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Assistive Software

Here are guides on assistive software assigned by category.

Enlarging and Reading of Digital Text

To enlarge the text in PDF, click on the percentage view tab in Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader and select the degree of magnification you require.

Once created into an editable PDF file, the text can be read using Adobe Reader’s Read Out Loud feature, NaturalReader, or VoiceOver (Mac)

Magnifying Printed Documents

Printed text or images can be viewed in higher magnification by connecting a visualiser--available upon request--to the large screen computer monitor or flat-screen TV in the Accessible Pod. 

Editing of Digital Text

PDFs can also be converted to an editable TEXT document.

To save a PDF file into plain text, open the file in Adobe Acrobat X Pro, go to “File” and click on the option to “Save As”, select "Other options", and choose either “Text (Accessible)" or "Text (Plain)".

In Adobe Acrobat DC, after opening the file, go to "File" and click on the option to "Export to", and choose either “Text (Accessible)" or "Text (Plain)".

Configuring Adobe Acrobat DC / X Pro / Reader for Full Text and PDF Navigation

When searching in databases for journal articles, some full text may display as browser-embedded PDFs, which makes it difficult for screen reader users that rely on tabbing to navigate within browser web pages.

To have an alternative access to a more integrated user experience of the full text and browser controls, Adobe Acrobat / Reader must first be configured to display PDFs in a separate window, not embedded within the browser.

To configure the settings in Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat

  1. Go to Edit > Preferences > Internet.
  2. Deselect the option to  "Display PDF in Browser" for greater control when navigating a document in a screen reader.
  3. Then click the "OK" button.
To configure the settings in Adobe Acrobat DC
  1. Go to Edit > Preferences > General.
  2. Deselect the option to  "Open documents as new tabs in the same window "(requires restart)".
  3. Then click the "OK" button.