ADOBE ACROBAT PORTABLE DOCUMENT FORMAT (PDF) FILES

Persons using screen reading devices generally cannot directly read documents in PDF format. Adobe Systems, Inc., provides a free translation service through their Access web pages which will translate PDF files to web pages (HTML documents). This can be used in one of three ways:

• The user can go to the Access server and fill out a form. When this form is submitted, the server will go get the PDF document, translate it, and return it to the user. [Instructions]
• The user can send an email message to the Access server, giving the address of the document to be translated. The server will then get this document and translate it to either a web page or a text (ASCII) document. Note that this is the only one of the three options that also gives the ability to produce a text document from the PDF file. [Instructions]
• For systems which are not connected to the Internet, Adobe has a free downloadable accessibility plug-in, called Adobe Access, for use with the latest versions of the Adobe Acrobat Reader for Microsoft Windows 3.1, Windows 95/98, or Windows NT. This plug-in helps to overcome some of the problems of reading PDF documents with screen readers, but for systems with Internet access, Adobe recommends using the on-line Access translation service instead.

These methods of making PDF files accessible are adequate for many documents. However, they are not adequate for PDF documents in which content is included in graphics files or for especially complex formatting. In these cases, we provide an alternative format for use with screen readers -- an ASCII, Microsoft Word, or HTML version.

We have one general exception to our policy of making accessible versions available for all PDF documents. We are using the Adobe Acrobat PDF format as a means of distributing government forms. These are electronic images of the forms which are intended to be printed and used as any other paper form, and do not lend themselves to any non-graphical representation.

Comments on our accessibility policies are invited, and should be sent to the Mid-Pacific Region Webmaster.