Screen reader doesnt do breaks

Report · May 24, 2019

Hi,

I have set proper reading order and play screen reader. Everything is fine, but only issue is it doesnt do any breaks at the end of the row. It continues reading like one sentence. Thats ok, but when I have some data - see below, I need to make it read each row separately.

40°F(4.5°C) minimum

120°F(49°C) maximum

(Air, surface, and material)

At least 5°F above dew point

Relative humidity: 85% maximum

Does anyone know? Thank you very much! Jakub

Report · May 24, 2019

We need more details to answer your question.

Which brand and version of the screen reader are you using?
Because you wrote "at the end of the row", is the text in a table? Or is it regular lines of body text?
What character is at the end of each line of text in your sample above? Is it an "end of paragraph" ¶ symbol (put in with the Enter/Return key) or a "Shift + Enter" (called a forced line break)?

Report · May 24, 2019

Version 2019.012.20034, adobe acrobat PRO DC.

Its not even in table, just a text as you can see above. when i autotag document, it reads somehow faster and when I tag it manually, it reads all PDF "slower"..(but, manual tag brings another issues so I prefer autotag)

I am not able to answer on your 3rd point, I cant see any symbol at the end of rows. I didnt create that PDF.

Report · May 24, 2019

Oh, so you're testing with Acrobat's built-in Read Out Loud tool?

Don't use it! It's a nearly worthless, antiquated piece of junk that's not a real screen reader. It does not read content correctly. It does not have a full set of controls for users. And it gives false positives and false negatives when testing PDFs for accessibility.

For testing use these real screen readers:

JAWS by Freedom Scientific https://www.freedomscientific.com/products/software/jaws/
NVDA (free) by NV Access https://www.nvaccess.org/
VoiceOver, built into the Apple OS

More information is in our blog at Testing for Accessibility: Screen Readers

Report · May 26, 2019

Thank you very much!

So, is it even possible to edit PDF in adobe acrobat pro dc the way how its gonna read? Or I need to make it properly in Word (before export to PDF)? I try to work with Reading Order, but I am not sure its enough.

As I said above, somehow two bullet points read as one sentence, somehow dont read tables at all… (as per VoiceOver). So, can it be caused by bad PDF creation so I wont be able to set it to read correct?

Report · May 26, 2019

jacobc42534807 wrote
So, is it even possible to edit PDF in adobe acrobat pro dc the way how its gonna read?

It's possible to fix a PDF to have it read correctly by all assistive technologies, not just screen readers. The PDF must be correctly tagged and have the tags in the correct, logical reading order.

But it takes time, the correct software tools, and knowledge about how to do this. Time and money!

jacobc42534807 wrote
Or I need to make it properly in Word (before export to PDF)? I try to work with Reading Order, but I am not sure its enough.

This is always the best strategy.

Once you learn how to make an accessible Word document and export it correctly to a tagged, accessible PDF, the process is quite fast and seamless, and most PDFs require minimal fixing in Acrobat and other tools.

The first 3 items of our "Cheat Sheet for Accessible Documents" state:

The PDF must be tagged.
They must be the correct tags.
And they must be in a correct, logical reading order.

There are more requirements we list such as Alt-text on graphics and metadata, but these are the big 3 for all document files.

Keep in mind that you must use the latest versions of software in order to get a compliant PDF; earlier versions of Word, Acrobat's PDF Maker plug-in for Word, and Acrobat itself had various "flaws" in how they made accessible files.

One more benefit to making a fully accessible, compliant Word source file: every time you export from it, you'll have a better, more accessible PDF. So if the editors want to make changes or you need to re-use the file later in the future, you'll have better quality PDFs every time you export to PDF.

It just make sense...and save cents!

jacobc42534807 wrote
As I said above, somehow two bullet points read as one sentence, somehow dont read tables at all… (as per VoiceOver). So, can it be caused by bad PDF creation so I wont be able to set it to read correct?

Can't diagnose this without seeing both the Word source file and the PDF.

But these could be from using Acrobat's built-it Read Aloud and Apple's built-in Voice Over. And it could be how the document was constructed, too.

To test this yourself, download and install the free NVDA screen reader listed above (Windows only) and see if these specific items read correctly in it. That test will let you know if it's the screen reader or the file that is causing this.