As a screen reader user, when I was a student we had completed our studies with the help of braille and audio books. Digital products such as mobile, laptop etc. were not available till some time back. Now a days, schools, colleges, universities, eBook publishers etc are providing books in PDF format to their readers. Students with visual impairment, too prefer study material in an accessible PDF format which enables easy access to information.

For students with visual impairment who are using screen reader, let us know more about accessible PDF and how to navigate within. 

PDF reader 

Acrobat reader DC is the preferred application to access the PDF documents and it has lots of in-built accessibility features. It is available for different platforms such as Android, iOS, Mac, Windows etc. Check to know how to use Acrobat Reader on Windows: 

Navigation 

Here is the list of quick navigation keys available to help navigate within the document : 

• If you are aware about page content or after reading the table of content, you can jump directly to specific page with the help of Control+Shift+N 
• Control + F  to find the content within the book. 
• You can jump directly to table by help of T and shift + T to previous table. 

Headings 

Headings are used in the accessible textbook to understand the content structure of the book.  Assistive technology, such as screen reader users can navigate the accessible textbook using any of options given below: 

• You can jump headings by headings within the textbook with the help of H for next and shift + H to previous heading. 
• Press down arrow to access the content below heading. 
• Press insert plus F6” to open the dialog box of headings when using jaws and press insert plus F7” to pool up the list with NVDA. 

Links 

Links used in an accessible PDF textbook help users to navigate page to page and specific chapter using bookmark link. Use the following quick navigation keys to navigate link to link: 

• Use the tab key to navigate the next link and shift +tab to previous link. 
• Press insert plus F7 to pool up the list of links. 
• Press enter to activate the link. 

List 

Similar to headings, you can access the lists in your accessible PDF using the shortcut key L or read through the content using the Up or Down arrow keys. 

Table

An accessible PDF helps interpret the table and provides students with visual impairment with lots of option to access the tabular content. Students can use different keyboard commands to jump to a table, read one cell at a time, listen to the table headers, read entire row, read entire column and even jump to a cell. 

Tip: You can get additional information about jaws screen reader shortcut keys on freedom scientific and nvaccess for NVDA. 

Accessible PDF textbooks or learning materials have truly enhanced the reading experience for students using a screen reader or a student with visual impairment.  

Need help with making your PDF accessible? Write to us at sales@barrierbreak.com.

The post As a student with visual impairment, how to navigate an Accessible PDF textbook? appeared first on Leader in Offshore Accessibility Testing | Section 508 Compliance | WCAG Conformance | BarrierBreak.

According to me, happiness is something we experience when we spend time with our near and dear ones. For example, going to a picnic with office colleagues, meeting friends and family, travelling and experiencing different parts of India

But often the assumption is that people with disabilities can’t enjoy these things independently. I have a visual impairment. Till now, I have mainly travelled with my family.

Well, after joining BarrierBreak, as an Accessibility Tester, I finally realized that even I can enjoy these things and yes with colleagues who have become friends. I have felt a new sense of confidence that I can manage on my own, I can go out on my own.

Experience of Strength in Numbers

As one of my colleagues Kamran said, when we go out to a restaurant as a single visually impaired person, we are often dismissed by the management. But when we go out as a group, we can’t be ignored and above all since we all have varied levels of vision, we all have our strengths and overcome the obstacles with amazing hacks!

So, I would like to share some travel experience, that some of us colleagues enjoyed in the last one year. So you would be wondering, no major feat! But for all of us, it opened the world of travel. So here it is.

We are a group of colleagues and almost all of us are visually impaired.

For sure a question might come to your mind that “How can visually impaired plan a trip without any sighted person and enjoy themselves?”

Yes, it is possible and doable. What it needs is nothing but proper use of technology, intelligence and diligence.

Where did we travel to?

In last one year, we planned three such trips. Would you like to know the destinations? Here it goes:

• Assangoan: A farm house
• Goa: A state of beaches
• Panchgani and Mahabaleshwar: Place filled with natural beauty

How to Plan?

Within our group some of our colleagues have hand on experience on technology, few are good planners, some have great communication skills and others are great entertainers like, singing, playing instruments and many more.

We distribute the work between us and plan to make the trip successful. Which happens every time!

Did we do some activities?

Oh yes, we did. Our visual impairment didn’t stop of from having any of the fun! We didn’t even think about how can we do this, what will be the challenges, nothing!

Everyone has talent like singing, being humorous, writing/telling poetry, etc. But you would be shocked to know that:

• In Assangoan, we enjoyed ourselves with swimming, dancing, , playing games and spent memorable time together
• In Goa, we did Water sports, shopping and much more
• And the last, but not least is Panchgani, it was very exciting trip that we had. We did horse riding, boat ride, laughing competition, and many more. We even enjoyed an accessible museum for.

From this trip we strengthened our bond and have made friends for life.

From my own side, I can tell you, that with each trip, I became more confident, more adventurous and ready to try new things in life.

So to everyone out there with or without a disability, plan a trip not only with friends, family, but also with colleagues. Build Bonds, Overcome mindsets, Do things that you haven’t done before and experience life and happiness!

Need our assistance on technology? We are BarrierBreak 

The post Happiness – Travel with Colleagues & Experience the Strength in Numbers! appeared first on Leader in Offshore Accessibility Testing | Section 508 Compliance | WCAG Conformance | BarrierBreak.

In simple terms, it means providing information access in the format that is readable, usable and as per the needs of the person.

Some commonly used terms on accessible format are:

• Large Print – Text which is a minimum of 16 point size or larger based on the needs of the person.
• Braille – There are two types of Braille – Grade 1 and Grade 2. In Grade 1, each braille cell represents only one letter, number or punctuation sign. In Grade 2, a cell can represent a shortened form of a word. Many cell combinations have been created as contractions to represent common words.
• Audio – Using Audio formats like .wav or .mp3 formats often in human voice or synthesized text-to-speech voices. In addition, softwares like screen readers and reading writing tools, convert text to speech for the users.
• Easy Read – Simple and plain English is used. In addition, short sentences are used. Often, pictures are used to illustrate sentences.

It is important to also remember how the information is being delivered and the technology being used. So is the delivery format, print or electronic or both. Is the technology you are using to deliver, PDF, Word, PowerPoint, etc. Let’s discuss some scenarios to understand this better.

Scenario 1

For are an insurance company providing a brochure as a printed document & as PDF document on your website, the accessible formats that you could provide would be large print and braille for someone looking for the printed content. If someone wants the electronic version, then the PDF document needs to be accessible so it can be read with a screen reader or other assistive technology.

Scenario 2

If you are a book publisher, then the accessible format you would provide is the large print and braille. If you are also providing an e-book, then you would provide an accessible Epub 3 e-book.

Scenario 3

If you are a teacher providing lecture notes to your students as PowerPoint slides, you would ensure that the PowerPoint file is accessible.

Some references:

• Accessible E-books using EPUB3
• Make your word documents accessible
• Make your PowerPoint presentations accessible
• Make your PDFs accessible
• Creating braille resources
• Make your Word, Powerpoint and PDFs accessible 
• A tool for creating accessible formats

The post Is Braille the only accessible format? appeared first on Leader in Offshore Accessibility Testing | Section 508 Compliance | WCAG Conformance | BarrierBreak.