This document is for people who prefer to use flavors of markdown for their document writing instead of Microsoft Word. When writing in markdown issues arise when converting to pdf. In particular alt text for images are not displayed or transferred resulting in pdfs failing to pass accessibility checks. This document attempts to resolve this issue.

Steps are provided to help create 508 compliant pdfs in two different ways:

• Using word as a template doc

• Editing intermediate tex files

• To review outcomes perform a full check of your pdf (found in the accessibility tab)

An example text file in markdown is provided (example.md).

An equivalent Rmarkdown file is provided (example.rmd).

• The difference is only the inclusion of a YAML header.

A second Rmarkdown file is provided (example2.rmd).

• A code chunk is used instead of markdown to include images plus a YAML header.
• The resulting pdf (example.pdf) is provided as the final product
• A template word file (reference.docx) is provided to demonstrate examples of formatting.

Example example3.rmd demonstrates how to include alt text for images without using word as a template. This is done by keeping the intermediate tex file and modifying it (very slightly) before converting to a pdf. The resulting pdf passes accessibility checks albeit with not very descriptive alt text. This can be improved by including alt text in the rmd code chunk and running a script (R/replace_tex_with_rmd()) to modify the tex file further.

• An intermediate example3.tex file is provided to demonstrate the changes made to the tex file.

1. Alt text Best Practices
2. SSA Alt text guide
3. WebAIM web accessibility
4. NOAA Central library quick start guide
5. 508 Accessibility check
6. NOAA IR Guidelines

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