Introduction

PDF (Portable Document Format) is a popular file type developed by Adobe. PDF files can be viewed across multiple operating systems while preserving the document’s formatting and layout. This makes them popular for the sharing and printing of documents.

Although, PDFs have many positive aspects, the viewing and editing of a PDF may raise a number of accessibility issues for users of screen magnifiers and screen readers. You should find most PDF documents can be read, however, in some cases, you may have to adopt a more flexible approach.

Types of PDF documents

PDF documents can fall into four main categories. These are:

• Tagged documents.
  Authors who tag their documents help to mark out structure and content, for example, they may add alternative text to images. Properly tagged PDFs are accessible PDFs.
• Untagged documents.
  Authors, who create documents without adding tags, are creating untagged documents. Apps, such as Adobe Acrobat, may add temporary tags to help give the document structure.
• Image only documents.
  Authors can add images to a document, which includes adding an image of the printed page. This type of PDF document is only accessible by converting the document to text using OCR technology.
• PDF forms.
  Authors who create PDF forms must ensure their document is properly structured and tagged to ensure accessibility, for example, the fields have correct labels and the TAB sequence is logical.

If you want to learn more about creating accessible PDF documents, see Creating accessible PDFs by Adobe (opens in new tab) and Create accessible PDFs by Microsoft (opens in new tab).

Ways to access PDF documents

You can open and read PDF documents in a variety of ways. In the pages ahead you will learn some of the popular ways you can do this with SuperNova and Dolphin ScreenReader.

Unless stated otherwise, these help pages refer to the latest versions of the apps and the latest versions of SuperNova and Dolphin ScreenReader.

Alternative versions of the apps, SuperNova, and Dolphin ScreenReader may not work as documented.

The instructions provided on these pages presume you have a basic understanding of the terminology and functionality of SuperNova and Dolphin ScreenReader.

If you are unfamiliar with SuperNova and Dolphin ScreenReader, please consider completing one of the dedicated product courses available from the Dolphin Learning Zone (opens in new tab).

It is also important to ensure you are comfortable resolving hotkey conflicts that may arise when using apps. You can learn more by visiting the Resolving hotkey conflicts (opens in new tab). Help page, or review the related section in the product manual.

Publication date: 05 July 2024