About Section 508 "accessibility" preparation...

["John S. Milligan" <john_milligan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Greetings all:

As production artist for my company, I am tasked with creating Section-508
compliant Acrobat files.  These PDFs are so constructed that visually
impaired folks can "read" them by means of screen reader software.  Through
some intriguing trials and errors, I've mastered the ephemeral process, but
encountered some arcane corners of the PDF making process that I wish to
submit to the readers of this list for discussion:

Note: Any vendor preparing documentation in Acrobat format for use by any US
Government agencies must do so in accordance with Section 508, or lose the
contracts and sales.  We know who we are...

Some questions:

1) At one point, I laid out all of the title page with text frame snippets,
in lieu of a single Flow A text frame.  This was not smart, all screen
readers stop at the first frame and do not proceed.  Am I correct, that I
should have my entire book in the default per-page Flow A frames.  Yes? No?

2) In the PDF Setup dialog box, a few questions arise:

- how important is it to really organize the tags?

- among the "Bookmarks" options, there are two checkboxes:
   a) Include Paragraph Tags in bookmark text
   b) Article Thread by (menu)
   When are these important, vis-a-vis making PDF files screen-readable?

(what are they good for, at all?)

What if my book has some text in multi-column Flow A frames and other texts
in single-column Flow A frames (in terms of "threading")?

3) n the Tags options, it seems I need to have this aspect active, to have
Generate Tagged PDF checked. How important is it to have "all" the Paragraph
formats included, and how important is it to have the Logical Structure
Level fully organized?  Does a disorganized structure affect Acrobat
performance in screen readers?

4) What is the benefit of organizing the helter-skelter structure levels?
(In my books, the formats are "crazy" by default.  What does this do to my
files?)

5) in the Links option, if I don't check the Create Named Destinations...
checkbox, I get all manner of buggy grief from FrameMaker re "older version
files".  As a result, I can't  update or print un-Linked book files.  Then
again, I have no compelling reason to deactivate this option, or so it
seems.  Is it important regarding accessibility and screen readers?

OR what is the inherent value of this option?


Thanks for your replies.  Knowledge is a good thing.

-- John Milligan

...........................................................................
John S. Milligan | Production Arts
Email: john_milligan@filemaker.com




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