[BlindTlk] Pdf files

[jmail201586 at yahoo.com]

Hi!
Thank you for your response to my question.
Yeah I've been filling out pdf documents and I wanted to know about other blind and visually impaired experiences when using pdf.


-----Original Message-----
From: BlindTlk <blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Humberto Avila via BlindTlk
Sent: Wednesday, June 7, 2023 11:24 PM
To: Jamelle via BlindTlk <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Humberto Avila <humberto_avila.it104 at outlook.com>
Subject: Re: [BlindTlk] Pdf files

Hello Jamelle,


I would say that not all .PDF files are fillable with a screen reader. 
There are 3 types of PDFs in this world. the first one is the super awesome one where you can use your commands like E (for edit box), F (for formfield), X (for checkbox), and so forth. This is the most accessible way to fill in a PDF form and many times, sadly, PDFs don't usually come that way. Which leads me to the second type of PDF which is the one that allows you to read everything on the document, but there's no formfields to fill out even though there are underscors and lines that you can fill out, technically a sighted person can printout and fill out.

My third type of PDF is the one no screen reader user likes, at all, and which there are so many of them circulating around, and this is the ugly, unreadable, stress-inducing, inaccessible image pdf. this is the type where someone just takes a picture of printed pages with whatever it is, or puts pages through a photocopier, and then generates a PDF of that. UGHGHGH 🥹

So, anyways, going back to your question, depending on what kind of PDF it is, you may be able to work it out and we can help you with. One thing I do with either the second or third type of PDF files is to use the JAWS OCR functionality which allows me to convert the file into an accessible .DOCS Microsoft Word document. that way, I can manipulate it, format it, and fill out any forms within, print it, and even put my signature inline as a graphic in the document! the only tradeoff is that yes, as someone else mentioned -- you'll lose the formatting of the original document and I have had experiences where I fill out a form that I feel I did it right and then they tell me that they can't accept it because it's not the originally formated document.


So yeah...... hope this helps a bit.


On 6/7/2023 7:00 PM, Jamelle via BlindTlk wrote:
> Hello,
>
> So I wanted to ask the list a question. How to fill out a Pdf file?
>
> Thank you for your help in advance,
>
> P.s.
>
> I'm using jaws 2019 and firefox.
>
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