[nabs-l] PDF Files

[Hannah Chadwick]

Cindy,
I've tried adobe. However, when I open the file, Jaws won't read it. is
there something I can purchase to make it more accessible?
Thank you, Hannah

-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Cindy Bennett
Sent: Sunday, November 03, 2013 10:54 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] PDF Files

Hi Hannah,

Most of the PDF's that I use are accessible through Adobe's accessibility
feature. For me, it comes up automatically when I open a PDF, but it is
under the accessibility tab under the edit menu. There are a series of
boxes, but I just keep the recommended settings, and Adobe does an OCR. I
will say that although it is pretty successful with text, tables and
graphics are messy.

Most commonly, I have a problem with Adobe combining strings of words with
no spaces or not interpreting a page that has multiple columns as such and
so I hear paragraphs out of order. Also, I have found that hand scanned in
documents cannot be read well by the Adobe OCR.

In this case, I use Kerzweil which is an OCR software. There are others such
as ABBYY Fine Reader. A good OCR option can be considered a reasonable
accommodation if your state has something comparable to a Division of
Services for the Blind, so funding is typically available for it.

I do not know how to use the OCR function of JAWS 14.

One workaround would be to see if you can find the file somewhere else. For
example, professors would sometimes give out readings from journals and I
could find accessible versions on my library's website.
If they are excerpts from novels, you could look on websites such as
bookshare.

That being said, I am not well versed at OCR options that are good with
math, foreign languages, or any subject with symbols. I think there is a
math solution called Infinty Reader, but this may be for textbook scanning.

Cindy

On 11/3/13, Hannah Chadwick <sparklylicious at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello list,
> I'm currently using Jaws 14 with my windows 7 pc. It seems that a lot 
> of documents, especially academic ones are in pdf files. I was just 
> wondering how you read these file types? I've been converting most of 
> them in to word files, however when I do, they become very messy. I 
> look forward to your responses.
> Best, Hannah chadwick
> University of California, Davis CA
>
>
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--
Cindy Bennett
Secretary: National Association of Blind Students

B.A. Psychology, UNC Wilmington
clb5590 at gmail.com

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