Forum Discussion
Accessible PDFs in Rise360
Hi everyone,
Any insight very much appreciated!
Context: I used Adobe Acrobat Pro to make two PDFs accessible by adding tags and adjusting the reading order, etc. Everything works smoothly with NVDA when opening each PDF.
The Issue:
The trouble starts when I link to the PDFs within my course under a "Further study and resources" type section. The PDFs open in the browsers I've tested, but NVDA simply says things like "Document loading complete. You are on page 1. frame. document content region."
I've tried navigating via headings, links, interactive elements, and even just Ctrl + directional arrows, but none of the content appears tagged or readable.
The Ask:
I'm not sure where to go from here...
- Add the PDFs as Attachment blocks instead (but then every learner has to download to view)?
- Add a note at the top of the resources section ("For the best screen-reader experience, please download PDFs and open in Adobe Acrobat Reader.") and then put something like "Accessible, tagged PDF" after those files?
- A third and much better option that someone can recommend?
Thank you!!
Hi aburkette1 browsers are an unreliable software for reading accessible PDFs with screen readers. It is better to allow users to download the PDF and view in a software such as Acrobat Reader as the accessibility properties in accessible documents are more widely supported.
You could add the PDF as an attachment blocks so that screen reader users can download the document directly, rather than via the browser, but it is likely that screen reader users would download the document, if opened directly in the browser, before attempting to read it, knowing the poor support for accessibility in the browser.
2 Replies
This is super helpful! Thank you so much. That's really good to know not only with this course but also moving forward.
Hi aburkette1 browsers are an unreliable software for reading accessible PDFs with screen readers. It is better to allow users to download the PDF and view in a software such as Acrobat Reader as the accessibility properties in accessible documents are more widely supported.
You could add the PDF as an attachment blocks so that screen reader users can download the document directly, rather than via the browser, but it is likely that screen reader users would download the document, if opened directly in the browser, before attempting to read it, knowing the poor support for accessibility in the browser.