[NFBCS] Tricky PDF and JAWS issue

[Rasmussen, Lloyd]

I would start by checking to make sure protected mode is not active. Convenient OCR and the normal reading functions cannot work if Acrobat Reader is in protected mode. I don't know what convenient OCR does with password-protected files. 
I own Omnipage 19. It puts an option in the context menu for PDF files and offers to convert them to text RTF, etc. If it finds that a file is password-protected, it asks your permission before it will do OCR on the file. You have the right, under US copyright law, to circumvent digital rights management systems in order to make a file accessible to you. The US Copyright Office has to renew this statement every few years under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Lloyd Rasmussen, Senior Staff Engineer
National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled
Library of Congress, Washington, DC 20542
202-707-0535     https://nls.loc.gov
The preceding opinions are my own and not necessarily those of the Library of Congress, NLS.

-----Original Message-----
From: NFBCS <nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Jim Portillo via NFBCS
Sent: Monday, September 14, 2020 9:44 PM
To: Jim Portillo <portillo.jim at gmail.com>
Cc: Jim Portillo <portillo.jim at gmail.com>
Subject: [NFBCS] Tricky PDF and JAWS issue

Greetings,

 

I'll attempt to explain my issue.

I signed up to take a class, and the instructor is suggesting we have a specific book and workbook.  I contacted the publisher, and he said that although he didn't make the book available to people electronically, he would make it available to me provided I agree to some pretty sensible logistics.  He has the original files used to print the books, and they are PDFs.

These files are password protected, so I can view the files but not edit or change them.  I guess there is another password, if I need it, for copying or printing.

I tried reading the file with Adobe Acrobat Reader, but at first, I must not have had some screen reader settings turned on.  I went ahead and set them up and tried rereading the book.  Once it was done processing and I tried reading it, I just kept hearing "blank" whenever I scrolled down.  I had an AIRA agent look at my screen, and he said there were definitely pages of text on my screen, but I guess JAWS wasn't reading them.

I tried doing a JAWS convenient OCR command, but when I tried putting in the password, it didn't like it.

I already paid for these files, so I can't very well return or ask for my money back.  I'm just wondering if I'm doing something wrong or if there's something else I can try to get these two books to read.

I was also going to try copying and pasting some of the material into a Word file, but I guess I'll need the second password for that.  I didn't think I would.

Is there perhaps some other setting in Adobe?  I remember having a similar problem in the past, but that particular PDF wasn't locked.  I still couldn't get it to read; although, I was able to get JAWS OCR to read most of it.

If anyone has any ideas, I'd appreciate them.

Thanks much.

Jim

 

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