If you are a screen reader user, you will need the following:

• Adobe Reader 6.01 or later
• A version of the screen reader that works with Adobe Reader 6.0

Checking document accessibility

Before reading a PDF document, it is a good idea to check the anticipated accessibility of the document. If the document is not accessible, it may not be read at all or it may be read in the wrong order.

To use Quick Check, do one of the following:

• Choose Document > Quick Check.
• Press Alt + D for Documents, then Q for Quick Check (Windows only).

Setting preferences for use with screen readers

To open the Preferences dialog box, do one of the following:

• Choose Edit > Preferences.
• Press Alt + E for Edit, then N for Preferences (Windows only).
• Press Ctrl + K (Windows) or Command + K (Mac OS).

Note that if the JAWS for Windows screen reader is used, there may be a key conflict with Ctrl + K. If this conflict is encountered, use the JAWS PassKey (Insert + 3) before pressing Ctrl + K.

In the Preferences dialog box, use the first letter of the category to move focus to that category. Press the letter M for Multimedia to move to that category, if it is not already selected. Press the Tab key to move focus into the Multimedia options.

Multimedia category

In Adobe Reader 6.0, if video descriptions of multimedia have been provided, they can be accessed. Activate this feature while the Multimedia category is selected in the Preferences dialog box by doing the following.

The table below shows the keyboard shortcuts for changing multimedia options.

Windows	Mac OS
Press Alt + A to turn on the audio description, video description, or descriptive video that will be provided when available.	Press Tab to move to the audio/video description support.

Document or page mode settings (Reading category)

The amount of a PDF document that assistive technology holds in its memory buffer depends on whether Adobe Reader 6.0 is processing the entire document (document mode) or just a single page (page mode). If screen magnification is used, this preference may affect the way this assistive technology works. Consult the screen magnification vendor for recommended settings for this Adobe Reader preferences option.

Background

When assistive technology is used, and an entire document is in the memory buffer, all of the assistive technology’s facilities can be used to navigate the document. For instance, some assistive technologies provide screen reader users with ways to obtain a list of links, navigate to the next active item, or find a word in the document. Screen reader users can use these tools on the entire document, which is much more efficient. This is “document” mode. Screen reader users are likely to be more familiar with the navigation tools of their assistive technology than the navigation tools of individual applications.

Some assistive technologies, such as screen magnification software, are only concerned with presenting the information that is visible on the screen. It is much faster if the assistive technology only receives visible information, so it doesn’t have to sort through all the parts of the document that are not visible (page mode).

If the PDF file is not tagged, the structure must be synthesized for the parts of the document that are sent to the assistive technology. For large documents it can take a very long time to synthesize the structure. Adobe Reader 6.0 limits the amount of time it spends per page, but for a document that is hundreds of pages long, the synthesis can still add up to a very long delay. During this time, assistive technology will not be responding and may appear to be hung. Because screen reader users won’t know how large the file is until it is opened, they may not know that this is what is occurring. And if screen reader users don’t want to read the entire document, they may not need to have all of it analyzed when it is opened.

Setting document or page mode

Document or page mode is controlled by options in the Reading category of the Preferences dialog box.

The default is document mode for documents of 10 pages or less, and page mode for documents larger than 10 pages. To use page mode, select the Deliver Data In Pages When Document Exceeds check box. If selected, specify the maximum size of the document for document mode. To always use page mode, set that value to one page. Because all documents are at least one page long, they would always use page mode. If document mode is preferred, analyzing very long documents can be avoided by setting this value to a suitably large page count, for example, 100 pages.

The Reading category in the Preferences dialog box

This preference can be changed at any time, and it will take effect immediately. If a document is being read in page mode and document mode is preferred, change the preference setting. The assistive technology will download the new information as soon as it is available. Users can also switch from document to page mode, but since the assistive technology will not read information in the Preferences dialog box until Adobe Reader 6.0 is done downloading the document, this feature can’t be used to cancel the analysis of a long document as it is loading.

The settings will be retained.

Navigating in page mode

It is necessary to use the tools in Adobe Reader 6.0 to navigate PDF documents when using page mode. Users also need to be aware that assistive technology only knows about the current page. At the bottom of a page, advance to the next page by using the Reader commands (for example, Page Down or Ctrl + Page Down to advance to the next page).

To navigate to locations in the document or the table of contents, use Bookmarks in the Navigation pane. Advance to the next active item (form field, link, etc.) with Adobe Reader 6.0 by using the Tab key. However, users should make sure that these keystrokes are interpreted by Adobe Reader 6.0, not by the assistive technology software.

When in page mode, screen reader users may receive a message that indicates that the document is empty, even though there is text in the document. Adobe Reader 6.0 provides this message when it detects an empty page. If page mode is used, note that the message only applies to the current page, and that the next page may contain information. Advanced to the next page to confirm this.

Setting read order options (Accessibility category)

The Left-to-Right, Top-to-Bottom and the Print Stream Reading Orders are much faster than the Infer Reading Order from Document. If one of these choices is selected, users may want to use document mode all of the time, or may want to set the threshold to a very large document size. Use caution when using the Infer Reading Order from Document even though it is the recommended setting.

Additional preference settings to use with screen readers

There are other settings in Adobe Reader 6.0 that can be modified to enhance the reading of a PDF document using a screen reader. These include settings in the Internet and Startup categories in the Preferences dialog box.

Internet category

If it is preferable not to open PDF documents in a browser window, this default option can be turned off. This means that when a PDF document is opened on a Web site, the document will be displayed in a separate Adobe Reader window rather than being displayed in the Web browser.

Choosing not to display the PDF document in the browser can improve the behavior of the PDF file with assistive technology, such as screen readers. Try changing this preference setting if the assistive technology appears to have difficulty reading PDF documents in the Web browser.

To change how a PDF document is displayed on a Windows system:

In the Internet category of the Preferences dialog box, press Alt + D to turn off Display PDF in Browser.

To change how a PDF document is displayed on Mac OS:

In the Internet category of the Preferences dialog box, press the Tab key to move to the option, then select it by pressing the spacebar.

Startup category

Choose whether to view the Adobe Reader 6.0 splash screen as the application starts up. By default, this option is turned on.

To turn off the splash screen on startup on a Windows system:

Press Alt + S in the Internet category of the Preferences dialog box.

To turn off the splash screen on startup on Mac OS:

Press the Tab key to move to the option, then select it by pressing the spacebar.

Document place marker in the Startup category

A place marker can be set in a PDF document. If a place marker is set for a document, when the document is next opened, it will be positioned to the marker location. This preference is controlled by the Reopen Document to Last Viewed Page option, and by default it is set only for eBooks.

To turn on place markers in PDF documents on a Windows system:

Press Alt + V in the Startup category of the Preferences dialog box and choose one of the following:

• eBooks only
• Marked files and eBooks only
• All Files

To turn on place markers in PDF documents on Mac OS:

Press the Tab key to move to the option, then select it by pressing the spacebar.

If place marker is turned on in a PDF document, the following message appears when the PDF document is closed. Choose Yes To All, Yes, or No when asked whether to reopen to this page the next time this document is opened.

The place marker message box

Navigation using keyboard commands

For best results when reading PDF documents, be sure to use the most current version of Adobe Reader 6.0 as well as the most current version of any assistive technology required. To download the latest version of Adobe Reader 6.0, go to http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2_allversions.html. Note that multiple versions of the Adobe Reader 6.0 download exist.

Keyboard commands listed in this section work on either Windows or Mac OS unless otherwise specified. For a complete list of keyboard commands, see “Appendix B: Complete List of Adobe Reader 6.0 Keyboard Commands”.

Opening a PDF document in Adobe Reader 6.0

When Adobe Reader 6.0 is first launched, no document is open.

To open PDF documents, press Ctrl + O for Open (Windows) or Command + O (Mac OS). The first time a document is opened, the How To window is visible on the right side of the application window.

The Adobe Reader 6.0 interface with the How To window visible

The How To window provides help on general tasks without having to search the Help files.

To view the document window without obstruction:

• To turn off the How To window for the current document press F4. This key is a toggle, so pressing F4 again will bring the How To window back in view when needed.
• To turn off the How To window at startup, clear the “Show How To Window at Startup” check box in the How To window. When this tool is needed, press F4 to show it.

Title, menu and toolbars

At the top of the Adobe Reader 6.0 interface is the title bar containing the application name and the name of the current document.

Under the title bar is the menu bar containing items such as File, Edit, View, Document, Tools, Window, and Help. On a Windows system, pressing the Alt key will move focus to the menu bar. Pressing the Alt key in combination with the keyboard shortcuts in the menu bar will move focus to a specific menu bar item. For example, Alt + F will move focus to and open the File menu. The keyboard shortcuts are the letters that are underlined. Escape will remove focus from the menu bar and will return focus to the document window.

The menu bar can be hidden by pressing F9. This key is a toggle so pressing F9 again will show the menu bar.

Beneath the menu bar are the toolbars. Toolbars can be accessed on Windows using the keyboard by pressing the Alt key to move focus to the menu bar, then pressing Ctrl + Tab to move to the first toolbar. Ctrl + Tab will move focus through other visible toolbars. Pressing Ctrl + Shift + Tab will move focus to the previous toolbar.

On Mac OS, if Full Keyboard Access is enabled in the system preferences, Control + F5 (the default keyboard command) will move focus to the first toolbar.

To move through toolbar items, press the Tab key to move forward and Shift + Tab to move backward. Pressing Enter on a toolbar icon will activate that function. Escape will remove focus from the toolbar and return focus to the document window.

To move focus to a toolbar in a browser, press Shift + F8 on a Windows system. There is no equivalent Mac OS keystroke.

On a Windows system, toolbars can be turned on or off by pressing Alt + V for View, then T for toolbars and pressing the Enter key on the name of a toolbar. If a toolbar is turned on or “checked”, it will be turned off or “unchecked” and if the selected toolbar is unchecked, pressing the Enter key will check it or turn it on.

Main document window

Below the toolbars is the main document area for reading documents. This area can have up to three components. A document must be open to view the Navigation pane. It is on the left side of the screen.

Navigation pane

To reveal the Navigation pane, do one of the following:

• Choose View > Navigation Tabs > Open Navigation Pane.
• Choose Alt + V for View, then N, then the letter O for Open Navigation Pane (Windows only).
• Press F6.

The Navigation pane is located on the left side of the document window and, when it is closed, only the tabs for items are visible. The Navigation pane tabs include Bookmarks and Comments. F6 is a toggle, so pressing F6 will show or hide the Navigation pane. If the Navigation pane is open, pressing Shift + F6 moves focus between the document and the Navigation pane.

To move through items in the open Navigation pane within the selected tab, use the Tab key. The Tab key moves focus to and shows the category in the active Navigation pane tab. To move between tabs in the Navigation pane, for example from Bookmarks to Pages, use Ctrl + Tab or Ctrl + Shift + Tab (Windows only), or the Up Arrow or Down Arrow key when focus is on the tab itself (Windows or Mac OS). The Left Arrow key highlights the top tab. The Right Arrow key highlights the bottom tab in an open Navigation pane.

In the Bookmarks tab of the Navigation pane, expand all bookmarks by pressing Shift + * or collapse all bookmarks by pressing the Forward Slash key (/). Using the Left Arrow or Right Arrow key on a particular bookmark will collapse or expand the bookmark respectively.

Document window

The main document window is in the center of the screen. When the mouse is moved over this area, the Hand tool, which is the default reading tool, is visible.

To cycle through open documents if the focus is on a document on a Windows system, press Ctrl + F6. (There is no corresponding shortcut for Mac OS.) Pressing Ctrl + F4 or Ctrl + W (Windows) or Command + W (Mac OS) will close the current document. To close all open documents, press Ctrl + Shift + W (Windows) or Command + Shift + W (Mac OS).

Pressing Alt + F6 will move focus to the next open palette or dialog box. (There is no Mac OS equivalent for this.)

To move among fields in a document, press the Tab key to move to the next field or Shift + Tab to move focus to the previous field.

To access the context menu reading a document, press either the AppKey or Shift + F10.

A useful browser keyboard command is Ctrl + I (Windows) or Command + I (Mac OS), which opens the Properties dialog box.

How To window

The third component of the main document window is the How To window. As previously mentioned, the How To window is displayed by default. Pressing F4 will either show or hide useful Help topics. The How To window contains links to helpful information on performing general tasks. At the top of the How To window is a navigation bar with a left and right arrow to move forward and backward through topics.

To use keyboard commands to move through the topics, press Ctrl + Shift + Tab (Windows only). This key combination moves focus to the How To navigation bar. Press Enter on the Back or Forward buttons, for example, to move to the previous or next topic.

To move focus between the How To window and the main document window, press Shift + F4.

Status bar

The last component of the Adobe Reader 6.0 interface is the Status bar. The Status bar is at the very bottom of the Adobe Reader 6.0 window. Moving from left to right, information is available on the page size, the page numbering, and available views of the document.

In the center of the Status bar is a document navigation tool. It shows the current page, the total number of pages in the document, and provides arrow icons to move quickly through pages in the document.

On the right side of the Status bar are icons for viewing the document in Single Page, Continuous, Continuous Facing, or Facing mode.

Move through a document using keyboard commands such as Ctrl + Shift + Page Up (Windows) or Command + Shift + Page Up (Mac OS) to move to the first page of a document, or Ctrl + Shift + Page Down (Windows) or Command + Shift + Page Down (Mac OS) to move to the last page of a document. Page Up and Page Down will move forward one screen and backward one screen respectively.

Pressing Ctrl + Shift + N (Windows) or Command + Shift + N (Mac OS) brings up the Go To Page dialog box, in which a specific page number can be entered.

Searching documents

In Adobe Reader 6.0, it is easy to find specific items in documents by using the Search tool. Activate the Search window by pressing Ctrl + F (Windows) or Command + F (Mac OS). If the How To window is visible, the How To items are replaced by the Search items. If the How To window is hidden, the Search window opens on the right side of the screen.

The Adobe Reader 6.0 interface with the Search window visible

By default the focus is on the “enter keyword” text box. This is where you can enter the keyword(s) that will be searched for in a document.

Use the Tab key to move through the options for searching for items in a PDF document. Current document or all documents in a specific folder can be searched. Searches can be for whole words, can be case sensitive, or can be through bookmarks or comments. There are also links to search PDFs on the Internet, use Advanced Search options, or access the complete Adobe Reader 6.0 Help files.

Successful search results will appear as links in the results box in the Search window. Either select the link to move to it in the document or press F3 to move to and highlight the next search result in the document.

The table below shows the other Search tool keyboard shortcuts.

Windows	Mac OS
Press Ctrl + ] to search the next document.	Press Command + ] to search the next document.
Press Ctrl + [ to search the previous document.	Press Command + [ to search the previous document.
Press Ctrl + G to search for the next result.	Press Command + G to search for the next result.
Press Ctrl + Shift + G to search for the previous result.	Press Command + Shift + G to search for the previous result.
Press F4 to close the Search window.	Press F4 to close the Search window.

Getting help

It is easy to get help in Adobe Reader 6.0. One option is to use the How To window to obtain assistance on general everyday tasks in Adobe Reader 6.0. Another option is to choose the Help topic on the menu bar. The easiest way to obtain help using keyboard commands is to press F1.

Pressing F1 will open a new window with the complete Adobe Reader 6.0 Help files available.

The Help window is divided into four parts:

• The title bar
• A toolbar
• A navigation pane on the left side that allows searches by Contents, Search keywords, or an alphabetical Index
• A document window on the right side containing the Help file that was requested

The Adobe Reader 6.0 Help window

Pressing Shift + F8 will move focus to the toolbar in the Help window. The toolbar has tools to move forward, backward, print topic, or increase or decrease magnification. Use the Tab key to move through these options.

When a Help topic is chosen, focus in the Navigation pane moves to the current panel contents. Press the Tab key to move back to the Navigation pane before using the Left Arrow key and Right Arrow key to switch the active panel (Contents, Search, or Index). Move among the active panels more directly using Ctrl + Tab (Windows only).

Press the Left Arrow or Right Arrow key in the Navigation pane to move through the Contents, Search, or Index tabs. Press the Tab key to move into the options. Then use the Up Arrow or Down Arrow key to move through the topics. Press Enter to open the topic in the Help document window on the right.

To temporarily hide the Navigation pane, press F6. This key is a toggle, so pressing F6 again will open the Navigation pane.

Press Ctrl + 4 to reflow the Help document for easier reading. On Windows, Ctrl + plus sign (+) increases the magnification, and Ctrl + minus sign (-) decreases the magnification. On Mac OS, Command + plus sign (+) increases the magnification and Command + minus sign (-) decreases the magnification.

Pressing Alt + F4 or Ctrl + W (Windows) or Command + W (Mac OS) closes the Help window.

Using other Adobe Reader accessibility tools with screen readers to read PDF documents

Two useful tools are Reflow and saving the document as a text file. If a PDF document is saved as a text file, it can be translated into Braille using Braille translation software. You can then send the file to a Braille embosser to have it printed in Braille.

Reflow

This tool transforms tagged PDF documents into a single column that fits within the width of the window.

The following chart shows the keyboard shortcuts to reflow a document.

Windows	Mac OS
Choose Alt + V for View, then R for Reflow, or Ctrl + 4. Once in Reflow mode, Ctrl + plus sign (+) increases magnification, and Ctrl + minus sign (-) decreases magnification.	Choose Alt + V for View, then R for Reflow, or Command + 4. Once in Reflow mode, Command + plus sign (+) increases magnification, and Command + minus sign (-) decreases magnification.

Saving a document for Braille translation

To create a Braille copy of a document, or to extract the text for reading on alternate devices or applications, choose to Save as Text. A plain text file is created without images or multimedia objects.

The table below shows the keyboard shortcuts for saving a document as a text file.

Windows	Mac OS
Press Alt + F, then V for Save as Text. Locate the drive and folder to save the file to. Press Alt + S to activate the Save button.	Choose File > Save as Text. Locate the drive and folder to save the file to. Press Tab to the Save button and press Enter.

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