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Re: Checking and Fixing PDFs With a Screen Reader?

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From: Peter Quale
Date: May 22, 2019 5:24PM

Hi Brandon,

Reading through the PDF with a screen reader is pretty straightforward as
you're looking for a logical reading order that matches the visible order
of the content in each page and then look for appropriate headings and
heading levels.

You might check out the "Screen Reader Output" report found in the PAC 3
tool
<https://www.access-for-all.ch/en/pdf-lab/pdf-accessibility-checker-pac/downloading-pac.html>
available free from Access for All in Switzerland. I'm consistently
impressed with the accuracy.

As for Word, as long as your documents avoid tables or other wacky layouts
and again follow a logical heading structure, the results are usually
favorable. Be sure to always us the "heading" styles and avoid other
options like "Title" as there is no equivalent in the PDF tags. Then fixing
the documents is pretty easy-- just go in and adjust headings as necessary.
Oh, and rely on the style spacing provided by Word and remove all extra
lines and useless spaces as the screen readers will likely try to read them
as "blank, blank, blank".

If you need documents that meet the PDF/UA spec, you can use the issues
indicated by the PAC 3 tool and search for the specific error text-- Google
results will often bring up pages from Kenny Moore's site, TaggedPDF.com,
where he includes excellent step-by-step instructions to fix each one.

-Peter

On Wed, May 22, 2019 at 4:33 PM glen walker < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> A few months ago we talked about the accessibility of the checker in word.
> See https://webaim.org/discussion/mail_thread?thread=9180
>
>
> On Wed, May 22, 2019 at 3:23 PM Brandon Keith Biggs <
> <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
> > Hello,
> > Is there any way to run an accessibility check that is readable (and
> > preferably free) that is usable with a screen reader?
> > Then what is the best way to fix those issues if the document is coming
> > from Word?
> > Thank you,
> >
> > Brandon Keith Biggs <http://brandonkeithbiggs.com/>;
> > > > > > > > > >
> > > > >


--
*Peter Quale*
Google Voice: (707) 992-5696