[Athen] Accessibility of Adobe Acrobat Pro

[Howard Kramer]

Thanks Karen. That was really helpful.

-Howard


On Mon, Dec 16, 2013 at 7:05 AM, Karlen Communications <
info at karlencommunications.com> wrote:


> One of the issues with those who use screen readers is that when in Adobe

> Reader or acrobat we are always in “virtual view” and PDF by its nature is

> not a word processing environment.

>

>

>

> There is so much work in remediation that is visual, matching what you see

> on the “printed page” with the Tags, Order and Content Panels that virtual

> access is not granular enough to work with. Also, if something is not

> tagged, how would someone using a screen reader even know it is on the page

> and has been missed?

>

>

>

> It is the same with adding form controls. It is a very visual process and

> does, by its nature, involve using a mouse to locate and define form

> control size/positions. Until the document is properly tagged, those of us

> using screen readers don’t have access to it.

>

>

>

> I do agree that the UI of Acrobat is not keyboard friendly and many of us

> with and without disabilities find it easier to use the keyboard for tasks

> than the mouse. In this respect, Adobe has seriously dropped the ball and

> never picked it up again.

>

>

>

> For me, these are the two main issues: you have to be able to see the

> content to Tag it and ensure tagging is correct; and, keyboard support in

> Acrobat is quite poor.

>

>

>

> There are some of the QA tasks that can be done if you use a screen

> reader. But a screen reader can’t identify untagged content.

>

>

>

> Cheers, Karen

>

>

>

> *From:* athen-list-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu [mailto:

> athen-list-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] *On Behalf Of *Ron Stewart

> *Sent:* December 13, 2013 6:53 PM

>

> *To:* 'Access Technology Higher Education Network'

> *Subject:* RE: [Athen] Accessibility of Adobe Acrobat Pro

>

>

>

> Evening,  the base answer is no unfortunately.  We just did a huge

> document remediation project for one of our major clients, not the first

> one.  One of the reasons that we did it is because their internal folks who

> require non-mouse based access could just not do the work to meet the needs

> of users both with and without disabilities and this is one of the largest

> providers of content in the English speaking world.  I like the work, but

> to be honest I also regret taking it on.

>

>

>

> I do not believe that ADOBE has spent any significant resources in making

> their document development environments even marginally accessible.  The

> exception would be Dreamweaver, but even there you need to operate in code

> mode.  None of the WYSIWIG interfaces even come close.   Would love to hear

> that I am wrong, but for me accessible does not also mean that I have to

> memorize a whole slew of non-standard keyboard commands.  That does not

> mean that it is impossible, but like Google ADOBE has played this love hate

> game with accessibility for a long time.  I have to commend their

> accessibility group for their work, but corporately ADOBE is right up there

> with the other vendors in playing lip service to accessibility.

>

>

>

> Sorry to sound so jaded, but I have now been working in this space for

> twenty years and I think it is justified.

>

>

>

> Ron Stewart

>

>

>

> *From:* athen-list-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu [

> mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu<athen-list-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu>]

> *On Behalf Of *Howard Kramer

> *Sent:* Friday, December 13, 2013 4:16 PM

> *To:* Access Technology Higher Education Network

> *Subject:* [Athen] Accessibility of Adobe Acrobat Pro

>

>

>

> Hello All:

>

>

>

> I would assume at this point that Acrobat Pro would be fully accessible to

> keyboard and screenreader users. But just wanted to check - what's the

> current state of its accessibility?

>

>

>

> Thanks,

>

> Howard

>

>

>

> --

>

> Howard Kramer

>

> Conference Coordinator

>

> Accessing Higher Ground

>

> 303-492-8672

>

> cell: 720-351-8668

>

>

>

> AHEAD Association of Higher Education and Disability

>

>

>

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>

>



-- 
Howard Kramer
Conference Coordinator
Accessing Higher Ground
303-492-8672
cell: 720-351-8668

AHEAD Association of Higher Education and Disability
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