This page describes how users of LaTeX can adapt their source files or documents to make them compliant with new accessibility requirements. There are multiple options below, depending on an author's specific document issue, and there is at least one option for everyone.
Note: users of LaTeX use many different applications and environments, use many different packages and classes, and use them to produce many kinds of documents from class handouts to conference papers to textbooks and dissertations to slides. For that reason, there can be no one "magic bullet" that authors can all use, but there are several options that are magic bullet-like for a large number of cases.
Tagging PDFs
The biggest factor in making a PDF accessible is ensuring it is "tagged", which means that the file contains metadata describing the structure of the document, so that it can be parsed by other computer programs. By default, the LaTeX compiler does not produce tagged PDFs, but it , with a very new and somewhat experimental feature.
This feature is easy to enable with a short preamble and does not require any adaptation to your TeX files. However, it is not compatible with a number of packages; when it works, it almost completely solves your accessibility issues, and when it doesn't work, you need to try something else.
Alt text and other practices
While tagging is the most important fix (and sometimes all you need), there are other accessibility matters you may need to address. One is having "alt text" for any images in a document. For a tagged document, this can be achieved by adding an alt={} tag in an \includegraphics line, e.g.:
\centerline{\includegraphics[scale=0.35,alt={A binary tree}] {binaryTree}}
Alt text that is identified by Yuja as missing can also be added in Yuja itself. In either case, the first step with the biggest impact is getting the document tagged.
Follow these instructions to try tagging on your TeX file
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Tagging is a recent feature, and you’ll have problems if you’re using an old LaTeX compiler from years back. It is strongly recommended that you update before doing anything else.
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This preamble is 9 lines, that you place verbatim at the very start of your TeX file, before \documentclass. You can download the preamble here (.tex file), or just type it in:
\DocumentMetadata
{uncompress, %only for debugging!!
pdfversion=2.0,
testphase={phase-III,math,firstaid} %load and activate tagpdf and uses all the phase-III code
}
\pdfinfo{
/Author (This Author Name is Added to the PDF file)
/Title (This Title is embedded in the PDF file)
}
The second tag provides an Author and Title metadata item in the PDF file. That prevents Yuja from complaining that the file is missing a Title attribute, so that you automatically get 100% instead of 99% like everyone else.
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Unfortunately, tagging doesn’t work with all classes and packages. In particular, it won't work with the beamer class for making slides, and it won't work with common journal and conference paper templates. It will, however, work with the standard LaTeX style for many of our "common case" documents like handouts, syllabi, assignment sheets, etc. It should also work with the thesis and dissertation styles used at Binghamton University.
At this step, try to compile the document with the preamble. If you get errors (AND you already ensured you're using the latest LaTeX compiler), then you have to go to step four. If it compiles and the document is mangled, you also go to step four. If it looks good, upload it to Brightspace and see what happens.
- (optional)
Try one of the following options:
PLEASE NOTE: If your attempt at adapting your document does not seem to be working, or if you find yourself spending an outsized amount of time getting it to work, please
submit your document for remediation. You are not expected as an instructor to struggle with unusual PDFs with unusual problems. If you can fix it yourself, great! But we can fix things that are more complicated.