Revision as of 09:47, 13 February 2013

Using PDFs from Other Sources:

There may not be a lot you can do if you are using a PDF from another source (such as journal articles and scanned photocopies) but there are a few elements you should look for when selecting PDFs to assign.

• Clear, readable text. Text can be made inaccessible if it is warped, in an unusual font (such as Curlz or Handwriting), or is covered by handwriting/drawing. Students may be using software that uses OCR in order to convert text to audio, if the characters aren't clear, the audio will be convoluted.
  
• Large font. Some individuals can read large type if there is a high contrast (Black font n a white background or vice versa).
  
• Page numbers. Page numbers, particularly at the top of pages, help students navigate where they are in the text.
  
• Straightforward structure. Many screen readers scan text from left to right, top to bottom. PDFs which include minimal break-out text boxes, tables, wrap around text, etc. are generally accessible to students.
  
• Few images and alternative content. It goes without saying that students with visual impairments may not be able to access an image but this applies to other content as well: graphs, tables, diagrams, etc. Captions and descriptions for visual-based content can help students walk away with the information they may have missed otherwise.
  

Making Your Own PDFs:

Scanning Accessible PDF Docs

At Evergreen, we distribute a lot of instructional material in the form PDF documents. It is important that all PDFs created for use on campus feature optical character recognition (OCR) so that students with different learning abilities can access them. Optical Character Recognition is an easy preset within Adobe Acrobat Pro, that will seamlessly add this layer of functionality to your PDF scans without any more effort than a button click. Recommended OCR scanning presets can be found here.

This process assumes that you are using Adobe Acrobat Pro v9 on Windows and that you have a scanner connected to your computer.

• Turn on your scanner.
• Place document on scanner.
• Start AdobeAcrobat9Pro
• If the Tasks toolbar is not visible, select it from View->Toolbars->Tasks
• If you want to change the scanning defaults, choose Create->PDF from Scanner->Configure Presets
• Click Create->PDF from Scanner->(Document Type, most often Black and White Document) Scanner should begin scanning
• You may be prompted for your scanner type at this point. The scanner type is usally on the front of the scanner.
  You’ll be prompted whether your Scan is Complete or if there are additional pages.
• Place the additional page on the scanner before choosing an option, because the scanner will immediately begin scanning.
• When you’re scanning is complete, select File-> Save. Accessibility checking will not work correctly otherwise,
  Select Advanced ->Acccessibility-> Full Check
• If there are accessibility problems, they will be reported in the left sidebar. They are accompanied by detailed step-by-step instructions for fixing each problem.
• To be absolutely certain that the PDF document will be accessible for a specifc application, testing the PDF document with that application (typically JAWS or ZoomText) is recommended.