the two screen readers that support acrobat 5.0 at the moment are window
eyes version 4.01 and jaws for windows 3.71.

It is best to download a document that is online and read it off line.
Forms still seem to be a problem.  Documents created with the new
features of 5.0 may not work properly in older versions where their
features are not supported.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Alan Cantor" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2001 12:53 PM
Subject: Question about accessibility of Adobe 5.0


Hello EASI Colleagues,

What is the status of PDF accessibility? Adobe 5.0 is supposed to
support
accessible PDF files, and there is a plug-in on the Adobe web site for
checking files for proper tagging. (I have heard that the document user
is
prompted to provide missing tags.) Assuming that the person who
generates the
PDF file conscientiously provides appropriate tags, are the resulting
documents screen reader accessible?

Does it matter what type of viewer the user has? Will an Acrobat 3.0
viewer
display and work properly with a screen reader, or does the user need to
update their viewer?

Any other comments about Adobe 5.0 and accessibility are welcome!

Alan

Alan Cantor
Cantor + Associates Inc.
Workplace Accommodation Consultants
[log in to unmask]
www.interlog.com/~acantor