How do I disable accessibility features???

If you are trying to disable a plug-in the preferred method is to crate a new subdirectory under the Acrobat application, like "optional" or "disabled" and move the api plug-in file you want to disable to that folder. This keeps the name and extension standard and easily allows one to renable the API. But this process has to be done to each user's system and does not allow selectively turning it on or off.

I am having a similar issue. I managed to get it to stop showing that message, but when a document opens it's done something to the text. The fonts are all grainy and light and much harder on the eyes -- it seems to be changing the font or converting some aspect of it. It all looks like a light face of Times, but really grainy and black unless you zoom in super close.

I used speech tools a few times to help with an RSI, now I'm getting eye strain because all text in Acrobat looks terrible! It's very hard to read.

I have tried the fix mentioned above (renaming the plug ins) with no change. I'm at the point of reformatting my drive, reinstalling Acrobat, and never using speech tools again. I've disabled every option I can find and am currently avoiding PDF files as much as I can.

I'm running Vista, and this has happened on both of my computers, so it's not an anomoly.

By the way, thanks to Adobe for assuming that if I use speech tools, I must be vision impaired. Perhaps your software could ask which features of the assibility options a user needs.

Has anybody figured out how to disable the automatic detection of assitive technology? My adobe products keep launching the Accessibility Setup Assistant all the time. Very annoying.

Any help would be appreciated.

Go to C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 8.0\Acrobat\plug_ins

rename ReadOutLoud.api and Accessibility.api to something else.

That seems to get it to shut up.

Tried it. Didn't work. Now it shuts down Adobe w/some kind of error message. Adobe 8.1 has encountered a problem and needs to close. Lovely.

You should be able to change your reading preferences to "for large documents, only read the currently visible pages" to decrease the chances of seeing the content preparation message.

right looked into this a bit more.
The content preparation message indicates Acrobat has detected assistive technology on the machine, like a screen reader or indeed speech recognition software. Acrobat/reader is preparing the document for this, rightly or wrongly.

Unfortunately you can't disable it via an Acrobat preference setting, but you can decrease the frequency. Edit>preferences:reading:Screen Reader options:Only read the currently visible pages.

You can disable the plugin responsible for this however,
Go to C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 8.0\Acrobat\plug_ins
and rename either accessibility.api or readoutloud.api to accessibility.old or readoutloud.old resp.

Obviously this means you lose the other accessibility/read out loud features, but will prevent the content preparation message.

Exactly right, Keith! And I did something funky when that dialog box first came up (I think I hit "use default preferences") and after that, every PDF I opened wound up being converted to "accessible" format, usually changing the fonts of the text to a really bland one. And I couldn't find a way to undo what I did. The only thing I could do was reinstall Acrobat, which I did. Now when those dialog boxes come up, I just hit "Cancel" every time, but it's annoying to have to do that EVERY time I open a PDF.

Since this didn't happen when I was working with XP, I think it might be a Vista thing. The problem only happens when I have Speech Recognition open - when I don't, the PDF's open normally.

This is really frustrating. There is NO option to disable the feature in the Accessibility portion of Acrobat 8.1.2 preferences. These are the top tier choices:

- Replace Document Colors
- Always use Page Layout Style... (4 options for style)
- Always use Zoom Setting... (19 options for zoom)
- Use document structure for tab order when no explicit tab order is specified
- Always display the keyboard selection cursor

No DISABLE button in there!

Now, the Reading prefs are:

- Reading Order (3 options for order)
- Override the reading order in tagged documents
- Page vs Document (3 options for what to read)
- Minimum number of page in a large document (specify)
- Confirm before tagging documents
- Volume (1-10)
- Use default voice
- Voice (options for voice)
- Use default speech attributes
- Pitch (1-10)
- Words per minute (specify)
- Read form fields

No DISABLE button in there either!

So please, I think that many of us have Googled for an answer and the best responses are usually in the form of "look at the preferences for Accessibility." I'm not saying that this is bad advice, but there is just no option for disabling the feature.

Could someone from Adobe PLEASE chime in and just say once and for all "you can't disable this" or "you can and this is how?"

PLEASE!?!?!?!?!?

check the reading and accessibility preferences in Acrobat.