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Re: Screen reader support for PDF forms

for

From: Birkir Rúnar Gunnarsson
Date: Jan 26, 2011 1:36PM

Mike

Before Hal v12 there was no pdf form support (no pdf support except
reading the text in a document. Headings, lists and links were not
recognized in the document at all, as of v12 this is no longer the
case, though I cannot speak to specifically how good the support is,
if you send me a form you have in mind I can test it with Hal v12).
I tested pdf with Orca, it did absolutely nothing (this is something I
did last summer, I can dig up precise software and version details),
did not even read the text in the pdf document I tested (I tested with
Milestone mp3 player user guide from Bones, accessible pdf document,
and a static pdf form, I can send you the document off list if you
want).
VoiceOver did basically just as badly.
That was on a MacMini, OSX, I think 10.6, whatever was the latest
available version in July 2010.
We do this screen reader comparison tests now annually and I will give
a presentation on the set up and results at this year's CSUN
conference.
After that I will send the full report out and would appreciate any
feedback or comments.
There may easily be mistakes there, especially in the open source
field where one pdf reader could perform a lot better than another, or
some secret settings have to be configured to drastically improve
access.
Cheers
-B

On 1/26/11, <EMAIL REMOVED>
< <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I know that PDF forms when built properly are well supported using NVDA and
> JFW. Even dynamic forms are now well supported in current releases of those
> screen readers.
>
> How well are they supported with other screen readers such as Apple's
> VoiceOver, Dolphin's HAL/SuperNova, GW Micro's Window Eyes or Orca? Does
> anyone have a matrix that lists what is supported by which versions? I am
> particularly interested in dynamic feature support such as branching logic
> and expandable text fields.
>
> Mike Moore
>
>