[blindlaw] Internal Office Procedure for Making Documents Accessible to Screen Readers

[Tai Tomasi]

Not every PDF has accessible text, that is to say not all PDF files are accessible. Does MS Word 2016 perform OCR on each PDF and convert inaccessible PDFs to accessible Word documents?


Tai Tomasi, J.D.
Staff Attorney



400 East Court Ave., Ste. 300
Des Moines, Iowa 50309
Tel: 515-278-2502; Toll Free: 1-800-779-2502
FAX: 515-278-0539; Relay 711
E-mail: tomasi at driowa.org
www.driowa.org

Our Mission:  To defend and promote the human and legal rights of Iowans with disabilities

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-----Original Message-----
From: blindlaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Craig Spencer via blindlaw
Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2016 12:10 PM
To: Blind Law Mailing List <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Craig Spencer <craigspencer2.0 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Internal Office Procedure for Making Documents Accessible to Screen Readers

Hello,
Having the PDF OCR’d in some form would most likely have to be done. 
Some scanners along with the case management software, may allow for the document to be OCR’d at the point of it being scanned.
I sometimes use the OCR feature provided with the professional version of Adobe reader.  Other times, I use open book.
And now, MS Word 2016 on the windows platform will open PDFs and will convert it in to an editable form when opening the document.



> On Jan 21, 2016, at 12:40 PM, Tai Tomasi via blindly <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hello all. I am blind and just began working as a staff attorney for Disability Rights Iowa. I use the JAWS for Windows screen reader. I am interested to know your internal office protocols for making scanned legal documents accessible to your blind employees who use screen readers. This usually involves some sort of text tagging or OCR (optical character recognition).
> I envision an office in which all documents are eventually electronically accessible and ultimately searchable by all employees. The PDFs produced by my office scanner/copier are inaccessible, necessitating the extra step of running them through scanning software myself. Blind attorneys, how do you handle this? My employer is very willing to accommodate, but I am not sure what to recommend, given they know little about these advanced technology issues. I would like to correspond off list regarding detailed procedures (i.e. software, hardware, and recommended settings) for remedying this problem, as I need to give them to our copier and tech support companies who know nothing about adaptive technology. My state department for the blind says I need to work directly with the copier company. Your input is appreciated.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Tai Tomasi, J.D.
> Staff Attorney
> 
> [Description: DR%20IA%20LawCenter]
> 
> 400 East Court Ave., See. 300
> Des Moines, Iowa 50309
> Tel: 515-278-2502; Toll Free: 1-800-779-2502
> FAX: 515-278-0539; Relay 711
> E-mail: tomasi at driowa.org<mailto:tomasi at driowa.org>
> www.driowa.org
> 
> Our Mission:  To defend and promote the human and legal rights of Iowans with disabilities
> 
> CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE
> 
> This e-mail and any attachments contain information from the law firm of Disability Rights Iowa and are intended solely for the use of the named recipient(s). This e-mail may contain privileged attorney-client communications or work product. Any dissemination by anyone other than an intended recipient is prohibited. If you are not a named recipient, you are prohibited from any further viewing of the e-mail or any attachments or from making any use of the e-mail or attachments. If you have received this e-mail in error, notify the sender immediately and delete the e-mail, any attachments, and all copies from any drives or storage media and destroy any printouts.
> 
> 
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