[Blindtlk] question on navigating electronic docs

[Jude DaShiell]

Also, the pdf document has to have been created or repaired by someone 
with both an extensive knowledge of pdf accessibility and commitment to 
pdf accessibility.  If what's inside that pdf is just a scanned image, 
without even the language being enabled it's inaccessible.  If one can 
get beyond the security protections adobe put on those documents by 
default with latest versions of its software, best bet is to do a 
thorough accessibility check on each document and fix what's possible to 
fix before even attempting to read any of them.  Most documents produced 
by the Federal Government have Section 508 accessibility requirements 
whether honored or not.  Working papers do not have Section 508 
accessibility requirements.  Put this in the context of adobe not having 
a single setting in its software which enables all accessibility 
automatically unless specifically overridden by its Federal customer, or 
for that matter any other of its customers and you can understand how 
and why the state of most adobe documents is where it is at these days. 
If Wordperfect by default enables a language attribute on documents it 
produces which are then imported into adobe you have a chance at 
accessibility but only a chance since the remainder of the accessibility 
editing or repair may not have been done beyond the language for the 
adobe files.  This is something I had to deal with before retiring from 
Federal service a few years ago so I have one or two insights on the 
matter.

On Fri, 19 Jan 2018, Steve Jacobson via blindtlk wrote:

> Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2018 23:29:19
> From: Steve Jacobson via blindtlk <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
> Reply-To: steve.jacobson at visi.com,
>     Blind Talk Mailing List <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
> To: 'Blind Talk Mailing List' <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>, nfbcs at nfbnet.org
> Cc: Steve Jacobson <steve.jacobson at visi.com>
> Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] question on navigating electronic docs
> 
> Anne,
>
> I saw your note on both lists but did not respond assuming somebody with
> more specific experience would answer.  However, I'm sending this reply to
> both lists to help avoid duplicate answers.
>
> Unfortunately, the answers are not simple.  I do not know much about
> WordPerfect documents, but I believe you can open them in Microsoft Word.
> There is a mode in Microsoft Word and JAWS that gives you some ability to
> navigate in a manner that is similar to the web.  If you are only having to
> read WordPerfect documents, this might be an alternative.  It is more
> questionable whether editing such a document and converting it back to
> WordPerfect is a good idea.  There is also a "simple" or "complex" document
> setting in the verbosity menu of JAWS that might help for navigating within
> Word.
>
> In general, the same navigation keys that are available on the web are also
> available when reading a PDF document.  I am almost certain that you already
> know that, though, so perhaps I am not understandint your question.  To have
> the best chance of taking advantage of that navigation, use the "infer
> reading order from document" as the reading order in the reading dialog.
> Sometimes reading "Left to Right, top to bottom" gives better results, but
> often it does not preserve as much of the structure.
>
> However, hear is the downside.  None of the above will help unless the
> structure exists in the documents you are reading.  You can't skip to
> headings if there are no headings.  You cant use table navigation keys if
> the data were not formatted as a table.  Particularly PDF documents are very
> unpredictable as to the amount of document structure that has been included
> in the document.
>
> Anne, if I've missed what you were really asking, let me know.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Steve Jacobson
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindtlk [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Anne Naber
> via blindtlk
> Sent: Friday, January 19, 2018 2:51 PM
> To: blindtlk <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Anne Naber <amnaber92 at gmail.com>
> Subject: [Blindtlk] question on navigating electronic docs
>
> Hi,
> I sent this out to the computer science group as well, but haven't
> received any responses.
> I'm wondering if there is a way to navigate through pdfs an word
> perfect docs similar to how you would navigate the web?  Can you
> divide the doc into headings, links etc?  If so, can you then locate
> and jump around?  Is there a controlled way to skip over large blocks
> of text?
> Thanks,
> Anne
>
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