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Re: Word & PDF Style Question About Headings

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From: Jonathan Cohn
Date: Jul 11, 2019 1:57PM

Is this a screen reader issue or a Word API issue? I don't know enough about how Word and current screen readers communicate such information, but it must be either from Visual Basic clues or UIA. I believe NVDA 2019 release notes mention something about using UIA for Word but I can't look at the specifics and I am not sure I understand enough Python if I could. But the real question I see here is:
Is Word not providing appropriate heading context to the screen readers, or are the screen readers ignoring this information.
> Jul 11, 2019, at 12:07 PM, Karlen Communications < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
> First, JAWS won't announce or list custom Headings. We've been complaining
> about this lack of support since 2003. Even if you base a Heading 1A or in
> your case a Heading 3 No Top line based on a Heading 3, JAWS won't see it as
> a Heading. It will appear in the TOC and in the Navigation Pane...anywhere
> else but when you are going through the document either reading using JAWS
> or trying to get a list of Headings.
>
> I just checked with JAWS and I can use JawsKey + F to get the font
> information and it tells me that Heading 1A is outline level 1. I renamed
> Heading 1A to Orange Text and using the same keyboard command I get the name
> of the Style and the outline level. However, as I'm reading the document,
> there is no indication from JAWS that I am on a Heading despite the text
> being in the Navigation Pane at its correct placement and despite being able
> to use References, Table of Contents to generate an accurate Table of
> Contents.
>
> Again, we've been asking for this support since 2003. Looks like NVDA does
> not support custom Headings either.
>
> It should convert to H3 when the document is converted to tagged PDF if the
> custom Heading is based on an existing Heading. Heading 3 No Top Line is a
> custom Heading. I've not ever seen it in the list of Styles for Word..
>
> Cheers, Karen
>
>
>