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

[Aaron Cannon]

With a modern OCR application such as Abbyy Finereader, printing and
rescanning a PDF is almost never necessary.  Any modern OCR package
that's worth anything should offer a means to import PDF files
directly.

Aaron

On 1/20/15, Russell J. Thomas via blindlaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> This may not be a solution for you, but could you have these transcripts
> printed out and then scanned?
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindlaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Susan
> Kelly
> via blindlaw
> Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2015 12:36 PM
> To: 'Robert Jaquiss'; 'Blind Law Mailing List'
> Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Difficulties with court transcripts in PDF format
> and JAWS
>
> The court website is technically covered by ADA, but getting compliance has
> met with puzzled reactions, at least in our county - huge numbers of
> so-called "professionals" seem to assume that if it is on the web, it is
> automatically accessible.  (Believe me, I have trouble biting back the
> sarcastic responses when I am told this.)
>
> I do not know what program the court reporters use to prepare their
> transcripts...I can say that the transcripts that are prepared from audio
> recording machines are fairly useable, aside from the frequent notations of
> "unintelligible" for words that could not be determined based on lack of
> volume or poor pronunciation, so I assume that those are prepared in Word
> or
> Word Perfect.  The problems seem to arise most often with transcripts
> prepared from the traditional stenograph machine used by human reporters.
> From my experience when I could still read things visually, these are much
> more accurate in terms of contents, but not at all amenable to use with
> assistive technology when disclosed digitally.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robert Jaquiss [mailto:rjaquiss at earthlink.net]
> Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2015 12:17 PM
> To: Susan Kelly; 'Blind Law Mailing List'
> Subject: RE: [blindlaw] Difficulties with court transcripts in PDF format
> and JAWS
>
> Hello:
>
>      An essential thing to know about PDF files is that they can be created
> in a variety of ways. MS Word can create a PDF file from a Word file and
> these should be quite readable. It is also possible to create PDF files by
> scanning printed documents and creating PDF files from the resulting
> images.
> This later type will not be as accessible and will have to be processed
> with
> an OCR package. I would suggest trying to make arrangements to have the
> original word processor file emailed to you. I would think that a court's
> website would be covered by the ADA.
>
> Regards,
>
> Robert
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindlaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Susan
> Kelly
> via blindlaw
> Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2015 9:03 AM
> To: 'blindlaw at nfbnet.org'
> Cc: (gui-talk at nfbnet.org)
> Subject: [blindlaw] Difficulties with court transcripts in PDF format and
> JAWS
>
> 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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