RE: Accesibility of PDF files & editing them

Hello J:

Thanks, some things to try.

You mentioned
the office package and tags can be sent to .pdf with the accessibility...
Can this also be done in Windows nt/2000 or do I need to go into, say MS Word?

Steve



>>> "Jason Megginson" <jason@bartsite.com> 04/02/02 03:43PM >>> 

Hello Steven, 
I have done work with Adobe .pdf accessibility and came across the same 
problem. If you are using Microsoft Office, an equation editor comes with 
the office package and tags can be sent to .pdf with the accessibility 
plug-in....as you probably know. 

I was dealing with the problem, where Microsoft tools weren't used to 
convert to .pdf and the eqaution had exponents and sub variables. The 
solution I implemented dealt with the use of the structure tree's element 
properties. I changed the alternate text on elements (for example..."A sub 
c" and so on.) to explain the variables and figures more thouroghly. 

I would organize and name the structure tree elements among numerators and 
denominators and treat the division line as an artifact and give it 
alternate text such as "divided by" or "division line". I fealt like this 
was the best way to make an already created .pdf accessible with all of the 
variables and mathematical figures. 

Again, this solution is the best solution I have found if the equation is 
already made into a .pdf. I would be interesed in any other techniques and 
tools as well. 

Hope this helped. 
J 



-----Original Message----- 
From: w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org [ mailto:w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org]On 
Behalf Of Steven McCaffrey 
Sent: Tuesday, April 02, 2002 3:06 PM 
To: lguarino@Adobe.COM ; Viral.Patel@exim.gov 
Cc: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org 
Subject: Re: Accesibility of PDF files & editing them 


Hi Loretta and all: 

I have a slightly off topic (specific topic of alt text/forms in PDF) 
but it may be related. I was interested lately in reading PDF's that 
contain equations. One example is 
Richard Feynman's nobel lecture 
http://www.nobel.se/physics/laureates/1965/feynman-lecture.pdf 
The Adobe translation tools and accessibility plugin work well on the text 
portion, but the equations, as one might guess, get a bit garbled. 
I was wondering if there might be a PDF to latex converter perhaps? 
Might there be other suggestions? 

Thanks, 

Steve 

Steve McCaffrey 
Senior Programmer/Analyst 
ITS 
NYSED 

>>> Loretta Guarino Reid < lguarino@adobe.com > 04/02/02 12:23PM >>> 
Have you looked at the document at 

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/pdfs/CreateAccessibleAdvanced.pdf 

It describes a number of techniques for repairing accessibility problems in 
PDF files. 

Loretta Guarino Reid