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Re: Accessible ways to read pdf documents with screenreaderson windows

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From: Karen McCall
Date: Sep 1, 2021 7:37AM

I have Adobe Acrobat Pro DC which is a subscription application. I have this instead of just a PDF reader because I do try to add tags to untagged documents to see if I can quickly get something useful and I also used to do PDF remediation. Reader doesn't allow you to add tags to untagged PDF.

Yes, generally it is faster to just convert the PDF to Word in order to read it, especially if it is a long document.

If you are using adaptive technology you should get a notification that the document is not tagged if you use Adobe Reader or Acrobat. You don't get this viewing a PDF in a browser. You also get a warning if the document is scanned which you won't get when viewing a PDF in a browser. This is why forcing us to read a PDF in a browser is an accessibility barrier created by Edge, Chrome and Firefox. Our settings to use a more accessible application to access content should not be overruled by another application.

Cheers, Karen