section 508 compliance

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Zach Agioutantis
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Joined: Sat Sep 03, 2011 10:23 pm

section 508 compliance

Unread post by Zach Agioutantis »

I have seen scattered info on section 508 compliance throughout the forum, but not really an answer to the following questions.

When a PDF is created from an H&M file, then
a) the ALT text information (under Tooltip in the edit picture dialog) are not assigned as ALT text in the PDF
b) Tags are not created

This info is provided when running a "full check" accessibility through Adobe Pro itself.

So, is section 508 compliance directly supported in H&M 4? Is it supported under 5? Is there an add-on or an automated way to do it.

Thanks in advance
Zach
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Tim Green
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Re: section 508 compliance

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Zach,

The PDFs produced by Help & Manual are currently not yet 508 compliant. This will not be possible until we update to the PDF-A format, which is planned for Help & Manual 6.1 sometime next year.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Zach Agioutantis
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Sep 03, 2011 10:23 pm

Re: section 508 compliance

Unread post by Zach Agioutantis »

Thanks Tim. Looking forward to it
Nusrat Khan
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Oct 04, 2012 9:28 pm

Re: section 508 compliance

Unread post by Nusrat Khan »

Tim, please see my question below re: 508-

I'm a technical writer with 3+ years of experience on H&M. I have been working on a very large project (consists of over 500 XML files) that must be published in both web and PDF format. This project includes many images, tables, and links (external and internal- to Word files, Excel spreadsheets, and PDFs). Since it is being made with funds from the federal government, it must be Section 508 compliant. I learned that the final PDFs (one file is close to 1,000 pages; the other is over 400 pages) are NOT 508 compliant. The company I was working with earlier did not handle this issue (and I was unaware of it); I'm now in a very difficult position. From one of the 508 Specialists in my new organization, I just learned that it will take MANY weeks to get these lengthy files to be 508 compliant.

Question: Is it possible to export (publish) as PDF with tags from H&M 6? Any help is appreciated!

Thank you very much,
Nusrat (Emma) Khan
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Tim Green
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Re: section 508 compliance

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Nusrat/Emma,

Section 508 compliance for PDF is still on the Wish List. It is partially implemented but not yet activated because it is not working correctly yet, due to problems in the PDF engine. We are still working with the PDF engine programmers to resolve these issues and will activate the support for this as soon as the issues are resolved. Sorry I can't give you better news on this at the moment, but the problems involved have not been solved yet.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

Private support:
Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
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