[Journalists] From a computer idiot

[Graham Downie]

I deal almost daily with untagged PDF files. Generally it does not matter 
but it matters very much when a document is large. With a properly tagged 
document you can navigate easily, similar to an HTML document. I have 
forwarded your questions to my brother who is a specialist in this area. He 
has written papers and given seminars on accessible software. I hope he will 
provide a technical response. Meanwhile, all PDF documents should be 
properly tagged, not only for blind users. But most are not.
I use Window Eyes. It allows changes in the reading format of PDF files. 
Even then, sometimes files cannot be read well. Saving the file, if that is 
not restricted, to a text file improves accessibility. Indeed, my normal 
practice with short PDF files is to select all, copy and paste into a word 
document and edit from there. This can be unhelpful if PDF files include 
tables.
Hope this helps.
Graham Downie

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Cheryl Wade" <cwade at mdn.net>
To: "Blind Professional Journalists List" <journalists at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2009 2:06 AM
Subject: Re: [Journalists] From a computer idiot


> One more question. Is this tagging something that only blind users neeed 
> to have done? Would a sighted reader be able to use an untagged document? 
> Would the average IT person consider such a request an inconvenience, or 
> do lots of people ask to have their documents tagged?
>
> Cheryl Wade
>
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