, I added the attribute Alt "Winky face" and used the articles structure to get it to read in the right order. I just can't seem to get it to not say "semicolon closed parenthesis" when I test it in Acrobat.

Any help would be much appreciated.

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

Community Expert , Jan 25, 2019 Jan 25, 2019

There are several issues with this situation, some we can control and others not.

  1. There is a difference between Actual Text and Alt-Text.
    1. Both tags were originally developed for graphics, not text, although the industry is now migrating to adding them on hyperlinks, annotations, etc.
    2. In InDesign, you can only put Alt-Text on graphics, not on text nor text frames.
    3. Some agencies have policies that go beyond the standards and put them on everything, like tables. However, it's questionable how helpful t
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Community Expert ,
Jan 25, 2019 Jan 25, 2019

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There are several issues with this situation, some we can control and others not.

  1. There is a difference between Actual Text and Alt-Text.
    1. Both tags were originally developed for graphics, not text, although the industry is now migrating to adding them on hyperlinks, annotations, etc.
    2. In InDesign, you can only put Alt-Text on graphics, not on text nor text frames.
    3. Some agencies have policies that go beyond the standards and put them on everything, like tables. However, it's questionable how helpful that is in the end because most A T still don't recognize them on anything other than graphics.
    4. You should not have both on a graphic. One or the other. Actual text is meant to be short, such as to describe a graphical headline, a drop cap that's a graphic rather than live text, or a graphic anchored inline within text. Like this emoji    is inline and would use Actual Text.
    5. Two failures when both are on a graphic: 1) the information is voiced twice in some screen readers, which is annoying and violates the "redundancy" sections of the standards, and 2) some A T recognize neither when they're both present.
    6. And some screen readers fail to handle either well.
  2. Neither Actual Text nor Alt-Text are the best solution for your text-based emoji: it really should have Expansion Text tag on it, which is used for acronyms and similar in-line text.
    1. We do not yet have tools in InDesign to put Expansion Text on text so you'll have to do this in the PDF with Acrobat.
    2. It's a small PITA, but not that bad.
    3. The item you want to add the expansion text to must be in a separate tag, usually <Span> tag.

Expansion-Text_PDF.png

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer & Technologist for Accessible Documents
|    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |

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Community Expert ,
Jan 25, 2019 Jan 25, 2019

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As usual Bevi, you are spot on. One very minor point I’d like to make in regards to 1b above, is that you technically can add alt text to elements other than graphics such as text frames if you group two or more objects together and add alt text it will tag them as a figure in the resulting PDF and add the alt text. Again, a very minor point, but I use this quite often in certain instances and It’s very helpful.

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Community Expert ,
Jan 28, 2019 Jan 28, 2019

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Yes, Chad, that's a workaround in some situations, but only if the items you're grouping together are figures. If they're text, then that is not semantically correct.

With the text-based emoji the original poster discussed, it really should remain as live text so that we don't impair anyone's specific A T from processing it.

FYI, future PDF/UA standards are tightening up the tag structure so something like that could become flagged as an error.

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer & Technologist for Accessible Documents
|    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |

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