Lab: Alternative Text in PDF

Estimated Time to Complete:

20 minutes

Objectives:

In this lab, you will learn how to:

Add alternative text to images in Word and Acrobat.
Set up the conversion process to ensure accessibility.

Prerequisites:

A basic working knowledge of Word and Acrobat.

Version Information:

Microsoft Word 2007 and Acrobat 9.0

Files:

TDoI.doc(, 55 KB )

Adding alternative text in Microsoft Word

To begin:

Save TDoI.doc locally, and open it in Word.

The document is of the Declaration of Independence, and is mostly straight text. In the upper-left hand corner of the document is a picture of Thomas Jefferson, which at this point has no text description. Word helps to insert descriptions which can be used by other applications such as Acrobat.

To add alternative text to an image in Word :

Right-click on the image that is inaccessible.
Select 'Format Object' from the menu. This opens the 'Format Object' dialog box. (see Image 23).

Image 23: Adding alternative text in Word
Select the 'Alt Text' tab.
Type in the text description of the image.
Select OK.

Exporting to PDF

Now that you have added the text, you are almost ready to export to PDF. Before you do, it is a good idea to check the 'Preferences' to ensure that our export will maintain its accessibility. These can be accessed under the Acrobat menu.

To change the conversion settings in Word:

Select the Acrobat menu.
Select 'Preferences'. This opens a dialog box (see Image 24).

Image 24: Changing the conversion settings in Word
Select the Settings tab.
Make sure the 'Enable accessibility and reflow with Tagged PDF' checkbox is selected.
Select OK.

By making sure the tags checkbox was selected, the document can then keep meta information about the document, including our alternative text. This checkbox also guarantees the reflow that was mentioned earlier in this module. After changing the conversion settings, go ahead and create a PDF from this document.

Testing

To ensure that your document is accessible, it should be tested in as many ways as possible, including having an individual who has a visual disability examine your page. If this is not an option immediately available to you, other choices still exist. It is recommended that you read the Lab: Test Accessibility about the Accessibility Checker for PDF files and then use a screen reader such as JAWS (Browse to website) to hear how things are read.

Note:Use Acrobat or Acrobat Reader to do the testing as JAWS can sometimes have difficulty interacting with Word.

Having added our alternative text, review the differences in how the documents are read.

Image without alternative text

Listen to a screen reader skipping the image in a PDF file lacking alternative text (, 100 KB)
Or, read the transcript of a screen reader skipping the image in a PDF file lacking alternative text (, 1 KB).

Image with alternative text

Listen to a screen reader conveying the image in a PDF file with alternative text (, 82 KB)
Or, read the transcript of a screen reader conveying the image in a PDF file with alternative text (, 1 KB).

Adding alternative text in Acrobat

If you do not have access to an original document before it was converted to PDF and only have the resultant PDF file, you can still add alternative text to images. Your PDF file will fall under one of two categories; either it contains tags or it does not.

To determine if your document has tags:

Under the 'View' menu, then select 'Navigation Tabs', then select 'Tags'.
In the tags window, if you see 'Tags Root', then the structure is in place, and you can continue to add alternative text to images. If you see 'No Tags Available', you must first make it accessible. Refer to Retrofitting older PDF files within the Lab: Structure in PDF for more help on this.

To add alternative text for images in Acrobat:

Image 25: Finding the image in the tree hierarchy

Image 26: Adding alternative text in Acrobat

Select the 'View' menu, then select 'Navigation Tabs', then select 'Tags'..
Locate the image in the tree hierarchy. This should be something like 'Figure'.(Image 25).
Right-click on 'Figure' and select 'Properties'.
This should bring up a dialog box allowing you to type in the alternative text.
Type in the alternative text and select the Close button.(Image 26).

You can see that the alternative text we added in Word carried over in the conversion process. If you found an image that had not been given a text equivalent, follow the same methods as above, and type in the appropriate text.

The next page will present information on forms within PDF.

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Alternative Text

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Forms