[blindlaw] Difficulties with court transcripts in PDF format and JAWS

[Aaron Cannon]

I have had good luck using ABBYY Finereader on inaccessible PDF files.
You might try that.  If you'd like to send me a couple of example
files, I'd be happy to run them through it and send you back the
result, so you can see if that makes any difference.

Aaron

On 1/20/15, Susan Kelly via blindlaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Our court of appeals loads the transcripts for cases to its website, which
> is becoming increasingly inaccessible, thanks to the use of semi-described
> images on at least half of its links instead of properly labeled link-boxes.
>  I can navigate around that, albeit slowly, by continuing to click through
> each link (they don't list well) until I hear what seems to be the proper
> link for whatever it is I need to do.  The real problem comes in once I have
> accessed my case file and try to listen to the transcripts themselves.  Some
> are PDF, while others are simply .tif or .jpg scans.  On top of that, even
> the PDF files have not been properly OCRd, or so it seems, as they will not
> read through continuously despite my settings in Adobe and JAWS.
>
> My assistant has tried to circumvent this issue by downloading the file to
> our office network.  The problem persists, though, with the narration
> stopping at then of each page; using a "page down" or "ctrl page down"
> command is ineffective, as reading starts back up mid-page; I thus have to
> advance it one line forward (which does not read) and then back up one and
> start the "read all" command again to read each page.  This is very
> time-consuming and annoying, and I have to assume that it is, at least in
> part, the result of the manner in which the court reporter has transcribed
> the documents.
>
> Does anyone have any suggestions how to tackle this problem?  Also, does
> anyone know how I would word a polite letter to the reporters / courts to
> suggest that these documents be better prepared?  Because I work in the
> juvenile court, our time limits are extremely short and this is a time waste
> that I really would like to avoid.
>
> Thanks!
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