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Re: Are PDF forms accessible on Mac?

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From: Sailesh Panchang
Date: Apr 17, 2012 10:36AM

> It would, perhaps, be more accurate to say: accessible PDFs aren't supported
> in VoiceOver.
>
> This way you know who is responsible.
Sailesh: I suppose that's apt. And perhaps the answer lies (if I am
interpreting it correctly) in the widely read biography on Apple's
late founder. Mr. Jobs had not got the tech-cooperation he had sought
from Adobe and that had irked him(this was over a decade ago) and
thereafter he persevered to keep out access to Adobe's products from
Apple's products. And I suppose this has continued.
Sailesh


On 4/16/12, Duff Johnson < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> 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
> <EMAIL REMOVED>
> www.net-centric.com
>
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