[nabs-l] Finding accessible and relevant research articles to complete assignments

[gpaikens at gmail.com]

You definitely need a strategy for accessing inaccessible PDFs. What version
of JAWS are you using? For several years now JAWS has had built-in
"Convenient OCR." This lets you run OCR on a PDF rather quickly and puts the
results in a virtual viewer which you can read and/or copy and paste. There
is a detailed JAWS help file on the subject. It is quick and fairly accurate
to use. It does have a tendency to put info in nested tables, which can be
annoying when you copy and paste into a word document, but for accessing
info, it is great. 

Another free option I recommend is robobraille:
https://www.robobraille.org/.

You can upload lots of different inaccessible file types, including pdfs,
and you will be emailed an accessible version in the format of your choice. 

These two solutions should cover you for the most part, but you could also
look into getting OCR software and converting the document yourself. There
are lots of options in this category, including KNFB Reader, Openbook, Text
Cloner Pro, Abbyy Fine Reader, etc. all with their pros and cons. 

In my opinion, having access to a quick OCR solution is a requirement for
completing research at the college level. With the exception of charts and
graphs, these solutions should allow you to access the text of most articles
you come across. 

Please let me know if you have any questions. I would be happy to elaborate.

Best,
Greg

-----Original Message-----
From: NABS-L [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Amanda Cape via
NABS-L
Sent: Monday, November 6, 2017 12:09 PM
To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Cc: Amanda Cape <cape.amanda at gmail.com>
Subject: [nabs-l] Finding accessible and relevant research articles to
complete assignments

Hi fellow students,
I have been finding myself getting increasingly frustrated as I try to
progress through school and am required to find research articles that are
accessible with Jaws and that are relevant to my assignment topics. How does
everyone deal with this? For example, when I am able to find an article that
could be helpful with support from a sighted individual who can sskim the
articles, they are not always readable.
One opened and all it says is blank. This makes doing work even more anxiety
provoking and time-consuming than it would be without all of these hurdles.
I am feeling frustrated and wondering how everyone finds useful articles.
Thanks,
Amanda
Amanda

_______________________________________________
NABS-L mailing list
NABS-L at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
NABS-L:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/gpaikens%40gmail.com