Flow Charts (CL Office)

Flow charts can present a number of problems.  Some of the more common issues and solutions are listed below.

Common Problems with Flow Charts

1. They require Alternative text because they contain graphical elements that convey information.
2. The alternative text needs to be sufficiently descriptive to convey the concept being illustrated in the flow chart.  This can make for very long alt. text that could be potentially difficult or confusing to compose and/or listen to.  Some screen readers don't handle long alt. text very well.  
3. Because flow charts contain text along with the graphical elements, the text gets tagged in the PDF and usually in the wrong reading order.

For the reasons mentioned above, it might be better to choose other options other than flow charts to provide important information.  Another option could be to provide the necessary information in text and then use a flow chart as a supplemental means of conveying the information.   

Two Solutions When Using Flow Charts in a Document

If choosing to add a flow chart we recommend using one of these options:

1. (Recommended)  Create the flow chart separately, save it as an image (take a screenshot, for example), and then insert the image into the Word document (or PowerPoint slide) and provide accurate Alt. text. 
2. Fix it in the PDF.  Manually delete the tags that contain the text in the flow chart.  Leave the Figure tag with its Alt. text.  Depending on your knowledge of PDF tags, this can be a difficult and error-prone process.