[nfbcs] PDF problem

[Rasmussen, Lloyd]

On the Files menu of Acrobat Reader is an item called "quick accessibility check".  This can tell you if a document is tagged and whether it is a scanned image.  I would think that if you had the document on screen and you didn't have an OCR program, you could use the JAWS "convenient OCR" function to look at at least part of the document.  

If you have a full version of MS Office, it includes utilities for document imaging.  More recent versions of Office include OneNote, which contains an OCR component.  I have found the Microsoft results good enough to identify a document, but OmniPage, Abbyy FineReader, PDF Converter or some other program will do a better job.

For some reason, I have seen some tagged PDF documents which Adobe says are accessible.  Window-Eyes finds no text when tagged reading order is used (the default), but if you switch to option 1, "determine reading order from document", the text appears.  In short, PDF documents are a real adventure.

Lloyd Rasmussen, Senior Project Engineer
National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
Library of Congress   202-707-0535
http://www.loc.gov/nls
The preceding opinions are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Library of Congress, NLS.


-----Original Message-----
From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Tracy Carcione
Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2013 8:41 AM
To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List
Subject: [nfbcs] PDF problem

I received a PDF document.  In Windows Explorer, I see it has 638 KB.  When I start Adobe, it says it has 2 pages, but, when Adobe finishes processing, it says the document is empty.  I'm very confused. If it's empty, why does it have 2 pages?  I think it's an important document I need to see, but I'm not getting the data.
I'm using the latest Jaws, if it matters. I'm not sure which version of Adobe I have, though.
Tracy