Make PDF and other read only file formats accessible

For students with vision impairments for whom the traditional library is totally unusable, the presentation of documents online can be a huge benefit. However, storing those documents in PDF(Portable Document Format) merely compounds the problem because PDF files cannot be interpreted by screen reading software. Adobe have now produced an accessible solution and Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.00, which is now available, provides a translation mechanism. An accessibility download is also temporarily available for Acrobat Reader 4.00 and 4.05. If there are difficulties obtaining it from the Adobe site, the download can be obtained from EDTeC (http://www.edtec.unsw.edu.au/services) (Getting Your Course Online). The accessibility download functions very well with Jaws 3.7 screen reading software, but does not function with some other screen readers. It is also important to note that the Accessibility plug in will not function on Apple Macintosh machines. It is still, therefore, advisable to avoid the use of PDF format whenever possible.

Making PDF documents accessible

Teaching materials are often converted to PDF files because formatting is preserved. These files are viewed using Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is freely available but must be installed on the users computer. This can be done through the Adobe website: http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/5efe.htm

If PDF files are used, the student should be advised of the methods for translating those files to a readable format. Currently, the student needs to have the accessibility download installed with Acrobat Reader version 4.00 or 4.05, though version 5 will include the accessibility features as part of the package. Once the accessibility plug-in is installed, the file can be made accessible to a screen reader. The student will need to:

• Open the document in the Acrobat Reader Window.
• Select the View menu.
• Select Adobe Access Choices.
• Select the required Access View (e.g. Access View only, Access Keys).

The text will then be displayed in a readable format.

Figure 3: Selecting the accessibility function in Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0

A booklet with tips for creating accessible PDF files is available from Adobe's web site (http://access.adobe.com/information.html). It is important to note that scanned documents, unless scanned using OCR, cannot be made accessible in PDF format.