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Re: Acrobat Read Out Loud mistakenly reads letter as RomanNumeral

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From: Nusbaum, Christopher
Date: Jul 17, 2014 12:47PM

Bevi:

I understand what you are saying, but could those users of whom you speak not use NVDA, WindowEyes for Office or even Narrator? If they're using Read Out Loud only when using Acrobat to read PDF's, what are they using in all other situations? It is true that seniors or the newly blind want something simple with a more gradual learning curve, and therefore wouldn't be as interested in a more advanced program like JAWS or VO on the Mac. However, there are free solutions which support more functionality and are more robust than Read Out Loud. I agree with you that our ultimate goal ought to be a more robust and reliable version of ROL from Adobe. Until that day comes, however, I feel we do a disservice to those who are newly blind by not teaching them the better free solutions which exist. All of this, of course, is IMHO only.

Chris

Christopher A. (Chris) Nusbaum, Intern
Technology Services Department
Assistive Technology Program
Carroll County Public Schools
Phone: (410) 751-3428
Cell: (443) 547-2409
Email: <EMAIL REMOVED>


-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Chagnon | PubCom
Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2014 2:28 PM
To: 'WebAIM Discussion List'
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Acrobat Read Out Loud mistakenly reads letter as Roman Numeral

I know Read Out Loud is not a true screen reader, but from my work with seniors, I've learned that they're a large user group. Social workers, senior center staff, and others who work with seniors teach them how to turn on ROL when they hit a PDF on a website or as an attachment.

I've also met folks who have just recently started to lose their sight or who have strabismus (crossed eyes) who use it because it gets the job done for them, and it's free.

What we need are better solutions to address these little problems (D pronounced as a roman numeral).

One that's been discussed before is a tag we creators can add at the character-level to instruct how to pronounce text (like acronyms and in this sample "D").

The other is a more "robust" Read Out Loud from Adobe.
I think it was included in Reader and Acrobat because without it, the software might not have passed the US federal government's requirement that the software be accessible for AT users. If that's the case, it's just enough to only pass the requirement, but not worth much as it stands.
Possibly Adobe can be encouraged to beef it up and make it a more useful tool for those who don't need a full-featured screen reader.

-Bevi Chagnon

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-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Nusbaum, Christopher
Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2014 1:33 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Acrobat Read Out Loud mistakenly reads letter as Roman Numeral

Jordan:

I wouldn't worry about it. Neither I nor anyone I know uses Read Out Loud for the very reason that it is *not* a viable screen reader. If someone does happen to read your PDF using Read Out Loud and there is a question, they could navigate character by character to clarify.

Chris

Christopher A. (Chris) Nusbaum, Intern
Technology Services Department
Assistive Technology Program
Carroll County Public Schools
Phone: (410) 751-3428
Cell: (443) 547-2409
Email: <EMAIL REMOVED>


-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Jordan Wilson
Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2014 1:02 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: [WebAIM] Acrobat Read Out Loud mistakenly reads letter as Roman Numeral

Normally when we see this topic its the opposite, a writer is trying to get letters to be read as Roman Numerals instead of letters. VII instead of Seven.

I'm running into the opposite - Acrobat's Read Out Loud mistakenly reads my letter as a Roman Numeral

If you put the text: "Medicare Part D" into a PDF and let Acrobat read it aloud using its built in Read Out Loud feature, the D is pronounced '500'
as if it was the Roman Numeral D.

Its important to note that if you view the same PDF in NVDA or JAWS it is read correctly as D. So the issue here is (probably) only with Acrobat's Read Out Loud functionality.

My question is how important is this? Can I assume that users will be using a viable screenreader? Is there anything I can do about it?

_

Jordan Wilson

<EMAIL REMOVED>
Associate Director, Creative Technology