User`s guide
Table Of Contents
- Accessing PDF Documents with Assistive Technology A Screen Reader User’s Guide
- PDF Documents and Accessibility
- Contents
- Preface
- PDF Documents and Accessibility
- Adobe Reader Accessibility Features
- Types of PDF Documents
- Using Adobe Reader with JAWS
- Using Adobe Reader with Window-Eyes
- Performing Common Tasks with Adobe Reader
- The Accessibility Setup Assistant
- Accessibility Setup Assistant notes for JAWS users
- Accessibility Setup Assistant notes for Window-Eyes users
- The Preferences dialog box
- Opening PDF documents
- The Window-Eyes Page Navigation Dialog Box
- Opening forms
- Using Adobe Reader Help
- Saving a PDF document as text
- Using the Adobe Reader Find and Search tools
- The Go To Page dialog box
Accessing PDF Documents with Assistive Technology 2
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 Scientic, visit www.freedomscientific.com
For more information on Window-Eyes and GW Micro, visit www.gwmicro.com .
PDF Documents and Accessibility
Portable Document Format (PDF) is an electronic le format developed by Adobe Systems
Inc. PDF is one of the most popular le formats used on the Internet. e free Adobe Reader
soware -- available for Microso Windows, Apple Macintosh, and UNIX -- allows a PDF
document’s visual integrity to hold true regardless of the computer used to view it.
Because PDF is used for such wide-ranging documents as product manuals, nancial and legal documents,
government related forms, and educational materials, it is critically important that people using screen
readers have proper access to this format. PDF is an electronic format, giving it an advantage over paper
documents because PDF documents can be accessed via synthetic speech or refreshable Braille.
Unfortunately, PDF and screen readers do not always interact as users would like. e main barrier to
accessibility is that PDF documents are not always designed by their authors to be compatible with screen
readers. ese issues, caused by lack of planning for accessibility, mirror Internet accessibility issues that
occur when a Web designer fails to follow the accessibility guidelines of the World Wide Web Consortium’s
Web Accessibility Initiative. Adobe has developed a number of tools and resources to make it easier for
authors to create accessible PDF documents; these are available at http://www.adobe.com/accessibility.
Characteristics of an accessible PDF document
All accessible PDF documents have the following ve characteristics:
A logical structure and reading order
For screen readers to read a PDF document eectively, the document must have an underlying
logical structure and reading order. is logical structure and reading order use behind-the-
scenes elements called tags, which a PDF author adds to the document. Tags dene the intended
reading order of the content on each page. Screen readers rely on these tags to present text in a
way that makes sense when someone is hearing the text read out loud. e tags allow a screen
reader to interpret page elements such as headings, sidebars, tables, and multi-column text.