[Athen] [EXT] VoiceOver expert and PDF journal article

[Steve Green]

Voiceover's behaviour with PDFs in Preview very much depends on the content. I recently did some basic tests using PDFs that we have made to be 100% PDF/UA and WCAG 2.1 AA conformant. I could jump to the next heading or the next list as expected. However, Voiceover does not announce when lists start or end (which JAWS and NVDA do in Adobe Reader) and it does not announce the nesting of lists (which JAWS and NVDA also do), which has the potential to render a document incomprehensible. Voiceover does announce the bullets, which is useful up to a point.


One of the PDFs contained a form that worked perfectly with JAWS and NVDA in Adobe Reader, but not only did it not work correctly with Voiceover in Preview, but Preview modified the file's code so the saved document then didn't work with Adobe Reader anymore! The file corruption is caused by Preview, not Voiceover.

My view is that it would be better if Preview didn't try to open PDFs, so Mac users were forced to install Adobe Reader.

Steve Green
Managing Director
Test Partners Ltd


From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Robert Beach
Sent: 27 September 2022 20:23
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] [EXT] VoiceOver expert and PDF journal article

Mark,

I have a student worker who is good with Mac and VO. He just had a PDF with headings work perfectly in Preview. We are going to look at it again tomorrow. If I think it is working correctly, we can setup a Zoom meeting with you so you can see what is happening. Do you have a particular PDF we can look at for you and make sure we are covering what you need?

Thanks.


Robert Lee Beach
Assistive Technology Specialist - Student Accessibility & Support Services

Kansas City Kansas Community College
7250 State Ave. - Suite # 3384 - Kansas City, KS 66112
O 913-288-7671 | F 913-288-7678
rbeach at kckcc.edu<mailto:rbeach at kckcc.edu>



From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu>> On Behalf Of Mark Weiler
Sent: Monday, September 26, 2022 12:56 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>>
Subject: [EXT][Athen] VoiceOver expert and PDF journal article

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Is there a VoiceOver expert that could meet via Zoom and share your screen and sound as you step through an example of a PDF-based journal article with me?
Checking out things like headings, tables, lists, and reading order.

Mark Weiler, PhD (he & him)
JAWS certified and Web Accessibility Specialist
Web & User Experience Librarian
Wilfrid Laurier University
Waterloo, Ontario

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