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Thread: Screen readers and Adobe 7
Number of posts in this thread: 2 (In chronological order)
From: Athol Gow
Date: Tue, Jul 12 2005 2:52PM
Subject: Screen readers and Adobe 7
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Hi Everyone,
I'm part of a group that is looking into the accessibility of web-based
documents at my institution and I'm trying to familiarize people with
some of accessibility issues that are raised by using PDF files. I was
wondering if anyone is aware of any screen reading programs that won't
work with PDFs created in/read in Adobe Acrobat/Reader Version 7 (and
by won't work, I mean cannot open and a read a PDF period - I'm not
referring to the issue of improperly converted documents.). Also, for
programs like Jaws or Window Eyes, would it be safe to assume that some
earlier versions of these programs will not be able to open PDFs
created and read in Adobe Acrobat/Reader v. 7 despite the continuing
accessibility improvements to this document format? If so, does anyone
know the version numbers before which there is no PDF functionality?
Thanks very much (and sorry if anyone has already encountered these
questions on the EASI listserv),
Athol Gow
From: Jared Smith
Date: Wed, Jul 13 2005 3:59PM
Subject: Re: Screen readers and Adobe 7
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> I was wondering if anyone is aware of any screen reading programs that won't
> work with PDFs created in/read in Adobe Acrobat/Reader Version 7
To the best of my knowledge, the only screen reader programs that support
PDF files are JAWS version 3.7+, Window Eyes version 4.1+, and IBM Home
Page Reader 3.04.
However, you have to remember that 'PDF support' is very subject to
interpretation. Earlier versions of JAWS and Window Eyes supported Acrobat
Version 5 files, but few of those files could actually be accessed. Any
type of complex layout or coding would render the files inaccessible. The
accessibility of PDF files has come a long way in recent versions, though
there's still a long way to go. The biggest hurdle we have, in my opinion,
is the absolute misuse of PDF documents on the Web in the first place.
Jared Smith
WebAIM.org