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R
reperella
Participant
June 13, 2020
Question

Words written in capital letters reading each letter individually in PDF in read out loud mode

  • June 13, 2020
  • 5 replies
  • 1663 views

My PDF created in Canva is reading words letter by letter when in the Read Out Loud mode.  For example, the word MEMORY is read as "M", "E", "M", "O", "R", "Y".  Thanks for any help you can give to solve this problem.  

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5 replies

a_C_student16379412
a_C_student16379412
Inspiring
June 17, 2020

Hi reperella, the free NVDA screen reader and/or the screen-reader-emulator built into the free PAC 3 from Access for All are much better choices than Read Out Loud for acessibility testing. Regarding the use of imperfect PDF-maker tools - perfectly OK IMHO, just gotta be willing to do a bit of extra work after PDF conversion to get an accessible final document. 

    try67
    Community Expert
    try67Community Expert
    Community Expert
    June 17, 2020

    My guess is that the font you used caused the application that created the file to write those letters as separate "entities" from the rest of the word (for cosmetic purposes, perhaps, or just as an error), which in turn caused Acrobat to read them out loud separately. Using a different font fixed the first issue (which was probably not visible to the naked eye at all), and therefore also the second one.

      Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
      Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
      Legend
      June 17, 2020

      Respectfully, the answer was correct.

      Reading the content of a PDF file isn't directly related to which font you used in the source program. Per the PDF specification, a valid screen reader should voice the content as written, not letter by letter.

      Lucky for you that whatever you did supposedly corrected the problem you were having.

      But as stated before, Acrobat's Read Out Loud utility is not a valid, PDF-conforming screen reader, and it continuously gives unexpected results and mis-reads the content, as you described.

       

      This is why Read Out Loud is not a recommended testing program for accessibile PDF.

       

      Hope you have a good day.

       

      |    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |
        R
        reperellaAuthor
        Participant
        June 17, 2020

        Thank you for the second reply.  Yes, I have changed the font in a couple of documents and this has done the trick.  I am working with what I have as a teacher and trying to be pro-active.  I am not a professional at this and had hoped to come to a community that I could learn from.  Please, if I post again, scroll on if you can't be respectful the first time.  You have a nice day as well!  

          Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
          Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
          Legend
          June 17, 2020

          Quote: "Please, if I post again, scroll on if you can't be respectful the first time. You have a nice day as well!"

           

          This is a public forum where we ACP/MVPs are encouraged to provide answers that will be used for many years by many people, not just the original poster.

           

          Advising the public to use tools that can make and test accessible PDFs was in no way disrespectful to you or anyone else. You may not like the answer, but it was correct and respectful of what you, as a teacher, need to know to create accessible PDFs for your students.

           

          From your earlier reply, it appears you don't like the cost of having a professional program like Adobe InDesign, or a professional screen reader like JAWS. You can get cheaper educational versions of InDesign through your school or through Adobe's academic software program. As already mentioned, NVDA is a free, fully PDF/UA-compliant screen reader.

           

          If even those options still make you angry, then complain to Adobe, Canva, and whatever other programs you're using. Canva is a sweet program and the company has been encouraged to improve their software to make accessible PDFs, but so far they have not made any inroads on that.

           

          Shame, because it could be a great tool for teachers like yourself who are required to make accessible documents but want something lighter on their wallets.

           

          Lastly, this is a public forum, monitored by ACP/MVPs like myself who are invited experts volunteering their time to help others. If you don't like the answer an expert gives, don't shoot the messenger, and instead vent your anger at an appropriate target...but not at the volunteer expert.

           

          None of us ACP/MVPs are Adobe employees, nor do we receive compensation from Adobe. None of us have control over what Adobe charges for their products.

           

          |    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |
          R
          reperellaAuthor
          Participant
          June 13, 2020

          Respectfully, I am using the tools I have access to and how privileged you are to have all of the "right" tools.  I figured it out and will share in case others are interested, that by changing the font to a font that is available in Adobe did the trick.  If you don't know the answer, best not to reply, eh?

            Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
            Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
            Legend
            June 13, 2020
            1. Canva is not a program that makes a compliant PDF. In "standards-speak", it is a non-compliant producer of PDF files.
            2. Read Out Loud is not a compliant PDF reading program. (Although it is an Adobe product, it does not follow the PDF/UA standards for accessing and voicing PDFs.) It has many misses, such as what you describe.

             

            Solution:

            Use the right tools to get the results you expect. Kind of like life overall, eh?

             

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