[nabs-l] PDF Files

Julie McGinnity kaybaycar at gmail.com
Tue Nov 5 05:13:27 UTC 2013


Hi Hannah,

I don't know if this is an option for you, but do you have assistive
tech people at your university?  Are there people who scan your books
for you or deal with other alternative formatting or assistive
technology issues?  I do not have scanning software, so when I do a
research project and collect printed books or inaccessible PDFs, I
send them to our adaptive computing department.  I get them back days
later in the format of my choice.  It saves me a lot of time and
frustration.  Plus, they clean the documents up better than I ever
could on my own.

On 11/4/13, Joshua Lester <JLester8462 at pccua.edu> wrote:
> Thanks!
> Now, if only Jaws 13 would work correctly with the stuff I have to deal with
> in my online class, that would be awesome!
> That's a conversation for another thread!
> Thanks, Joshua
> ________________________________________
> From: nabs-l [nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] on behalf of Steve Jacobson
> [steve.jacobson at visi.com]
> Sent: Monday, November 04, 2013 9:03 PM
> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] PDF Files
>
> Joshua,
>
> There is a setting within Adobe Acrobat that determines if a PDF link is
> opened within the web browser or whether it is opened in a new window.  If
> you
> set that option to open in a new window, you will have better results.  Open
> Adobe Reader, bring up Preferences with CONTROL-K, use the arrow keys to
> navigate to the Internet entry, Then tab to the "display within Browser"
> checkbox and uncheck it, and perhaps tab to the next box that allows fast
> view
> from browser and uncheck that, too.  Then tab to OK.  You should have better
> luck after doing this.  The exact location and label of these checkboxes
> may vary with the version of Acrobat Reader that you have installed.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Steve Jacobson
>
> On Mon, 4 Nov 2013 23:13:52 +0000, Joshua Lester wrote:
>
>>PDF's are a pain!
>>Get this mess!
>>One of my favorite Southern Gospel quartets sent me their newsletter as a
>> PDF, and Jaws read the attachment just fine, but if there's a PDF as a
>> link on
> a Website, it won't read it!
>>Good grief!
>>What's the deal?
>>Thanks, Joshua
>>________________________________________
>>From: nabs-l [nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] on behalf of Hannah Chadwick
>> [sparklylicious at gmail.com]
>>Sent: Monday, November 04, 2013 5:02 PM
>>To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
>>Subject: Re: [nabs-l] PDF Files
>
>>Adobe processes the files, but I think it's probably a picture
>>because after it is processed, nothing happens.  When I try to
>>get Jaws to read it, there doesn't seem to be anything there.
>>I've been using Robobraille.
>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>>From: minh ha <minh.ha927 at gmail.com
>>To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
>><nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>>Date sent: Mon, 4 Nov 2013 14:25:10 -0500
>>Subject: Re: [nabs-l] PDF Files
>
>>What do you mean adobi doesn't read the file? Does jaws say
>>"alert,
>>document is empty" or something along those lines? If it does,
>>the
>>document has been scanned in as a picture and there's really no
>>way fo
>>ryou to read it except use Kurzweil or robobraille to convert
>>them.
>
>>On 11/4/13, Hannah Chadwick <sparklylicious at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 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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>>--
>>"All men dream, but not equally.  Those who dream by night in the
>>dusty
>>recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was
>>vanity:
>>but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act
>>on
>>their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible." T.  E.
>>Lawrence
>
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-- 
Julie McG
National Association of Guide dog Users board member,  National
Federation of the Blind performing arts division secretary,
Missouri Association of Guide dog Users President,
and Guiding Eyes for the Blind graduate 2008
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that
everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal
life."
John 3:16




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