WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

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Re: Locked PDFs

for

From: Karlen Communications
Date: Jun 20, 2011 8:48AM

Agreed, and what I find is that sometimes document authors don't understand
the difference between locking up the document and providing access to
someone using adaptive technology. The document author has to manually
uncheck the check box to turn off access to adaptive technology. It should
be listed in the same place you found the copying and extracting turned
off... The text in the dialog reads: Document Accessibility and it is the
second item from the top of the list of security settings.

Cheers, Karen

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of
<EMAIL REMOVED>
Sent: June-20-11 10:21 AM
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Locked PDFs

It is possible to lock the document to prevent copying or printing but still
allow screen reader access. It sounds like they have locked the document and
failed to choose to allow access by screen readers. A quick test would be to
attempt to use read-out-loud in Adobe reader. You can find read out loud
under the view menu. If you can't read the content that way I would be
fairly confident in saying that it is unlikely that some can access the
content with a screen reader.

Michael Moore

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Gloriane Peck
Sent: Monday, June 20, 2011 9:14 AM
To: ' <EMAIL REMOVED> '
Subject: [WebAIM] Locked PDFs

I'm reviewing an online research database, and it uses locked PDFs, which I
haven't encountered before. In the Document Restrictions Summary, "Content
Copying for Accessibility" is set to "not allowed." Looking online, it
appears this setting would prevent screen readers from accessing this
content, but I am having a hard time finding anything definitive. Could
anyone comment on this or suggest a resource with information on this topic?

Thank you,
Gloriane Peck
Chicago Public Library