Acrobat Reader Accessibility Settings

Module 10.1: Acrobat Reader Accessibility Settings Once downloaded and installed, Acrobat Reader usually detects that you are using assistive technology software, and you land in the first panel of the Accessibility setup wizard. Proceed through it as follows: You first land on a tab with three radio buttons for adjusting assistive technology settings. Up or Down arrow to your choice: all accessibility options, screenreader options, and screen magnification options. If you only use a screenreader program, choose this radio button. If you have some usable vision, choose the All accessibility options radio button instead. Tab to the Next button and press Enter. If you chose the All options radio button in the first panel, the second panel identifies screen magnification options. Go throug

• What To Do If You Are Unable to Access the Menu Bar Preview (8 min)

Setting Acrobat Reader As Your Default PDF Viewer

Module 10.2: Setting Acrobat Reader As Your Default PDF Viewer Each web browser has a feature for viewing PDF’s. Because Edge is a Microsoft product, it is the factory default PDF viewer. This means that when you open any PDF, it will open in Edge. After installing Acrobat Reader, you will want to make that app your default PDF viewer. This is because Acrobat Reader is more consistently accessible than any of the browser PDF viewers, at least with JAWS. Just after you install Adobe Reader, you may be asked if you want to open all PDF’s with it. If you receive this prompt, be sure to check the appropriate checkbox to confirm. However, this prompt does not consistently appear, nor does it always work even when it shows up. Steps for changing the default PDF viewer differ between Windows 10

Reading and Navigation Keystrokes

Module 10.3: Reading and Navigation Keystrokes Assuming no major accessibility problems exist with the PDF you have opened, all standard reading and navigation keystrokes used with Word work with PDF’s. This includes navigating to next and previous pages with Control Page down and Control Page up, respectively. A few keystrokes are different: Search command: To search for text, press Control Insert F (rather than Control F as is the case with Word), type in the text, and press Enter. That keystroke works with all three screenreaders for finding the first occurrence of a search term. To jump to the next occurrence, press F3 with JAWS, and Insert F3 with NVDA and Narrator. Go to page command: With any of the screenreaders, press Control Shift N to hear your current page location. You can th

Reading PDF’s with Varying Levels of Accessibility

Module 10.4: Reading PDF’s with Varying Levels of Accessibility Reading PDF’s used to be an accessibility nightmare. Fortunately, tools have been developed in recent years to remedy a number of accessibility problems. To make PDF’s accessible, those who prepare them need to take two factors into account: tags, which label and structure the content, and reading order, which controls the sequence in which the content is voiced to the user. If both factors are properly addressed, screenreader users will be able to efficiently navigate and reading will be clear and comprehensible. Tagged PDF’s provide a logical structure for screenreader users, greatly enhancing usability. Tags identify types of content such as headings, tables, links, and form fields. Untagged PDF’s can be read like other

• Fully Accessible PDF Files (19 min)
• Changing Reading Order (22 min)

Adding Placemarkers

Module 10.5: Adding Placemarkers Similar to web pages, you can add placemarkers to PDF’s to enable quick navigation to important text in the document. You can do this with JAWS and NVDA, but not with Narrator. As on the web, you first mark a point in the document as a temporary placemarker and then mark it as permanent. With JAWS, steps for inserting placemarkers in PDF’s are as follows: For the first placemarker you wish to insert, navigate to the text in the PDF that you want to mark, and press Control Windows K to mark it as a temporary placemarker. JAWS will say “temporary placemarker set.” Press Control Shift K. This opens the Placemarker list dialog where you land on “temporary document.” Tab to the Add button and press Enter. You land in an edit box populated with the text of the

Saving Word and PowerPoint Files as Accessible PDF’s

Module 10.6: Saving Word and PowerPoint Files as Accessible PDF’s Many files you create in Word or PowerPoint can easily be saved as PDF’s. Taking a little time to create accessible source files will yield more accessible PDF’s. To make Word documents and corresponding PDF’s as accessible as possible, add headings with appropriate levels. Any tables created will also be accessible. Graphics should all have accompanying alt text. For PowerPoint presentations, make sure that each slide has a title placeholder and that alt text is provided for graphics. When saved as a PDF, each slide title becomes a heading, making the PDF more easily navigable and its content and structure understandable. Before saving the PDF, run the Accessibility checker for Word or PowerPoint to identify any accessibil

Options for Opening PDF’s in Word

Module 10.7: Options for Opening PDF’s in Word There are various ways to open a PDF file in Word, but one important caveat needs to be mentioned. Rarely will the imported PDF come into Word cleanly formatted. Text will be preserved, but you will almost certainly encounter unwanted font and paragraph formatting. Form fields will not be preserved. There may be ways to tidy this up with the pro version of Adobe Acrobat, but we are only discussing the free version here. As mentioned above in Module 10.4.3, if you encounter a scanned image and process it with the JAWS Convenient OCR feature (available beginning with JAWS 2021), press the Tab key for a prompt to open the file in Word, and press Enter. You can now view, edit, and save it in Word. You can also open PDF files while in Word. To do

Opening and Downloading PDF’s from the Internet

Module 10.8: Opening and Downloading PDF’s from the Internet PDF files are often encountered on the web. In the past, you could open PDF files in Acrobat Reader while on the web, provided you made the necessary adjustment in the Acrobat Reader Accessibility Settings. This is no longer possible. These files now automatically open in the web browser’s PDF viewer and are not consistently accessible. Therefore, it is advisable to save the PDF to your computer and then open it in Acrobat Reader. There is of course no airtight guarantee that the PDF will be accessible when opened on your PC. But that will be an accessibility issue with that particular PDF, not with the web viewer. With each browser, you can download the PDF to your PC by using the standard Save As Dialog. With your focus in the