Acrobat Tutorial

Excerpted from "Adobe Acrobat 6 Visual QuickStart Guide" by Jennifer Alspach.

 

Accessibility features in Adobe® Acrobat® can be valuable alternatives for accessing information in a PDF document. For example, users can hear a PDF document read aloud, or scroll a PDF document automatically. These and other accessibility features help users with motor and vision challenges to use PDF files with relative ease.

Reading out loud

The Read Aloud feature converts text to spoken words. You can choose to have one page read, or the whole document, and you can choose the reading order. While a PDF is being read out loud, you can always pause or stop the reading.

To set the Read Aloud options:

1. Choose Edit > Preferences (Windows®), or Acrobat > Preferences (Mac).

2. Choose Reading from the list on the left. This displays the default reading preference settings.

   

   The default reading preferences.

3. Set desired volume level.

4. Choose a voice. On Windows you only have the default voice. On the Macintosh, choose from a variety of voices. Keep in mind that some voices sound better than others. You can set the pitch and words per minute as well, on both Mac and Windows.

5. Choose a reading order from the pop-up menu.

   

   Select a reading order.

   • Infer Reading Order is generally the best method for reading a document. This option reads in the order that the document was tagged. If the document isn’t tagged, it will use the most logical reading order.

   • Left to Right/Top to Bottom Order will read the PDF strictly from left to right and top to bottom, regardless of how the document was created.

   • Use Reading Order in Raw Print Stream reads the words in the order they were recorded in the print stream.

   • Check Read form fields to read aloud text fields, check boxes and radio buttons in forms (Acrobat 7).

6. Click OK.

Other Accessibility Options

There are a number of other simple things you can do to make your document more accessible to all readers. You’ll find some of these features in Preferences, some in other areas of the program.

Visibility

One of the quickest ways to make your PDF more readable for people with vision challenges is to change its viewing options. When you first open a file, change the Default Zoom in the Page Display panel of Preferences.

Set the magnification of your document to something that will be helpful to visually challenged users.

In the Accessibility panel of Preferences, you’ll find other options that increase the visibility of text and graphics on your pages by changing the Document Colors Options. For example, you can choose to replace the page background and text colors.

The Accessibility area lets you set your document colors to be more visible than they might normally be.

Automatic scrolling

Using the Automatic Scrolling feature lets you move through a PDF without relying on the mouse.

To scroll automatically:

1. With the document open, choose View > Automatically Scroll. The document will start scrolling slowly down your screen.

   

   You can choose to automatically scroll through documents, using the keyboard to control speed and direction of scrolling.

2. Use the number keys to control the speed of the scrolling, with 9 being fast and 0 being slow.

3. Use the up and down arrow keys to change the direction of scrolling. You can also use the hyphen or minus key to go backward.

4. To go to the previous or next page, use the left or right arrows.

Making Your PDF Accessible

You can check how accessible your PDF is. Acrobat will report on the following accessibility features: alternative text for figures, specified languages for text, reliable character encodings, and logical structural tree referencing for the contents of the PDF file.

Check for accessibility:

Choose Advanced > Accessibility > Quick Check. A window appears, with a brief report on the accessibility of your document.

This window shows the result of Acrobat’s Accessibility Quick Check.

To make your PDF accessible:

1. Open the PDF you want to make accessible.

2. Choose Advanced > Accessibility > Make Accessible. Your document won’t look any different: The tagged areas are hidden in the background.

   

   Acrobat can automatically make your document more accessible.

Excerpted from "Adobe Acrobat 6 Visual QuickStart Guide" by Jennifer Alspach. © 2004 Jennifer Alspach. Used with permission of Pearson Education, Inc. and Peachpit Press. To buy this book, visit www.peachpit.com.

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