Acrobat Reader - JAWS - PDF - Accessibility

Checking PDF Accessibility with Acrobat Reader

Introduction

Not all PDF files are equal in terms of accessibility but, thankfully, the days of opening a PDF file to be greeted with complete silence are (mostly) gone. But, while there is now ample opportunity for creating more accessible fields it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to learn that it is still possible to create a PDF file that is somewhat less than stellar on the accessibility front.

Broadly speaking there are two types of PDF, one which is image based and the other which is based on an existing document such as a Word document. But how do you know which is which straight from the off? How can you tell if a PDF you have is an accessible one? Or, at the very least, one that gives you a fighting chance of getting some quality feedback out of it?

Checking in Acrobat Reader

The main software used to work and manipulate PDF files is now called Adobe Acrobat DC (the DC standing for Document Cloud) but this is an expensive route unless you are continually working with PDFs. However, if you are one of the lucky souls who uses this software then great because you can open your PDF in the application and use the "Accessibility Checker" to report on the quality of the file. The "full report" is especially useful and will give you a complete breakdown of all of the elements in your PDF and whether they pass the accessibility checks.

However, most of us don't have the full Acrobat software, instead we run with the free to download Acrobat Reader. After all, we're only interested in being able to read the file in the first place and, if you are using a screenreader like JAWS, then there is some specific JAWS support built-in for that application.

What is not common knowledge is that there are some tips and checks that you can use in Acrobat Reader to check your PDF file. For example, if you are a mouse user, can you drag your mouse pointer over the PDF text to highlight it line by line? If so, then it is proper electronic text in the page. This means that your screenreader using colleague might just stand a chance of reading something but, if your mouse pointer creates an area selection, then it's likely you have an image only PDF. And, in this case, you are instantly in the realm of using OCR - and that's a future blog post by the way...

A good keystroke to get used to in Acrobat Reader is CONTROL D as this opens the Properties multi-tab dialog box where you can check more advanced information on the file. Open any PDF file you have on your PC in Acrobat Reader and use CONTROL D to launch the Properties dialog box. (Alternatively, open the File menu, ARROW DOWN to Properties and activate with ENTER.) With the Properties multi-tab dialog box open, check the following areas:

1. In the Description page, locate the "PDF Producer" setting. Ideally, the PDF Producer setting will indicate recent versions of MS Word or LibreOffice or something similar – if it mentions the word "image" or "scan" then beware. For example, I have an old PDF file that is a scan of a magazine article I enjoyed reading. I created this PDF using an old scan to PDF plugin so , while I can read it visually, I can't access it at all with a screenreader. The only option with something like this is to convert the file to text through OCR.
2. Also in the Description page, locate the "Tagged PDF" details, which will either be a "No" or a "Yes" value. Bear in mind that a "No" does not necessarily mean that a screenreader won't read the text in the file but it is an indication that it won't read it all correctly. Having said this, a tagged file doesn't mean that the text is guaranteed to be spoken in the right order either although if the setting is "Yes" you should find that the text-reading is generally more flowing and logical. The bottom line is, you are really after a "Yes" here.
3. Use CONTROL TAB to move to the Security page and locate the Content Copying for Accessibility setting. This should be set to "Allowed" - if it is set to "Not Allowed" then this may indicate that the current security settings of the file will prohibit some assistive technology from accessing the information in it. Once upon a time, the over-zealous nature of a lot of PDF security virtually guaranteed accessibility problems and a straight to OCR route. Those were the days...!

So, from the Properties dialog box you can get a pretty good indication of the likely issues and state of the current PDF file before you read it. Ideally, with an accessible PDF file, you will have all of these basic settings in place.

Using Read Out Loud

While checking the basic details is all well and good the absolute acid test is to use some text to speech and read the file. Acrobat Reader actually has its own built-in text to speech called Read Out Loud. Activate it in the following way:

1. Open the View menu in Acrobat Reader.
2. UP ARROW to the Read Out Loud item, then RIGHT ARROW or ENTER to move to the submenu.
3. In the submenu, choose the top item of Activate Read Out Loud and use the ENTER key to launch.
4. Alternatively, use the shortcut of CONTROL SHIFT Y to activate Read Out Loud directly.

With Read Out Loud active, you can control the speech in the following way:

• Stop reading: CONTROL SHIFT E
• Read the current page only: CONTROL SHIFT V
• Read to the end of the current document: CONTROL SHIFT B
• Pause reading: CONTROL SHIFT C

While Read Out Loud is handy, especially for sighted PDF creators who may not have direct access to a full blown screenreader, a TTS tool is no substitute for the latter. In my opinion, the best way of tackling the accessibility and the nuances of how text flows in a PDF file with speech, is to ask a few screenreader users if they wouldn't mind reading it. And while you are doing this, how about seeing if a few magnification users can read your PDF file at a higher level of magnification? Doing this will give you far greater insights into how well your design communicates across a more diverse readership. And isn't that what it's all about..?