Web Site Accessibility Blog

Adobe Reader 7 is a free download and is upgraded with a host of accessibility features. Unfortunately, they may be easily overlooked. There are few guides and even fewer people noticing the features the new Reader version brings. The features allow a greater majority of users to view documents regardless of vision or access.

The best place to start setting up Adobe Reader 7 for accessibility is the Help option in the toolbar. The last option starts the “Accessibility Setup Assistant”, which opens a help box to start options for viewing.

Screen readers are mainly used by blind or extreme low vision users, but not limited to vision accessibility. Many users with cognitive difficulties, such as Dyslexia, rely on screen readers to help them better follow the content on the screen.

Screen magnifiers are becoming more prevalent, as they not only raise the text size in web documents, but also in all applications on the computer. Screen magnifiers come in many styles, some are similar to magnifying glasses and highlight areas of content, and others “blow up” a section of the screen to the entire monitor viewing area.

Choosing all accessibility options is recommended for most users and Adobe will then move into installing the additional features.

Screen Reader
The voice option is not nearly as full featured as the JAWS, Window Eyes or other screen readers, but there are keyboard commands to provide real full page or read one page options. The Read Aloud Feature makes use of the Microsoft Sam voice, which can be quite monotonous. However, I was pleasantly surprised, as the voice contained many inflections at what seemed to be appropriate times.

It was actually easy to listen to after some minor tweaks to the pitch and rate. This can be done through the Edit > Preferences> Categories> Reading. The user also has the option to override the tagging commands contained within the document as well.

Contrast
In the Preferences> Categories> Accessibility is another great feature that increases accessibility for any user. The first allows the user to replace the document color format with a high-contrast format. Or, if the user already has a pre-defined windows color scheme to enhance readability, they can select that scheme, or set up a custom scheme. The art feature is particularly effective, as it can also render line art as a black and white image, allowing a high contrast image to be seen by anyone with color-blindness or who simply prefers to see graphs or art in a non-color format.

Reflow
Reflow is an important feature that allows readers who use large text options or screen magnifiers to view the document at a higher text size or increased document size, yet without the horizontal scrolling that is typical when increasing the document size.

Enabling reflow allows documents to be seen without horizontal scrolling. This is particularly effective for alternative devices accessing PDF’s, such as PDA’s, BlackBerry devices or Web-enabled phones.

By eliminating the horizontal scrolling, larger documents can be easily read by only a vertical scroll. The implications for this expand far beyond accessibility, as they can be used by all PDF users. There have been many times I have attempted to read PDF’s on a Palm device, only to get frustrated by getting lost in all of the cross-scrolling. Access Reflow in Adobe Reader 7 through View > Reflow. Or press Ctrl + 4.

Text Zoom
The default zoom can be set anywhere between 8% and 6400%. This is done in the Edit >Preferences > Page Display in the Magnification settings. Again, this is a feature that is helpful to any Adobe Reader user.

Multimedia
Adobe Reader 7 makes many strides in making accessibility options available, and the latest is through the multimedia options in Edit > Preferences > Multimedia. There are options to;

• show subtitles
• Play dubbed audio (when available)
• Show supplemental text captions when available
• Show audio description when available

Of course, these features are dependant upon creators to implement multimedia that includes these options.

Summary
There are many other features, such as Rich Text printing and pointers, and I am sure there will be many more to come. This is a big first step and the features are very comprehensive. As with any program, and especially in this case, users will be dependant upon the creators of the PDF documents to place accessibility features in these documents. Many of the features will help all users, not just those that rely on assistive technology.

The main issue will be getting those who create these documents to make them easier for all users, but also they need to be aware of the features that are available. Sadly, I believe that most users are not aware of the simplest things they can do to make a PDF more web-friendly and user friendly.