Amar - those files are confidential so can't share publically. I can't creat them on my own as don't have the professional version in my personal machine. Lets discuss this whenever you have some time.
Thanks, Ajay On 08/09/2019, Amar Jain <amarj...@amarjain.com> wrote: > Dear all, > > At the outset, thank you to everyone for taking their time out to respond to > this request. My apologies for getting back with a response with some delay, > as there is a lot going on. I am copying people from Adobe on this email, as > my intentions are to: (i) get this to their attention that people with > blindness are not having accessible experience with their beautiful > creation, and (ii) if they get to a point where they stop supporting us, > then we need to find someone who can legally compel them to support us to > make their PDF accessible. > > Please see my response to everyone's email below. Also, if I need some > information from any specific individual, I have put that as a note: > > 1. Password protection, scanned PDF, and OCR Issues: The password protection > is a business need, as at times clients want the functionality of making the > content so confidential that it cannot be copied, extracted, modified, > printed, and so on. The real challenge for an assistive technology is that > it needs to be able to extract the content in form of the text from the > underlying source code for it to be able to pass on in an accessible manner > to a person with a disability. The only way you can get around it is to use > either a virtual printer, or a normal printer, along with re-scanning the > printed material and performing an OCR. Adobe as a business needs to provide > this functionality to its clients and getting it out due to it rendering > inaccessible content is not possible unless someone can try getting them > into legal trouble for discrimination due to disability in U.S. Indian law > and Indian courts cannot help us. They should alert authors when they change > security settings at a point where security settings prevent reading screen > readers. As far as scanned PDFs are concerned, that is the problem of the > content creator. Acrobat Pro does provide you the OCR functionality, and it > cannot be combined in the Acrobat Reader as it comes with a cost and to keep > the business running, companies need to recover the cost. So far as people > using stuff like titles, headers, footers, which render inaccurate OCR > content, that is again a content creator's problem, and there is nothing > that Adobe can do about it. So far, my recommendation in terms of an OCR is > to use ABBYY Fine Reader. I have not come across an OCR which is better than > that. > > [Note to Bhavani sir: Re the issue of PDF opening in older version and not > opening in the newer version, If the contents of the PDF are not > confidential, then please share on an email, and let's try to get Adobe's > attention. Although, it is not an accessibility issue, but rather a > compatibility issue.] > > 2. Reading non-Unicode PDF files: Reading Hindi and other PDF files which > are non-Unicode, with screen readers is a challenge. We need to reach out to > people who have created these fonts to identify the solution. Adobe is only > allowing authors to create the content in the way they want. As a result, > the only functionality which Adobe can provide is to be able to render the > font in PDF. There are Unicode converters available, both free and paid. See > if that can help you out. Additionally, I will still try my luck with Adobe > to see if we can find out a solution which renders such fonts in a way which > can be read out by screen readers. But I must confess, my knowledge is > severely limited in this area, and I need someone who can educate me in this > area to come to a solution. The only thing which I understand at this point > is that why does the same file is capable of being read by a screen reader > and why PDF cannot render the same functionality. > > If anyone can send me a sample, that would be of big help. [Note to Sandeep > and Rohit bhaiya: I have addressed your problems.] > > 3. Reading tables and complex material in PDFs: This is one major problem of > PDFs. Adobe wants authors to tag stuff properly, which of course is bit > difficult, as you cannot make everyone aware on the need to be accessible. > We need to get to a solution which does not incur additional cost of buying > Acrobat Pro just to be able to do tagging in documents. > > 4. Font compression which makes screen readers to read as if there is no > spaces between words: This is again a functionality, which Adobe provides to > reduce the size of the file. While people who can see, will see the material > as it is on screen with proper spaces, but being blind is our problem not > really Adobe's. Which is why screen reader does not read the PDFs which are > reduced in fonts. The only solution I can suggest is to use OCR. Otherwise > buy Acrobat Pro to be able to use fully featured fonts. Adobe will not stop > providing this functionality again, unless U.S. laws and U.S. lawyers > support us. > > 5. Unable to use find feature, comments, and jumping by screen readers. > These are exact problems which Adobe has no option but to fix apart from > jumping by screen readers as that is really a Jaws problem, and Vispero will > come out with a fix for it. > > [Note to Ajay: Can you share a document which has sticky notes, highlighted > text, and comments just to prove to Adobe that these are not readable by > screen readers?] > > 6. Feature requests: Adobe should allow us to save files in RTF format, to > preserve formatting. > > Form filling in Adobe at the moment is not accessible with Acrobat Reader, > and I do not have the license of Acrobat Pro, so I cannot comment if forms > can be accessibly filled using Acrobat Pro. Happy to hear others. > > We should be able to select tables for us to be able to paste. In general, > copy pasting from PDF to any document is not a good experience, as it > results into loss of formatting completely. My recommendation is to convert > the file in Word and then do copy pasting. > > > [Note to Harish sir: Arbitrary string concatenation issue should be > addressed-please educate me.] > > Thank you guys and I will do everything possible to get things fixed. If > someone has friendly terms with Kiran, then try understanding from him a bit > more about Adobe, to see how we can get them to work. He knows me, but > getting his time and attention and the real insides only a close friend > would be able to do, if he is willing to help. > > Regards, > Amar Jain > -----Original Message----- > From: Amar Jain <amarj...@amarjain.com> > Sent: Thursday, September 5, 2019 7:56 AM > To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in > Subject: List down your accessibility issues with PDFs > > Hi all, > > Considering the pain of blind professionals and students, some of us have > decided to work with Adobe and Vispero to find out ways in which PDFs can be > made better for people with blindness. And I am doing everything possible to > get this to Shantanu’s (CEO of Adobe) attention, so that the bottlenecks > between business, legal, compliance and development can be adressed. The > good thing is that the head of accessibility at Adobe and Vispero have been > very receptive. > > While the major problem of inaccessibility of PDF is because a lot of things > are dependent on authors for ensuring accessibility, but this approach > itself needs a relook. Changing millions of minds is difficult, but creating > ways to empower millions is certainly possible and the technologies meant to > assist people with disabilities is a real example of this. > > Please send me the list of issues, steps to reproduce, and possible > solutions (if any) on: amarj...@amarjain.com > > With hopes for a more accessible Adobe tomorrow, Amar Jain > > Sent from my iPhone > > > > > Search for old postings at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ > > To unsubscribe send a message to > accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in > with the subject unsubscribe. > > To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please > visit the list home page at > http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in > > > Disclaimer: > 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the > person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; > > 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails > sent through this mailing list.. > > -- Ajay Minocha Mob : +91-9584076767 E mail : ajayminoc...@gmail.com p13aj...@iimidr.ac.in Skype: ajayminocha2 Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
