Alt attributes for gaphics in PDF?

[Robert_Johnson -at- percussion -dot- com]

We've had a request to add alt attributes to the graphics in our .pdf 
files so users can search on the graphics; basically, the requestor wants 
to replicate the alt attributes on graphics in HTML..   I've googled and 
looked at the PDF spec and the closes thing I've been able to find to what 
is being requested is tagging the .pdf file.  I tried adding tags with alt 
text to a couple of graphics in one of our .pdf files, but the reader 
search functionality did not find the text I entered.  Several of the 
resources I've found stated that tagging is used only by screenreaders, so 
it probably isn't the solution I'm looking for anyway.

We already caption any graphics that are not inline with text.  Are there 
other alternatives I may have missed that would make graphics more 
searchable in PDF?

Robert Johnson
Principal Writer
Percussion Software
Woburn, MA
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