WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: webaim-forum-d Digest V2003 #109

for

From: skeegan
Date: Dec 21, 2003 11:29PM

Wayne,

It is possible to lock down a PDF and still provide some level of access. If
you are using Adobe Acrobat 5.x or 6, you can set security settings such that
"Content Copying and Extraction" is not allowed, but still provide access for
screen-reader technology (you can also read the document with Adobe's reading
voice in Reader and Acrobat). I have not tested this with the latest version
of Kurzweil 3000 or with PDFAloud software. (Has anyone else looked at this?)

Here is the catch: If you are going to lock down the document, but still want
to provide access, you need to set security at Acrobat 5.x or later. This
means that users will need to have Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader 5.x or later
installed in order to view the materials. If you have Reader 4.x, then this
won't work. While I am not a huge fan of requiring users to upgrade to the
latest versions of applications (especially considering how big Reader has
become lately), this is a situation where you can have both access and (some)
security.

Keep in mind, however, that there are a number of 3rd party tools that are
designed to break the security settings on PDF documents, so document security
can never be guaranteed forever.

take care,
sean

Sean Keegan
Web Accessibility Instructor
High Tech Center Training Unit of the
California Community Colleges
Cupertino, CA


Quoting <EMAIL REMOVED> :

> webaim-forum-d Digest Volume 2003 : Issue 109
>
> Today's Topics:
> Locking Document Content [ "Wayne Dick" < <EMAIL REMOVED> > ]
>



----
To subscribe, unsubscribe, suspend, or view list archives,
visit http://www.webaim.org/discussion/