OT--PDF Read Out Loud problem

[Urszula]

Carol,
Files created using Distiller create flat files, with no interactivity. They may be repaired, using tedious methods in Acrobat. It is much better to create accessible publications using techniques that take into consideration the entire design and workflow to minimize repairs.

True accessibility is accomplished through PDF tags. That is where screen reader software that people with disabilities use looks for content. One of those is JAWS, much more sophisticated tool than Adobe Acrobat Read Out Loud feature. 

I recently posted an article specifically on accessibility in FrameMaker at http://jetsetcom.net/uncategorised/building-adobe-framemaker-documents-for-accessibility.html

Distiller is print production centric, as it uses PostScript that drives printing devices. There are newer methods that give better results, when focus is on creating PDF files that are posted on line, thus required to be accessible. 

Best regards,

Urszula Witherell
www.jetsetcom.net | www.trainingonsite.com
301.524.3165

Sent from iPad

> On Dec 11, 2013, at 12:21 PM, "Carol J. Elkins" <celkins at awrittenword.com> wrote:
> 
> After I emailed this yesterday, I tested the PDF on my laptop (also running Acrobat 11 Pro on Windows 7), and the Read Out Loud function works fine. So the problem must be with the Acrobat installation on my desktop CPU. I've run the Repair feature to no avail. It isn't worth uninstalling and reinstalling Acrobat since I can accomplish the task on my laptop.
> 
> However, one of the folks who kindly responded to me off-list made some comments about PDF accessibility that I'm interested in seeing discussed. She wrote: "I am noticing a major flag in your post: "were created in Acrobat Distiller 11 using the default Press job option settings". You have a few things against you... Distiller should not be used when creating accessible documents. Files should be converted to PDF. It may sound confusing, but the PDF created by PS Distiller is very different than converted one. Acrobat Read Out Loud is very rudimentary and you really should not use it for testing your document. "
> 
> Since I am of the School of Dov Isaacs and always print to postscript and then distill to get my PDFs, the idea that I shouldn't distill to get accessible PDFs is new to me. What are other people's thoughts?
> 
> Carol
> 
> ____________________________________________
> Last July, I posted this question to the Acrobat Community and got nowhere. So I'm asking here in hope that I can find someone who has had this problem and was able to fix it.
> 
> I'm using Acrobat XI Pro (fully updated to 11.0.05) on Windows7 (fully patched). When I try to use the Read Out Loud feature on a PDF, Acrobat shuts down. I am able to turn on (activate) the Read Out Loud feature, but when I select Read to End of Page or Read This Document, Acrobat crashes. PDFs are version 1.6 (Acrobat 7.x). They were created in Acrobat Distiller 11 using the default Press job option settings. The documents are 100% accessible and are fully tagged.
> 
> I have been unable to use Read Out Loud since I upgraded from Acrobat 9 Pro last January. I've read dozens of articles on "how to prepare your PDFs for accessibility" but this PDF is straight text--no tables, captions, etc. Just text. No complicated reading order. So for the life of me I can't figure out what to do to get the thing to read to me. I never had a problem before Acrobat 11 and I've never had to "do" anything to prepare the PDF.
> 
> Help!
> 
> Carol
> 
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