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

Fri Jan 22 05:13:26 UTC 2016

Hello,
I just wanted to briefly respond to this topic. Our sighted colleagues are now taking advantage of scanning technology  to scan in documents to load on a tablet or on a computer. Many offices such as mine do have a paralegal or secretary or clerk in charge of scanning large files like the ones you described. It is really no different than having a clerk copy documents on the copier. What this does of course is free up the attorneys time for other things like research or meeting with clients. So, it is not a bad idea to have a third party, whomever it might be to scan and OCR the documents. I find I am saved lots of time, when our clerk just e-mails me the accessible pdf documents. 
In any case, I simply ask the clerk to make an accessible OCR  the document, and send a pdf text file. It generally reads pretty well. Our office has Adobe Professional, and not abby fine reader. I do plan to ask if the line numbering can be fixed though using adobe pro, because scanned transcripts will come back with numbers across the top of the page etc. I use Openbook to do some OCR corrections when I scan shorter documents, but I find it tends to take longer. JAWs also now has OCR as well. It seems to take longer to correct the documents also.

Denise R. Avant
President, National Federation Of The Blind Of Illinois
Live the life you want

> On Jan 21, 2016, at 12:56 PM, Aaron Cannon via blindlaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Abbyy Finereader does exactly what you want.  Running a document
> through Abbyy will allow you to then create a PDF that looks exactly
> the same as the original, except that it will have an added, but
> invisible text layer that screen readers can read.  This is also an
> extra bonus for everyone, because it now means that that PDF file will
> also be searchable.  Abbyy can also save the recognized text as a Word
> document, an epub ebook, as text, or even as HTML.  Abbyy will do its
> best to maintain the original document layout, regardless of which
> format you save it to.  Obviously, it will have an easier time of this
> when saving it as a Word doc than it will when saving it to text, but
> it will do its best in either case.
> 
> Abbyy's results are pretty darn good as is, but a sighted assistant,
> taking a few seconds, can make things even better, especially when
> working with complex documents.  For instance, sometimes Abbyy will
> mistake line numbers for a column of digits on the left side, rather
> than something that is attached to each line.  The fix for this is to
> simply redraw the detected document areas, but unfortunately, as far
> as I know, this can only be done with the mouse.  However, if all the
> pages are the same in a document, this can be done once and applied to
> each page.  You can also create and save templates if scanning many
> documents of the same general layout.
> 
> I believe that the Abbyy engine is what is used by the KNFB reader
> internally, though I'm not certain about that.
> 
> You can get Omnipage for a bit less, but I prefer Abbyy simply because
> it has come out on top in almost every head-to-head accuracy test.
> 
> Finally, one other thing to consider is how documents are created.
> Obviously, this is often out of your control, but when it isn't,
> you're obviously going to have the best results getting as close to
> the original as possible.  In other words, a .doc or .docx file > .pdf
> saved from Word > .pdf created by your print to PDF option > scanned
> paper document.
> 
> Hope this helps.
> 
> Aaron
> 
> On 1/21/16, Tai Tomasi via blindlaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> I do have KNFB Reader for iPhone, but find it insufficient for batch
>> scanning large volumes of material. It is not as thorough as other scanning
>> solutions. My impression is that it is  meant more for accessing documents
>> when one does not have access to a stand-alone scanner. I am using a Fujitsu
>> FI-6220 which has an automatic document feeder. My issue is that a paralegal
>> is willing to scan materials for me using the company's copier/scanner. She
>> has attempted to do so, but the PDF scans that result are inaccessible. I
>> then have to run them through OCR using Kurzweil 1000 which doesn't preserve
>> the visual integrity of the document. At that point, I might as well do the
>> initial scans myself, rather than taking up the paralegal's time. Of course,
>> I am willing to do this for myself, but I am looking for suggestions so that
>> the paralegal's initial scan can be useful for myself as a blind user and
>> for everyone in the office as a searchable PDF with all visual elements
>> intact. I hope this makes some sense.
>> 
>> 
>> 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
>> 
>> 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
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>> 
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: blindlaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Shannon via
>> blindlaw
>> Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2016 12:23 PM
>> To: 'Blind Law Mailing List' <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
>> Cc: Shannon <sbg at sbgaal.com>
>> Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Internal Office Procedure for Making Documents
>> Accessible to Screen Readers
>> 
>> What OCR software do you use?  Is KNFB reader an available program for a
>> windows based operating system?
>> 
>> Sincerely,
>> 
>> Shannon Brady Geihsler
>> 
>> Law Office of Shannon Brady Geihsler, PLLC
>> 1001 Main St., Suite 803
>> Lubbock, Texas 79401
>> Office:  (806) 763-3999
>> Mobile:  (806) 781-9296
>> Fax:  (806) 749-3752
>> E-Mail:  sbg at sbgaal.com
>> This email may contain material that is confidential, privileged and/or
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>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: blindlaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Gerard
>> Sadlier via blindlaw
>> Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2016 11:52 AM
>> To: Blind Law Mailing List
>> Cc: Gerard Sadlier
>> Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Internal Office Procedure for Making Documents
>> Accessible to Screen Readers
>> 
>> Hello,
>> 
>> I receive pdfs and run them through ocr software to make them accessible
>> myself. I find it helpful to have pdfs available to me, particularly when I
>> need to share them with the other side in litigation. Text files would not
>> be appropriate for that purpose.
>> Kind regards
>> 
>> Ger
>> 
>> On 1/21/16, Dan Beitz via blindlaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>> I OCR PDF documents with omnipage.  It works great because you just go
>>> to the document you want to OCR, hit the context menu key, choose
>>> omnipage, and the document is converted and automatically given the
>>> same name with a different document extension by omnipage.  My
>>> paralegal will sometimes convert documents for me with Adobe, but this
>> doesn't work as well.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Daniel K. Beitz
>>> Wienner & Gould, P.C.
>>> 950 University Dr., Ste. 350
>>> Rochester, MI  48307
>>> Phone:  (248) 841-9405
>>> Fax:  (248) 652-2729
>>> dbeitz at wiennergould.com
>>> 
>>> www.wiennergould.com
>>> 
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>>> this communication in error, please notify us immediately by replying
>>> to the sender of this email or by telephoning us at (248) 841-9400.
>>> 
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: blindlaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Tai
>>> Tomasi via blindlaw
>>> Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2016 12:40 PM
>>> To: DRBA at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
>>> Cc: Tai Tomasi; Blind Law Mailing List
>>> Subject: [blindlaw] Internal Office Procedure for Making Documents
>>> Accessible to Screen Readers
>>> 
>>> 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., 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<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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>> 
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