Accessing PDF Documents with Assistive Technology A Screen Reader User’s Guide
Contents Contents Contents i Preface 1 Purpose and Intended Audience Contents 1 1 Acknowledgements 1 Additional Resources 2 PDF Documents and Accessibility 2 Characteristics of an accessible PDF document Adobe Reader Accessibility Features Using the Accessibility Setup Assistant 2 3 3 Changing accessibility settings with the Preferences dialog box 7 Saving an Adobe PDF document as text 9 Navigating PDF documents with keyboard alternatives to mouse actions 9 Automatically tagging untagged do
Contents The Preferences dialog box 19 Opening PDF documents 19 The Window-Eyes Page Navigation Dialog Box Opening forms 23 23 Using Adobe Reader Help 24 Saving a PDF document as text 25 Using the Adobe Reader Find and Search tools The Go To Page dialog box 26 27 Accessing PDF Documents with Assistive Technology ii
Preface Preface Purpose and Intended Audience This user guide provides guidance on accessing Portable Document Format (PDF) documents for blind and visually impaired users of screen reading technology. The goal is to enable a better understanding of the issues that affect the accessibility of PDF documents by discussing specific examples, highlighting important principles, illustrating common problems, and presenting suggested solutions.
PDF Documents and Accessibility Additional Resources For more information on Adobe accessibility resources, visit www.adobe.com/accessibility. To download the latest version of Adobe Reader, visit www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html For more information on Adobe Reader keyboard shortcuts, visit www. adobe.com/enterprise/accessibility/reader/appx_a.html. For more information on JAWS and Freedom Scientific, visit www.freedomscientific.com For more information on Window-Eyes and GW Micro, visit www.
Adobe Reader Accessibility Features Alternate text descriptions for figures, form fields, and links Authors of accessible PDF documents add descriptive alternate text to page elements that are typically presented not as text but only as visual elements, such as graphics, figures, form fields, and links. When screen readers encounter alternate text, they can interpret the element and read its alternate text description aloud.
Adobe Reader Accessibility Features used, including radio buttons, check boxes, combo boxes, and buttons labeled “Previous”, “Next”, and “Cancel”. The assistant also includes static text that describes the controls and explains what they do. Accessibility Setup Assistant, Screen 1 of 5 On the assistant’s first screen, you can choose whether you want to set the options for screen readers, screen magnifiers, or both. There is also a button on this screen labeled “Use recommended settings and skip setup.
Adobe Reader Accessibility Features If you choose instead to set your own screen reader preferences, the following guidelines can help you select options tailored to your specific needs. Accessibility Setup Assistant, Screen 2 of 5 This screen is used to set preferences for text colors, text smoothing, and other options not central to screen reader technology. Click Next to proceed to screen 3.
Adobe Reader Accessibility Features information into a memory buffer that is directly available to the assistive technology. The amount of information that is delivered to the memory buffer can affect how quickly Adobe Reader performs tasks, such as opening the document, turning pages, changing views, and carrying out commands. The following options control how much information is delivered at one time to your screen reader: • Only Read the Currently Visible Pages.
Adobe Reader Accessibility Features Note: The Accessibility Setup Assistant defaults are optimized for your assistive technology. When you run it while using your assistive technology for the first time, and you select Use Recommended Settings and Skip Setup, Adobe Reader is configured with the settings that are most appropriate for use with that assistive technology.
Adobe Reader Accessibility Features You can access the Preferences dialog box by choosing Edit > Preferences. Press Alt+E and then N, or use the shortcut Ctrl+K. The dialog box is divided into two sections. The section on the left is a list of categories of preferences. The section on the right is a panel that contains the options that you can modify for the selected category. The first time that you open the Preferences dialog box, focus is on the Accessibility category.
Adobe Reader Accessibility Features • To bring focus to items in sublists, use the Up Arrow, Down Arrow, Right Arrow, and Left Arrow keys. • To select or deselect an option that has focus, press the Spacebar.
Types of PDF Documents and there are keyboard shortcuts for many actions. Each of the sections on JAWS and Window-Eyes in this guide provides information on keystrokes specific to that screen reader. More information on Adobe Reader keyboard shortcuts is available at http://www.adobe.com/enterprise/accessibility/reader/appx_a.html.
Types of PDF Documents Before your screen reader can access an image only PDF document, you need to convert the image into accessible text. You can use any application with built-in OCR functionality, including Adobe Acrobat. You can also use certain third party OCR software applications, which have built-in tools to recognize PDF files. Even with the best OCR technology available, the result may not be perfect.
Types of PDF Documents Figure 3: Reading Untagged Document Dialog Assistive technology such as JAWS and Window-Eyes screen readers interpret the PDF tags in files viewed in Adobe Reader (or Acrobat). As a result these screen readers can render more accessible output in speech or Braille. Tagged documents Tagged documents provide the best reading experience for screen reader users.
Using Adobe Reader with JAWS its author, screen readers do a better job of interpreting the document’s structure, which also makes it easier to use your screen reader’s keystroke commands to navigate and read the document. Adobe Acrobat is the most popular software for creating PDF documents; and it includes a feature that analyzes the accessibility of a PDF file. It reports potential problems, including ambiguous structure and unlabeled pictures.
Using Adobe Reader with JAWS 2. You can also access the JAWS Help system by bringing focus to your JAWS application and pressing F1. If you do it this way, you will begin on the Contents page of the JAWS Help system. Place the cursor on the book in the tree view titled “Popular Applications with JAWS” and press the Right Arrow key to open a list of Help Topics for more than 40 applications. At the top of the list is the Adobe Acrobat and Reader topic.
Using Adobe Reader with Window-Eyes Table 2: JAWS Commands for Using HTML and Adobe Reader Description Command Links List Insert+F7 Next Link Tab Prior Link Shift+Tab Open Link Enter List Headings Insert+F6 Next Heading H Prior Heading Shift+H Move To Next Form Field F Enter Forms Mode Enter Move To Next Form Field Tab Move To Previous Form Field Shift+Tab Exit Forms Mode NUM PAD PLUS Move To Next Table T Move To Previous Table Shift+T Read Current Table cell Ctrl+
Using Adobe Reader with Window-Eyes Overview of Window-Eyes support for Adobe Reader The Window-Eyes built-in Help system includes basic information for using Adobe Reader. To access this information, press Shift+Ctrl+Question while Adobe Reader is open. This will place focus in a help document that you can read with standard Window-Eyes reading commands. To exit this document, press the Escape key.
Performing Common Tasks with Adobe Reader Table 4: Window-Eyes Commands for Using HTML and Adobe Reader Description Command Links List Insert+Tab Next Link Tab Prior Link Shift+Tab Activate Link Enter List Headings Insert+Tab Next Heading H Prior Heading Shift+H Move To Next Form F Exit Browse Mode (to fill out a form) Enter Move To Next Form Control Tab Move to Previous Form Control Shift+Tab Reenter Browse Mode Shift+Ctrl+A Move To Next Table T Move to Previous Tabl
Performing Common Tasks with Adobe Reader • Setting accessibility options with the Preferences dialog box • Opening PDF documents • Using the Adobe Help System • Saving a PDF document as text • Using search and find tools This section describes each of these tasks, and where applicable, provides information specific to JAWS and Window-Eyes.
The Accessibility Setup Assistant The Accessibility Setup Assistant The first time you run Adobe Reader with screen reader software, the Accessibility Setup Assistant will open. You can use the assistant to adjust how Adobe Reader interacts with assistive technologies such as screen readers and screen magnifiers. You navigate through the assistant’s dialog boxes as you would any standard Windows dialog box, using tab, arrows, spacebar, and enter.
The Accessibility Setup Assistant Opening image only documents Most image only documents are created by authors who placed a printed page through a scanner and saved the resulting image as a PDF document. Although text may appear on the screen, it is only a picture of text without the underlying characters needed by JAWS. When you open an image only file, Adobe Reader treats it as an untagged document, and presents the dialog to start the tagging process.
The Accessibility Setup Assistant The next set of options, labeled “Reading Mode Options”, controls how much information is delivered at once to your screen reader. For large documents, select the radio button labeled “Read the Currently Visible Pages only.” This option loads information from a few pages at a time into the memory buffer of the screen reader. The second option is labeled “Read the Entire Document At Once”.
The Accessibility Setup Assistant complex page designs that can affect how well Adobe Reader interprets the content. If you are having trouble reading particular PDF documents, you can experiment with the other Reading Order options. Note for JAWS users regarding untagged documents: During the tagging process, JAWS periodically announces the percentage of the process that has been completed.
The Accessibility Setup Assistant move to links in the list that begin with that letter. After selecting a link, press Enter to follow it. Press Tab and Shift+Tab to move back and forth between the links in a document when using JAWS. With Window-Eyes, press L or Shift+L to move back and forth between the links in a document. Lists: With JAWS, press L or Shift+L to move between tagged lists in a PDF document. With Window-Eyes, you can move between the various lists by pressing S or Shift+S.
The Accessibility Setup Assistant back and forth between form fields. The Up and Down Arrow keys move focus between combo box and radio button choices, and Enter activates buttons. Press the Spacebar to select or deselect a check box. Notes for JAWS and Window-Eyes users regarding forms: Press F to move to the next form in a document, and press Enter to enter forms mode so you can begin filling out the form.
The Accessibility Setup Assistant When you press Enter on a topic with a plus sign, the list of subtopics is expanded beneath it. When you press Enter on a topic with a minus sign, the list contracts. When you press enter on a topic with no plus or minus sign, the help topic is displayed in the contents frame.
The Accessibility Setup Assistant the file with a Braille printer. A text version of a PDF document contains no images or multimedia objects, but it will contain alternate descriptions for images if the author provided them. To save a file as text, choose File > Save as Text or press Alt+F and then V. This brings up a standard Windows “Save As” dialog, and you can use Tab and Shift+Tab to move back and forth between the various controls.
The Accessibility Setup Assistant choose a drive or folder on your computer in which to search. Then press Shift+Tab three times to move back to the edit field, type your search terms, and press Enter. It may take a while to display your hits, depending on how many documents are located in the search. The tree view that appears shows each document in which your search terms are found, followed by each hit for each document.
