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For the first time in... ever, I am planning on putting together an instruction document that requires embedded screenshots. I fear this may mean a PDF, since I want this to be easily distributable. I will, of course, include textual descriptions of all the pertanent things found in said screenshots.
Suggestions on screen reader accessible wways of doing such things would be greatly appreciated.
This entry was edited (1 month ago)
in reply to Patrick Perdue

I believe the only accessible way to create documents that can be turned into PDF is via MS Word, maybe, just maybe also LibreOffice, but I am not experienced enough with the latter to be certain of that. In Word, you can then use the heading paragraph templates, and others to structure the document. You can add alt text to images you insert, and in the end, you can save as a PDF, which by default, is also tagged, and the tags are being generated from the structure of the source document. Even tables work reasonably well.
in reply to Patrick Perdue

I'd actually include the proper alt text and show "icon.png" as the text on the actual image just to hit back at the sighted folks.
in reply to Patrick Perdue

@jakobrosin Write it up as a word doc and then export as pdf, or do the same on pages, which is where I export all my invoices. I write them up in word 2003 (yes that one) then export to PDF on Mac. It makes smaller PDF's than #Microsoft 'Print to PDF' which for some reason, doesn't like being sent through emails. always arrives at the other end as weird garbled gark spluge. Mac's PDF's do not.
in reply to Andre Louis

@FreakyFwoof @jakobrosin Print to PDF is bad news for accessibility. This is well documented in a bunch of places, apparently.
in reply to Patrick Perdue

@FreakyFwoof @jakobrosin Don’t use print to PDF. Use Saveas and choose PDF as the file format instead. You can even check the options that including tags is actually checked or not. By default, It is checked in Word nowadays. Print to PDF just gives you a bare minimum file that is mostly a graphic.
in reply to Patrick Perdue

Type everything in Word, save as PDF. should be accessible. I'm not 100% sure that there are no quirks, so first try with a paragraph of text and one image.
in reply to André Polykanine

@menelion It's been literally 20 plus years since I've used word. I'm an audio guy, not an office person.
How does one add accessible alt text to an embedded image?
in reply to Patrick Perdue

there is a context menu item for that, Add Description, or something like that. If needed, I can try and get you the detailed steps.
in reply to André Polykanine

I could never fight with word, for all the 15 plus years I used windows to be fair... It was bad, frustrating, and I am glad pages is now a thing because it's sooo much simpler.