® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY Achieving Accessibility with PDF Matt May 3 Feb 2010 Featuring Adobe Acrobat 9
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY Agenda What is Accessibility? Why is it Important? Acrobat 9 and PDF Accessibility Overview LiveCycle Designer Accessibility Techniques
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY What is Accessibility? Accessibility involves two key issues: How users with disabilities access electronic information How content designers, developers, and authors produce content that functions with assistive devices used by individuals with disabilities.
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY Adobe Acrobat 9 Accessibility Overview All products in the Acrobat family, Reader, Acrobat Standard, and Acrobat Professional work with conventional assistive technology products such as the popular screen readers JAWS and Window Eyes. All of the Acrobat products also have built in accessibility features such as Read Out Loud speech synthesis, the ability to control the contrast between background and text, and the ability to provide a large type display using the Reflow feature. Pro versions provide authors the ability to validate and create accessible PDF documents and forms from a variety of original sources including scanned paper documents.
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY Product Features: Lowering Barriers to Accessibility Works in Conjunction with Conventional Assistive Technology Screen Readers: Windows: NVDA, JAWS, SuperNova (Reader / Magnifier), Window-Eyes Linux: Orca Mac OS: VoiceOver Voice Recognition: Dragon NaturallySpeaking (Windows) Screen Magnifiers: Lunar, ZoomText (Windows) Built-in Features in Adobe Reader 9 and all versions of Adobe Acrobat 9 Mean There is Accessibility without Additional Software Incorporates Operating System Accessibility Features Read Out Loud, Reflow, High Contrast View, Autoscroll, Accessibility Setup Assistant
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY Product Features: Providing Accommodation for a Variety of Disabilities Accommodation Achieved With or Without 3 rd Party Assistive Technology Blindness (Text to Speech functionality: Read Out Loud and Screen Reader Compatibility also support for Braille output – refreshable keyboards, Braille embossers) Low Vision (Text to Speech functionality, Support for Magnification and Large Type Display: Reflow, High Contrast Viewing, Read Out Loud, Screen Magnifier Compatibility) Limited Mobility (Autoscroll, numerous keyboard equivalents, compatibility with alternate input devices, Support for Voice Recognition - Dragon, ViaVoice) Cognitive (Read Out Loud, Compatibility with TextHelp’s PDFAloud which highlights content as it is being spoken)
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY Product Features: Built In Accommodations Auto-scroll: moves the page for you View > Automatically Scroll Keyboard: Shift +Ctrl+H
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY Product Features: Built In Accommodations Export to Other File Formats Reader: Save as Accessible Text Acrobat: Export to: Word Document Rich Text Format (RTF) HTML XML Text High Contrast View Alters text and background colors Edit > Preferences (Ctrl-K) Select Accessibility Check “Replace Document Colors”
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY Product Features: Built In Accommodations Read Out Loud – Reads to You View > Read Out Loud > Activate Read Out Loud Shift + Ctrl + Y activates Read Out Loud Shift + Ctrl + V reads the current page Shift + Ctrl + B reads the entire document Shift + Ctrl + C pauses reading Shift + Ctrl + E stops reading
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY Product Features: Built In Accommodations Form Fields Edit > Preferences (Ctrl +K) select Reading and select “Read Form Fields” Reflow – Large Type Display View > Zoom > Reflow Ctrl + 4 Alt + V + Z + R
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY Product Feature: Optimize Adobe Acrobat / Adobe Reader for Best Results Accessibility Setup Assistant Configures the User Agent for Optimal Performance with Assistive Technology Adobe Acrobat Advanced > Accessibility> Setup Assistant Adobe Reader Help>Accessibility Setup Assistant
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY Adobe Acrobat Pro Versions Accessibility Details Compatible with Conventional Assistive Technology Has Built in Accessibility Accommodations Read Out Loud High Contrast Reflow Autoscroll Accessibility Setup Assistant Facilitates Accessible Authoring OCR Add Tags Touch Up Read Order Tool Accessibility Checker
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY The File Format: Accessibility Requirements Logical Reading Order – Does it make sense when you listen to it? Alternate Text Descriptions for Non-Text Elements – Have alternate text descriptions been added to graphics for those with visual disabilities? Logical Tab Order (Forms) – Can you navigate the form in a way that makes sense? Short Descriptions (Forms) – Are audible short descriptions added to form fields for those with visual disabilities?
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY Product Feature: Acrobat TouchUp Read Order Tool TouchUp Reading Order Tool in Acrobat 9 Professional for PDF Accessibility Repair Review and correct reading order Review and correct basic tagging issues Add Alternate Text to Figures Add Short Descriptions to Form Fields Tag simple tables quickly and easily Benefits Quick and easy to detect tagging errors Easy to fix most common errors
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY Scenarios for Accessible PDF You Have a PDF File Scanned PDF PDF Forms Acrobat Forms (Forms Toolbar in Acrobat 9 Professional) Searchable PDF You Intend to Create a PDF File Applications that Create Tagged PDF PDF Maker (for Microsoft Office) Other Applications PDF Form LiveCycle Designer (Application Distributed with Acrobat 9 Professional)
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY The PDF Accessibility Workflow.... Ask Yourself a Series of Questions in this Order Is the PDF a Scanned Image? Is the PDF Intended to be a Form? Is the PDF Tagged? Are the Items Properly Tagged? Verifying read order Verify proper tagging (i.e., figures, tables, etc.) Add alternate text descriptions to graphics Add short descriptions to form fields Have I Missed Something? Run the Accessibility Checker Make recommended and appropriate repairs until no problems found
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY From Acrobat From the Menu File > Open Keyboard Shortcut Ctrl + O Accelerator Keys Alt + F + O From Outside of Acrobat Tab to file and select (begin typing file name) Click on a PDF file Right Mouse Click (“Open With...”) 1. Open the PDF File
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY 2. Analyze the Content – Give Yourself an Idea of What Lies Ahead Determine the Complexity of the Document / Page Short document (a few pages) or a long document (many pages) Single Column / Multi Column? Are there graphics present? Tables? Does it appear to have multiple headings? Does it appear to have form fields? Is the layout easy or difficult to follow (side headings for example)?
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY 3. Determine if the PDF File is a Scanned Image Verify the presence of searchable text Zoom In, Look for “Jaggies” Search for Text on the Page (Ctrl F) Run “Read Out Loud” on the Page (First, Activate Read Out Loud: View > Read Out Loud, or Shift + Ctrl + Y, or Alt + V + A + A) Menu: View > Read Out Loud > Read This Page Only Keyboard: Shift+ Ctrl+V Alt + V + A + P If it is an image, Read Out Loud will prompt you to run the optical character recognition engine, “Recognize Text Using OCR” (see next slide)
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY 3. Determine if the PDF File is a Scanned Image Perform the Quick Check Advanced > Accessibility > Quick Check Shift + Ctrl + 6 Alt + A + A + Q Perform the Full Check Advanced > Accessibility > Full Check Alt + A + A + F
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY If it is a Scanned Image... Perform OCR Optical Character Recognition Menu: Document > OCR Text Recognition > Recognize Text Using OCR Formatted Text and Graphics (ClearScan for Acrobat 9) Verify Language Lowest Downsampling (600 dpi) Alt + D + Z + S Search for and Correct “Suspects” Menu: Document > OCR Text Recognition > Find First OCR Suspect Proofread (Touchup Text Tool) Read Out Loud Can Also Launch OCR
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY 4. Locate URLs and Activate Links Use Acrobat’s Create Links from URLs Command This has the effect of converting URLs in a PDF document to active hypertext links Advanced > Document Processing > Create Links from URLs ALT + A + D + C
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY 5. Determine if the PDF File is Meant to be a Form Visual Inspection Does the Document Appear to be Soliciting Information – Name, Address, Social Security Number? Read Out Loud / Screen Reader Also Offer Clues for the Visually Impaired
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY If the PDF File is Intended to be an Interactive Form...Add Form Fields Automatically detect Form Fields Forms > Run Form Field Recognition Alt + O + R or if you prefer Advanced > Accessibility > Run Form Field Recognition Alt + A + A + U Add form fields using the Acrobat Forms Tools Menu: Tools > Forms> Show Forms Toolbar Alt + T + R + B
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY If the PDF File is Intended to be an Interactive Form...Add Form Fields Add Form Fields to the Tags Add Tags after adding form fields: Advanced > Accessibility > Add Tags to Document Advanced > Accessibility > Add Form Fields to Tags Alt + A + A + D
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY Or Manipulate the Form in the Adobe Designer Or Manipulate in the Adobe Designer Menu: Advanced > Forms > Make Form Fillable in Adobe Designer…(Alt + A + F + M) Other LiveCycle Designer Options Available by Selecting from the Menu: Advanced > Forms from the Menu > Make Form Fillable in Adobe Designer (Alt + A + F + M)
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY Using the Designer: Open in the Designer from Acrobat Open the Form in the Designer Forms > Create New Form Alt + O + N Start with an Electronic Document Use the current document Run Auto Field Detection
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY Using the Designer: Verify Designer’s Accessibility Settings Open the Accessibility Palette Window > Accessibility Alt + W + C Shift + F6 Verify that Screen Reader Precedence is properly set
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY Using the Designer: Do This, Not That Combine Text Field Objects with Captions
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY Using the Designer: Merge Fields and Captions Merge as Caption Command Layout > Merge as Caption or Right Mouse Click and select the Merge as Caption option.
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY Using the Designer: Verify Tab Order View > Tab Order Alt + V + T Or use the tab order button Shift + Click the First Item Click remaining items in the desired order
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY 6. Determine if the PDF File is a “Searchable PDF” If you have performed the previous steps on the other PDF file types, your PDF will be a “searchable” PDF at this point You Have Ruled Out or Corrected for the Scanned Document You Have Ruled Out or Corrected for the Form Now It Behaves as if it Came from a Word Processing or Desktop Publishing Application (Print > Adobe PDF)
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY 7. Determine if the PDF File is Tagged Verify the presence of tags, add tags if necessary Verify Document Properties (Lower left corner of document properties dialog) Menu: File > Document Properties Keyboard: Ctrl + D Display the Tags Panel and use the Options Menu to verify Document is Tagged PDF Menu: View > Navigation Panels > Tags Run a Quick Check Run a Full Check
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY If the PDF File is Not Tagged...then add Tags to the File Add Tags to Document Menu: Advanced > Accessibility > Add Tags to Document ALT + A + A + A
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY 8. Determine if the Items are Properly Tagged Use the TouchUp Reading Order Tool Menu: Advanced > Accessibility > TouchUp Reading Order ALT + A + A + T Verifying read order (Follow the Numbers)
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY 8. Determine if the Items are Properly Tagged Show Order Panel Button on TouchUp Reading Order Tool Menu: View > Navigation Panels > Order ALT + V + N + O Add alternate text descriptions to graphics Add short descriptions to form fields Verify proper tagging (i.e., figures, tables, etc.)
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY 9. Make Sure You Have Not Missed Anything Run the Accessibility Full Check Menu: Advanced > Accessibility > Full Check ALT + A + A + F Make recommended and appropriate repairs – Read the Report, Follow the Hyperlinks Repeat this process until “No Problems Found”
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY 38 Microsoft Word to Accessible PDF – Use the Adobe PDFMaker Add Alternative Text to Graphics in the Word File Select an image, use Format Picture dialog, add ALT text using the Web tab Do NOT Use Spaces, Tabs to create tables, use the Table Editor Do NOT Use Character formatting for Headings, Use Styles Set Your Preferences From the Microsoft Word Menu: Adobe PDF > Change Conversion Settings ALT + B + S Make sure “Enable Accessibility and Reflow with Tagged PDF” option is selected
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY 39 Microsoft Word to Accessible PDF – Use the Adobe PDFMaker Convert with Adobe PDFMaker From the Microsoft Word Menu: Adobe PDF > Convert to Adobe PDF ALT + B + C Select the icon Check the Results in Adobe Acrobat 9 Alt + A + A + F Follow the Suggestions for Repair, Repeat Until No Errors Detected
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY A Caution Regarding Automated Checking There is NO Accessibility Button Tell Your Customers Accessibility Requires Human Testing in addition to Automated Checking Checking Can Only Detect for the Presence or Lack of Required Items Cannot Check if an Item is Correct or Appropriate Accessibility is a New Item for the Production Workflow – Like Authoring, Layout, Proofreading, etc. Note Also, Publishers Will Need to Employ a Variety of Techniques and Methods
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY Loose Ends (Some Common Errors That Crop Up) Check the Language Attribute in Acrobat File > Properties (Ctrl D) Choose the Advanced Tab, Select the Appropriate Language Use Tags Panel to Provide Table Headers in First Table Row In LiveCycle Designer, First Page Subform Needs to Have a Language Set Fix Tab Order Does Not Correspond with Read Order Error Display the Pages Panel: View > Navigation Panel > Pages Select a Page and then Select All (Ctrl + A) Select Page Properties and Check “Use Document Structure”
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY 42 For More Information Adobe’s Accessibility Website: Your Resource for Acccessibility Information for Adobe Products Adobe’s Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates (VPATs)
® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. ADOBE® ACCESSIBILITY 43