Re: Inaccessibility of EN301-549 (PDF format) Standards for screen reader users

Hello Steve / Charles,
 The tables Annex A.1 and A.2 can be tagged without great difficulty.
It lacks colspan and scope.   See attached tagged PDF I sent  to ETSI
in late May as an example.
I suggested to ETSI with regard to Annex A.1 and A.2 tables specifically:
- Breaking up the table by guideline will make it easier for
navigation and findability.
- They do use abbreviations elsewhere, so they should not have a
problem using P / O / U / R for the principle. And to collapse the
four columns for principles into a single one.
An HTML version of  what I proposed was shared with ETSI- a single
column for the principles:
http://mars.dequecloud.com/demo/EN_Annex_A-1Format.html
(It has only 3 rows for demonstrating different values in the principle column).

And the EN 301549 can be searched and downloaded from
European EN Standards  search page:
https://www.etsi.org/standards-search#Pre-defined%20Collections
I am using ETSI EN 301 549 V3.2.1 (2021-03) ... the latest one.

Most recently, I was communicating with Laure.Pourcin@etsi.org.
It will help if more people  urge ETSI  to properly  tag the standards
and test them before publication ... ETSI needs to follow the same
process everyone who  is supposed to abide by the standards is
expected to do.
So please ask more users to write to ESPsupport@etsi.org.

Thanks,
Sailesh


On 7/4/22, Steve Green <steve.green@testpartners.co.uk> wrote:
> To be fair, the document isn't entirely inaccessible. The first ten pages
> are pretty bad, but the heading structure is ok for the rest of the
> document, with H1 to H6 headings all used correctly. As far as I can tell,
> all the images have visible text that conveys all the necessary
> information.
>
> If ETSI want any advice, I would be glad to help. If they don't have the
> skills to fix the document, we would be happy to quote for that. Of course
> there are other companies on this list that offer such a service.
>
> Steve
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Charles 'chaals' (McCathie) Nevile <chaals@yandex.ru>
> Sent: 04 July 2022 17:20
> To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
> Subject: Re: Inaccessibility of EN301-549 (PDF format) Standards for screen
> reader users
>
> Turns out I know someone in ETSI so I am following up. It is indeed
> unfortunate if their spec is not accessible, so detailed technical
> explanationn like this is helpful
>
> cheers
>
> On Mon, 04 Jul 2022 09:57:38 +0200, Steve Green
> <steve.green@testpartners.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> You are correct, Sailesh. There are accessibility issues throughout
>> the document, especially the inappropriate use of tables to control
>> layout, incorrect table cells marked as headers, missing "rowspan"
>> attributes, lists broken across pages etc.
>>
>> The table that starts on page 90 is horrible because it's got three
>> levels of column headings. It's not possible to tag it correctly in
>> Word and you can't even fix it with Acrobat's Table Editor because it
>> doesn't work if cells contain rotated text. You have to add the
>> required attributes to the Properties of each cell, but not many
>> people know how to do that.
>>
>> That said, I expect that screen reader users would still have a
>> horrible experience even if the table was tagged correctly. The
>> effective column header for some cells is the concatenation of the three
>> rows of headers.
>> This is very long and it is announced before the data in each cell
>> when using table commands to navigate across a row.
>>
>> If anyone is thinking of complaining to ETSI, remember that each
>> individual must have their own license for the standard. It would be
>> rather embarrassing if you submitted a complaint and they pointed out
>> that you don't have a license.
>>
>> Steve Green
>> Managing Director
>> Test Partners Ltd
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Sailesh Panchang <spanchang02@gmail.com>
>> Sent: 03 July 2022 19:54
>> To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
>> Subject: Inaccessibility of EN301-549 (PDF format) Standards for
>> screen reader users
>>
>> Hello Listers,
>> I had highlighted the subject issue in 2019  but the issues still
>> persist. So I followed up again just a few weeks ago by writing to ETSI.
>> For instance at present the data tables  in Annex A (A.1 and A.2) that
>> start on page 90 of version 3.2.1 (March 2021) do not convey
>> relationship between header cells and data cells.
>> The tables are not tagged to convey the column-span property. It
>> appears the PDF is created by saving Word files as PDF and no further
>> tagging is done.
>> So it is almost impossible to comprehend the table structure using a
>> screen reader.
>> This problem would also be caught by testing with AT (if done) before
>> the PDF is published publicly.
>> So it is important for users who depend on AT / accessibility features
>> to write to ESPsupport@etsi.org, convey their experience and urge ETSI
>> to make necessary changes.
>> It is not good that the standards  themselves pose accessibility
>> problems.
>> Thanks,
>> Sailesh
>>
>
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