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Thread: PDF viewers used by screen reader users

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Number of posts in this thread: 4 (In chronological order)

From: Sailesh Panchang
Date: Fri, Oct 02 2020 8:18AM
Subject: PDF viewers used by screen reader users
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A long standing practice for me has been:
I prefer to download PDFs and read them using Adobe Reader.
I do this off links that open up a PDF in the browser too.
On Windows, this is the most effective way of getting to content /
navigating around in a tagged or even untagged doc that may or may
not include forms.
As 2020 draws to a close, I am wondering if there are other reliable
and effective PDF/UA viewers that work with screen readers on Windows
/mobile / Mac and would like to learn from the experience of SR
colleagues on the list.

Thanks very much,
Sailesh

From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Sat, Oct 03 2020 5:34AM
Subject: Re: PDF viewers used by screen reader users
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Chrome has a surprisingly decent PDF viewer by now. I have, for the
most part, stopped downloading web-based PDF files, just open them in
Chrome instead. I have not tried this on interactive PDFs though but
for static documents reading order, headings and so on are properly
exposed (to Jaws/NVDA).

On 10/2/20, Sailesh Panchang < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> A long standing practice for me has been:
> I prefer to download PDFs and read them using Adobe Reader.
> I do this off links that open up a PDF in the browser too.
> On Windows, this is the most effective way of getting to content /
> navigating around in a tagged or even untagged doc that may or may
> not include forms.
> As 2020 draws to a close, I am wondering if there are other reliable
> and effective PDF/UA viewers that work with screen readers on Windows
> /mobile / Mac and would like to learn from the experience of SR
> colleagues on the list.
>
> Thanks very much,
> Sailesh
> > > > >


--
Work hard. Have fun. Make history.

From: David Engebretson Jr.
Date: Sat, Oct 03 2020 1:08PM
Subject: Re: PDF viewers used by screen reader users
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Hi Birkir,

I'm happy to hear you are finding the presentation of PDF documents in
Chrome more accessible. Is this the Chrome PDF add-on you are using?

I ask because I find the latency from keypress to when the TTS engine starts
to talk (I'm using Eloquence) is significant enough that I have to use the
Adobe Reader application on my Windows 10 machine so I don't get frustrated
with the latency while viewing PDF's in Chrome.

Are you experiencing any latency?

Thanks for your thoughts!
David

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > On Behalf Of
Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Sent: Saturday, October 03, 2020 4:34 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] PDF viewers used by screen reader users

Chrome has a surprisingly decent PDF viewer by now. I have, for the most
part, stopped downloading web-based PDF files, just open them in Chrome
instead. I have not tried this on interactive PDFs though but for static
documents reading order, headings and so on are properly exposed (to
Jaws/NVDA).

On 10/2/20, Sailesh Panchang < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> A long standing practice for me has been:
> I prefer to download PDFs and read them using Adobe Reader.
> I do this off links that open up a PDF in the browser too.
> On Windows, this is the most effective way of getting to content /
> navigating around in a tagged or even untagged doc that may or may
> not include forms.
> As 2020 draws to a close, I am wondering if there are other reliable
> and effective PDF/UA viewers that work with screen readers on Windows
> /mobile / Mac and would like to learn from the experience of SR
> colleagues on the list.
>
> Thanks very much,
> Sailesh
> > > archives at http://webaim.org/discussion/archives
> >


--
Work hard. Have fun. Make history.
http://webaim.org/discussion/archives

From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Sun, Oct 04 2020 7:08AM
Subject: Re: PDF viewers used by screen reader users
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Hi David

I'm just using the default PDF view in Chrome, no plug-ins.
I click the PDF, then at the top there is a dialog where you can
choose to zoom in, download etc. Then the file starts.
There's a bit of a delay I admit, it can get annoying for large files,
but typically I find that it is better than downloading the file and
opening it, though I don't have strong opinions. I just like being
able to click and read without taking extra steps, especially if I'm
not sure whether the PDF has anything interesting, e.g. a restaurant
menu.


On 10/3/20, David Engebretson Jr. < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Hi Birkir,
>
> I'm happy to hear you are finding the presentation of PDF documents in
> Chrome more accessible. Is this the Chrome PDF add-on you are using?
>
> I ask because I find the latency from keypress to when the TTS engine
> starts
> to talk (I'm using Eloquence) is significant enough that I have to use the
> Adobe Reader application on my Windows 10 machine so I don't get frustrated
> with the latency while viewing PDF's in Chrome.
>
> Are you experiencing any latency?
>
> Thanks for your thoughts!
> David
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: WebAIM-Forum < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > On Behalf Of
> Birkir R. Gunnarsson
> Sent: Saturday, October 03, 2020 4:34 AM
> To: WebAIM Discussion List < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] PDF viewers used by screen reader users
>
> Chrome has a surprisingly decent PDF viewer by now. I have, for the most
> part, stopped downloading web-based PDF files, just open them in Chrome
> instead. I have not tried this on interactive PDFs though but for static
> documents reading order, headings and so on are properly exposed (to
> Jaws/NVDA).
>
> On 10/2/20, Sailesh Panchang < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>> A long standing practice for me has been:
>> I prefer to download PDFs and read them using Adobe Reader.
>> I do this off links that open up a PDF in the browser too.
>> On Windows, this is the most effective way of getting to content /
>> navigating around in a tagged or even untagged doc that may or may
>> not include forms.
>> As 2020 draws to a close, I am wondering if there are other reliable
>> and effective PDF/UA viewers that work with screen readers on Windows
>> /mobile / Mac and would like to learn from the experience of SR
>> colleagues on the list.
>>
>> Thanks very much,
>> Sailesh
>> >> >> archives at http://webaim.org/discussion/archives
>> >>
>
>
> --
> Work hard. Have fun. Make history.
> > > http://webaim.org/discussion/archives
> >
> > > > >


--
Work hard. Have fun. Make history.