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Thread: Screen readable PDF forms

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Number of posts in this thread: 6 (In chronological order)

From: Weissenberger, Todd M
Date: Fri, Oct 24 2014 8:56AM
Subject: Screen readable PDF forms
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We're rebuilding a series of PDF forms for some departments on campus, and I'm about at the end of my rope.

We have a matrix of radio buttons that will not remain in the correct reading order no matter what I do. It's laid out on top of a table (originally developed in MSWord). JAWS and NVDA render my tooltips only some of the time.

Anyone have a rock-solid method for creating complex forms in PDF (other formats are not an option, thanks) that read sequentially, and can tolerate a minor revision without falling completely apart?

Thanks,
Todd

From: Jonathan Avila
Date: Fri, Oct 24 2014 9:03AM
Subject: Re: Screen readable PDF forms
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> We have a matrix of radio buttons that will not remain in the correct reading order no matter what I do. It's laid out

It depends on whether you are using Acrobat Forms or LiveCycle forms. If you are using Acrobat forms -- the ones that you can insert from Adobe Acrobat Professional -- then you can specify the focus order follow the page tag structure or a prescribed focus order. You may need to specify the focus order if the document structure order is different from the intended order to complete the form. You can do this from the form editor.

Jonathan

-----Original Message-----
From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of Weissenberger, Todd M
Sent: Friday, October 24, 2014 10:57 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: [WebAIM] Screen readable PDF forms

We're rebuilding a series of PDF forms for some departments on campus, and I'm about at the end of my rope.

We have a matrix of radio buttons that will not remain in the correct reading order no matter what I do. It's laid out on top of a table (originally developed in MSWord). JAWS and NVDA render my tooltips only some of the time.

Anyone have a rock-solid method for creating complex forms in PDF (other formats are not an option, thanks) that read sequentially, and can tolerate a minor revision without falling completely apart?

Thanks,
Todd

From: Jonathan Whiting
Date: Fri, Oct 24 2014 9:19AM
Subject: Re: Screen readable PDF forms
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Assuming that you're using Acrobat and not LiveCycle (which is my guess
since you're starting in Word), this might be the result of a bug in
Acrobat. It does not typically tag forms correctly, even when using the
"Make Accessible" wizard or the "Add Tags to Form Fields" option.

If you run an accessibility check in Acrobat, does "tagged form fields"
pass or fail? If it fails (and you know they should be tagged), take a look
at section 3 of our WebAIM article on forms in Acrobat (
http://webaim.org/techniques/acrobat/forms#tags).

Jonathan Whiting
WebAIM

On Fri, Oct 24, 2014 at 8:56 AM, Weissenberger, Todd M <
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

> We're rebuilding a series of PDF forms for some departments on campus, and
> I'm about at the end of my rope.
>
> We have a matrix of radio buttons that will not remain in the correct
> reading order no matter what I do. It's laid out on top of a table
> (originally developed in MSWord). JAWS and NVDA render my tooltips only
> some of the time.
>
> Anyone have a rock-solid method for creating complex forms in PDF (other
> formats are not an option, thanks) that read sequentially, and can tolerate
> a minor revision without falling completely apart?
>
> Thanks,
> Todd
> > > >

From: Weissenberger, Todd M
Date: Fri, Oct 24 2014 1:39PM
Subject: Re: Screen readable PDF forms
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Jonathan Whiting, thanks for the pointer. I completed the steps as outlined on the WebAIM site.

So, and anyone feel free to chime in, should JAWS read these tooltips? Because NVDA reads them all, but JAWS reads nothing when a checkbox gets focus.

Ack.

Todd

-----Original Message-----
From: Jonathan Whiting [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ]
Sent: Friday, October 24, 2014 10:19 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Screen readable PDF forms

Assuming that you're using Acrobat and not LiveCycle (which is my guess since you're starting in Word), this might be the result of a bug in Acrobat. It does not typically tag forms correctly, even when using the "Make Accessible" wizard or the "Add Tags to Form Fields" option.

If you run an accessibility check in Acrobat, does "tagged form fields"
pass or fail? If it fails (and you know they should be tagged), take a look at section 3 of our WebAIM article on forms in Acrobat ( http://webaim.org/techniques/acrobat/forms#tags).

Jonathan Whiting
WebAIM

On Fri, Oct 24, 2014 at 8:56 AM, Weissenberger, Todd M < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

> We're rebuilding a series of PDF forms for some departments on campus,
> and I'm about at the end of my rope.
>
> We have a matrix of radio buttons that will not remain in the correct
> reading order no matter what I do. It's laid out on top of a table
> (originally developed in MSWord). JAWS and NVDA render my tooltips
> only some of the time.
>
> Anyone have a rock-solid method for creating complex forms in PDF
> (other formats are not an option, thanks) that read sequentially, and
> can tolerate a minor revision without falling completely apart?
>
> Thanks,
> Todd
> > > list messages to = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
>

From: Jonathan Whiting
Date: Sat, Oct 25 2014 3:39PM
Subject: Re: Screen readable PDF forms
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Radio buttons are a bit tricky. There are three properties that need to be
just right:


-The value in the "Name" field needs to match for all the radio buttons in
the group. This groups the options together and is not read by the screen
reader.
-"Tooltip" should usually be the same for each option in the group of radio
buttons. It is kind of like the <legend> in an HTML <fieldset>. This is
unique to radio buttons--Tooltip it is used as a unique ‘label' for all
other types of form fields.
-In the "Options" tab, there is a "Radio button Choice" field. The text in
this field will be read as well, kind of like an HTML <label>.


If these are all correct, then the correct information should be read by
JAWS.


Jonathan Whiting

WebAIM

On Fri, Oct 24, 2014 at 1:39 PM, Weissenberger, Todd M <
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

> Jonathan Whiting, thanks for the pointer. I completed the steps as
> outlined on the WebAIM site.
>
> So, and anyone feel free to chime in, should JAWS read these tooltips?
> Because NVDA reads them all, but JAWS reads nothing when a checkbox gets
> focus.
>
> Ack.
>
> Todd
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jonathan Whiting [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ]
> Sent: Friday, October 24, 2014 10:19 AM
> To: WebAIM Discussion List
> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Screen readable PDF forms
>
> Assuming that you're using Acrobat and not LiveCycle (which is my guess
> since you're starting in Word), this might be the result of a bug in
> Acrobat. It does not typically tag forms correctly, even when using the
> "Make Accessible" wizard or the "Add Tags to Form Fields" option.
>
> If you run an accessibility check in Acrobat, does "tagged form fields"
> pass or fail? If it fails (and you know they should be tagged), take a
> look at section 3 of our WebAIM article on forms in Acrobat (
> http://webaim.org/techniques/acrobat/forms#tags).
>
> Jonathan Whiting
> WebAIM
>
> On Fri, Oct 24, 2014 at 8:56 AM, Weissenberger, Todd M <
> = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>
> > We're rebuilding a series of PDF forms for some departments on campus,
> > and I'm about at the end of my rope.
> >
> > We have a matrix of radio buttons that will not remain in the correct
> > reading order no matter what I do. It's laid out on top of a table
> > (originally developed in MSWord). JAWS and NVDA render my tooltips
> > only some of the time.
> >
> > Anyone have a rock-solid method for creating complex forms in PDF
> > (other formats are not an option, thanks) that read sequentially, and
> > can tolerate a minor revision without falling completely apart?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Todd
> > > > > > list messages to = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
> >
>
> > > >

From: Don Mauck
Date: Tue, Oct 28 2014 7:41AM
Subject: Re: Screen readable PDF forms
← Previous message | No next message

Do you have tooltips checked in the JAWS verbosity settings, depending upon which verbosity level you choose you might want to check that.

-----Original Message-----
From: Weissenberger, Todd M [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ]
Sent: Friday, October 24, 2014 1:40 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Screen readable PDF forms

Jonathan Whiting, thanks for the pointer. I completed the steps as outlined on the WebAIM site.

So, and anyone feel free to chime in, should JAWS read these tooltips? Because NVDA reads them all, but JAWS reads nothing when a checkbox gets focus.

Ack.

Todd

-----Original Message-----
From: Jonathan Whiting [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ]
Sent: Friday, October 24, 2014 10:19 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Screen readable PDF forms

Assuming that you're using Acrobat and not LiveCycle (which is my guess since you're starting in Word), this might be the result of a bug in Acrobat. It does not typically tag forms correctly, even when using the "Make Accessible" wizard or the "Add Tags to Form Fields" option.

If you run an accessibility check in Acrobat, does "tagged form fields"
pass or fail? If it fails (and you know they should be tagged), take a look at section 3 of our WebAIM article on forms in Acrobat ( http://webaim.org/techniques/acrobat/forms#tags).

Jonathan Whiting
WebAIM

On Fri, Oct 24, 2014 at 8:56 AM, Weissenberger, Todd M < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

> We're rebuilding a series of PDF forms for some departments on campus,
> and I'm about at the end of my rope.
>
> We have a matrix of radio buttons that will not remain in the correct
> reading order no matter what I do. It's laid out on top of a table
> (originally developed in MSWord). JAWS and NVDA render my tooltips
> only some of the time.
>
> Anyone have a rock-solid method for creating complex forms in PDF
> (other formats are not an option, thanks) that read sequentially, and
> can tolerate a minor revision without falling completely apart?
>
> Thanks,
> Todd
> > > list messages to = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
>