Reading PDFs with reflow and accessibility features Part 3

Reading PDFs with reflow and accessibility features Part 3

Read a PDF with Read Out Loud

The Read Out Loud feature reads aloud the text in a PDF, including the text in comments and alternate text descriptions for images and fillable fields. In tagged PDFs, content is read in the order in which it appears in the document’s logical structure tree. In untagged documents, the reading order is inferred, unless a reading order has been specified in the Reading preferences.

Read Out Loud uses the available voices installed on your system. If you have SAPI 4 or SAPI 5 voices installed from text-to-speech or language applications, you can choose them to read your PDFs.

Note

Read Out Loud isn’t a screen reader, and some operating systems don’t support it.

Activate or deactivate Read Out Loud

You must activate Read out loud before you can use it. You can deactivate Read out loud to free system resources and improve the performance of other operations.

  1. Select the hamburger   Menu (Windows) and go to View or select View from the upper left (macOS). Then do one of the following:

    • Read out loud > Activate Read Out Loud.

    • Read out loud > Deactivate Read Out Loud.

    Note

    You can also use the Select Object tool to locate text. Use the up, down, left, and right arrow keys to navigate the document. You can hear where the Select Object tool has been placed, such as a heading or paragraph.

Read a PDF with Read Out Loud

  1. 1. Navigate to the page that you want to read.

  2. 2. Select the hamburger   Menu (Windows) and go to View or select View from the upper left (macOS). Then do one of the following:

    • Read out loud > Read this page only.

    • Read out loud > Read to end of document.

Read PDF form fields out loud

  1. 1. In the Reading panel of the Preferences dialog box, select Read Form Fields in the Read Out Loud Options section.

  2. 2. In the PDF form, press Tab to select the first form field.

  3. 3. Make entries and selections as needed, and then press Tab to move to the next field, repeating this step until the form is completed. Acrobat reads the state of selected checkboxes and radio buttons.

    Note

    Read out loud does not echo your keystrokes. To hear what you have typed, use a screen reader.

Interrupt reading out loud

  1. Select the hamburger   Menu (Windows) and go to View or select View from the upper left (macOS). Then do one of the following:

    • Read out loud > Pause.

    • Read out loud > Stop.

About operating system accessibility tools

Accessibility tools in Windows

Windows operating system have built-in tools that provide increased or alternate access to information on the computer screen. The Narrator is a light version of a screen reader. Magnifier is a screen magnification tool.

For more information on the accessibility tools in Windows, see the Microsoft accessibility website.

Accessibility tools in macOS

macOS has built-in tools that provide increased or alternate access to information on the computer screen.

For more information on the accessibility tools in macOS, see the Apple® Inc. accessibility website.

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