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Re: Are PDF forms accessible on Mac?

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From: Duff Johnson
Date: Apr 16, 2012 2:58PM

On Apr 16, 2012, at 4:32 PM, Paul J. Adam wrote:

> I'm wondering if anyone on this list has any experience with or knows if PDF forms on the Mac are accessible? Can they be filled out by someone who is blind using VoiceOver? Do accessible, electronically fillable forms work in the Preview App? I tried testing some with Preview that I thought would be accessible and they did not work at all.

Preview is very, very bad when it comes to PDF in all sorts of ways. And yes - accessibility is (one of) those problems.

> I installed Adobe Reader for OS X and it would not read any information in the PDF at all. Using Adobe Reader, VoceOver will not read anything in a PDF, form or not, outside of the close, minimize, zoom button, and the title.

This is Apple's choice (so far as I know). I do not know why they choose this.

> Preview will read PDF files using VoiceOver

My understanding (please correct me if I'm wrong) is that VoiceOver does not read PDF tags; it simply regurgitates the content without structure. Can you navigate a list or table using VoiceOver and Preview?

> From some quick testing I'm assuming that PDF files are not accessible to VoiceOver users with Adobe Reader.

It would, perhaps, be more accurate to say: accessible PDFs aren't supported in VoiceOver.

This way you know who is responsible.

Best regards,

Duff Johnson

President, NetCentric US
ISO 32000 Intl. Project Co-Leader, US Chair
ISO 14289 US Chair
PDF Association Vice-Chair

Office: +1 617 401 8140
Mobile: +1 617 283 4226
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www.net-centric.com

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