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verdecreative
verdecreative
Participant
May 22, 2018
Question

Reading order of Accessible PDF

  • May 22, 2018
  • 3 replies
  • 7838 views

Hello!

I hope someone can help! I created artwork in InDesign for a document that has been printed. My customer has now requested an accessible version of the PDF for their website. So I have made a few tweaks and have set up tags, alt text etc and have done everything I can in Acrobat, including adjusting the reading order so that it flows logically. However, even though I have adjusted the reading order, the 'read aloud' function within Acrobat still reads it in the original order so some paragraphs are being read before others! This is driving me nuts!

Is there something I am missing? Like a check box to say follow my reading order or something? This is my first accessible PDF and I have googled how to do it and followed everything but I'm now stuck.

I hope someone can point me in the right direction.

Many thanks!!

Louise

This topic has been closed for replies.

3 replies

J
jdblundell-dcccd
Participating Frequently
June 5, 2018

I'm running into issues with the reading order as well on PDF forms.

I've tested with both JAWS and the Adobe Read Aloud Tool.

From everything I can tell, my form fields have been moved all the way to the bottom of the reading order panel and both JAWS and Read Aloud are ignoring them.

I'm trying to drag them higher in the list but I can't.

This is happening with a couple users and several different forms. I'm guessing there's some setting we're missing somehow but I can't figure it out for the life of me.

https://dcccd-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/jdb1132_dcccd_edu/EagCTjQlH1ZIuv464Oh4XS8BJDoz0lVJ-v3-uMNoF9PMZA?e=pT6lVx

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Legend
June 6, 2018

the Adobe Read Aloud Tool

No no no no NO!

Read Aloud is not an assistive technology. You will get false positives because it lacks the required capabilities of presenting the information to users. And you'll get a lot of false negatives because it just doesn't work.

Do not waste your time with it.

I'm guessing there's some setting we're missing somehow but I can't figure it out for the life of me.

The big secret: form fields/controls must be nested correctly inside the  <P> tag/visible printable label.

Suggestions:

  1. Ensure your InDesign is updated to CC:2018 ver. 13.1 as it corrected some bugs in the InDesign-to-PDF-Forms workflow.
  2. Also update your Acrobat Pro to DC:2018.011.20040.
  3. Purchase a colleague's book on accessible PDFs at Books on Accessibility — PubCom Media  Best guide in the industry.
|&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Bevi Chagnon &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;Designer, Trainer, &amp; Technologist for Accessible Documents ||&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;PubCom |&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Classes &amp; Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs &amp; MS Office |
D
DarcyM-DMV
Participant
May 31, 2018

Hi Louise,

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned yet but if you are experiencing issues with the reading order even though you have tagged them correctly, then you may need to change them in you page properties as well.

One the sidebar go to the pages icon to view your page thumbnails and select all pages, right click and choose Page Properties at the very bottom and you should see a dialog box as below. Under the Tab Order tab make sure that it is set to Use Document Structure or it will not follow the reading order you set up with the tags.

I hope this helps.

D
Duff Johnson
Participating Frequently
May 22, 2018

Read-Aloud does not use tags for reading order. It’s not useful for testing accessibility (or almost anything else).

Sent from a mobile device. Please excuse the brevity and/or errors.

verdecreative
verdecreativeAuthor
Participant
May 22, 2018

Oh well that would explain why it's not working then! Thank you for saving me from more hours of banging my head against the wall.

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Legend
May 22, 2018

Duff's correct. Read Aloud is not a valid screen reader and can't test anything. If you want to use a screen reader, then use either JAWS or NVDA. NVDA is free, JAWS allows limited testing for free.

But you can check both PDF reading orders visually from Adobe Acrobat Pro by examining both the TAGS and ORDER panels.

From the TAGS panel:

  1. Expand the panel enough to see the tags.
  2. Select the first tag at the top of the tree.
  3. Using the arrow keys on your keyboard, "walk" down the tag tree.
  4. This simulates the sequence of how they will be voiced to someone using a screen reader or other assistive technology.
  5. Are they in a logical reading order? Or do they jump around the page? Or to different pages in the document?

From the ORDER panel:

  1. Change the panel's preferences to Show page content groups / Show page order.
  2. Also UNcheck the option to Show like elements in a single box.
  3. Then, read the sequential numbers in the Order panel tree, or the numbered items on the page. This simulates the sequence for those using other assistive technologies, such as Braille devices.
  4. Are they in a logical reading order? Or do they jump around the page?

There are many other items that make a PDF accessible. RO is a critical one, but not the only one. Consider getting specific training in how to make accessible PDFs from InDesign as well as how to check PDFs for compliance. We have classes in this, both live instructor- led online (not canned video) and in classroom at www.PubCom.com/classes

|&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Bevi Chagnon &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;Designer, Trainer, &amp; Technologist for Accessible Documents ||&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;PubCom |&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Classes &amp; Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs &amp; MS Office |
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