Re: Accessible PDF forms versus forms in Word doc

Hi Peter,
True, that's my standard advice as well for docsthat seem to get
revised periodically and do not contain forms. But often the source
Word files do not expose any form controls to keyboard / SR user
although they seem to contain form controls. One needs to be
proficient in using Word's dev tab  and such to make the doc fully
accessible.
The non-editable parts of the Word doc will need to be  locked too
before converting to PDF.
Would there be some accessibility gaps that will only need to be fixed
during PDF tagging?

Is it not easier to pull up the inaccessible Word doc in Acrobat Pro,
create form controls and do all the required tagging, adusting tab /
reading order, associate labels / advisory text, ensure data tables
are tagged for row/col headers in one go?
I must confess I have not seen many Word docs with forms with
selection controls that are more usable than accessible PDF-forms.
Thanks,
Sailesh


On 9/23/20, Peter Shikli <pshikli@bizware.com> wrote:
> Sailesh,
>
> I would say that a proficient PDF remediator should also know how to
> remediate MS Word docs.
>
> The reason is that when we get PDFs to remediate, we always ask if it
> was sourced from an MS Word template, a common case.  If so, the right
> move is to remediate that Word doc first and then re-export to PDF.  The
> net result is less PDF remediation work and the next time they use that
> Word template, the exported PDF will be that much closer to remediated
> -- sometimes fully accessible.
>
> Cheers,
> Peter Shikli
> Access2online Inc.
>
>
> Sailesh Panchang wrote on 9/23/2020 10:49 AM:
>> Greetings A11y Listers,
>> Is it easier to find people with skills for creating accessible PDFs
>> than accessible Office Word docs?
>> The reference is to e-docs that have forms with textboxes, radio /
>> checkboxes, where controls need to be associated with instructional
>> text and generally make WCAG  2.0 (AA) conformant.
>> Views on usability of accessible PDF forms vs. Word forms across
>> platforms and devices by keyboard-only / vision impaired users  are
>> welcome too.
>>
>> Thanks very much,
>> Sailesh
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
>

Received on Wednesday, 23 September 2020 19:03:39 UTC