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Acrobat solutions for accessibility
Adobe Systems Incorporated is committed to providing solutions that improve the accessibility of both Adobe® Acrobat® software and the information contained in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files. Adobe Acrobat 5.0 software marks a new era in accessibility, providing a number of new capabilities that improve access for users with disabilities.

Acrobat 5.0 and Adobe Reader® 5.0 – for people who want to read Adobe PDF files

Read Adobe PDF documents with Microsoft® Windows® based screen readers from vendors such as Freedom Scientific (U.S.) and GW Micro (U.S.).

Use keyboard navigation.

View documents in high contrast mode.
Zoom in on text and reflow to fit any size view when working with tagged (accessible) Adobe PDF files.
Acrobat 5.0 – for people who create or manage Adobe PDF files

Create new tagged Adobe PDF files from applications such as Microsoft Office 2000 for Windows.

Check and touch up documents for accessibility with the Accessibility Checker and the Tags Palette.

Add security while retaining accessibility.
Convert existing PDF files to tagged Adobe PDF with the free Make Accessible plug-in (U.S.) for Windows.
Add text to scanned pages for improved accessibility with the free Paper Capture plug-in (U.S.) for Windows.
Export text from tagged Adobe PDF to RTF with Acrobat 5.0, or to XML, HTML, or TXT with the free Save As XML plug-in for Windows (U.S.) or Macintosh (U.S.).
More information
White paper: Enhancing the accessibility of the Web with Adobe Acrobat software
(PDF: 356 KB / 8 pages)
FAQ: Adobe Acrobat 5.0 and accessibility
(PDF: 214 KB / 8 pages)

How to create accessible Adobe PDF files
(PDF: 336 KB / 32 pages)

Advanced techniques for creating accessible Adobe PDF files
(PDF: 378 KB / 42 pages)

Access.adobe.com (U.S.)
This Web site is dedicated to helping people with visual disabilities work more effectively with Adobe Acrobat software and Adobe PDF files. It includes white papers and FAQs in HTML format, and Web-based tools that help users convert PDF into simple HTML or ASCII text, which can then be synthesised into audible speech with any screen-reading program.

Analysis: Adobe Acrobat 5.0 and Section 508
This document details the accessibility features of Adobe Acrobat 5.0 in the context of U.S. government regulations as contained in Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.
(PDF: 362 KB / 8 pages)
Video series: Acrobat 5.0 and accessibility

View the following QuickTime movies for detailed instructions on how to improve the accessibility of documents using Acrobat 5.0.

Working with Microsoft Office 2000 files
(QuickTime: 3.7 MB / 06:13)
Working with existing PDF files
(QuickTime: 1.7 MB / 02:36)
Working with forms
(QuickTime: 2.2 MB / 03:46)
Usability enhancements of Acrobat 5.0
(QuickTime: 2.2 MB / 03:03)
Working with screen readers
(QuickTime: 1.7 MB / 02:53)