[BlindResearch] Seeking Guidance on Accessible PDF Reading and Annotation with Screen Readers

[Ka Li]

Hi Ronak,

I found that Abby Fine Reader version 15 or higher worked well for me in 
accessing pdfs. It performs OCR on PDFs but also tries to auto-tag them 
by adding headings, fixing lists, and improving the reading order. The 
output is still not perfect, but it made PDFs way more usable when I was 
accessing research papers.

Best,

Ka


On 2024-10-29 11:30 a.m., ronak shah via BlindResearch wrote:
> Dear researchers,
>
> I hope this message finds you well.
>
> I am reaching out to ask for advice on two specific challenges I’m 
> facing while reading and annotating research papers in PDF format as 
> part of my PhD work. I would be truly grateful if anyone could share 
> their experiences or workflows on these issues.
>
> *1- Accessible PDF Reading:* Many of the research papers I need to 
> read are decades old and often difficult to access with my screen 
> reader (NVDA, latest version). If anyone has workflows or techniques 
> to improve PDF accessibility for smoother reading, I would be very 
> interested in learning about them.
>
> 2- *Annotating PDFs with Screen Readers:* I am also looking for ways 
> to highlight and annotate text within PDFs using NVDA, allowing these 
> annotations to be captured by tools like Zotero for future 
> note-taking. Any guidance on annotation methods that work well with 
> screen readers would be incredibly helpful.
>
> I am working on a Windows 10 university-provided machine, which limits 
> any significant system modifications. I would appreciate any insights 
> or shared practices that could help streamline my reading and 
> note-taking process with PDFs.
>
> Thank you in advance for your time and suggestions.
>
> Warm regards,
> Ronak
>
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