Table of Contents
Advertisement
Tips for working with forms
Designing the form
Forms tend to have relatively complex layouts compared to documents that have a simple, single-column structure.
The success that an application has in analyzing and tagging a form depends largely on the original formatting and
layout, and on the types of fields that it uses.
When you are designing a form, include headings, instructions, and fields in which users are to enter data. At a
minimum, give each field a label. Also add special instructions for fields that need them. You can draw lines or boxes
next to the labels in the source file to indicate where you intend to place the fillable fields in Acrobat Professional.
Use graphics tools to draw lines and boxes—do not use characters, such as underscores and vertical bars, because
these text characters can confuse screen readers.
Writing form field descriptions
Adding descriptions to form fields enables screen readers to identify the fields to users. Users hear the description
read aloud when they tab to the field. Write descriptions that are terse but complete. For example, for a first-name
field, type a description that is something like "First name." Descriptions should not contain instructions such as
"Enter . . . ."
Setting and testing the tab order
The tab order for form fields enables people with disabilities to use a keyboard to move from field to field in a logical
order. In Adobe PDF forms, you should set the tab order to Use Document Structure. You can test a form's tab order
by using the following keyboard commands:
Press Tab to move focus to the next field.
•
•
Press Shift+Tab to move focus to the previous field.
•
Press the spacebar to select options.
Press the arrow keys to select radio button options or list items.
•
Using LiveCycle Designer to create accessible Adobe PDF forms
LiveCycle Designer is an application that is dedicated to the design of electronic forms. You can use LiveCycle
Designer to create forms from a blank page or template, or to import Adobe PDF forms for further work. LiveCycle
Designer saves forms in multiple formats, and enables you to bind forms to XML schemas, XML sample data files,
databases, and web services.
The LiveCycle Designer workflow
The workflow for creating an accessible form by using LiveCycle Designer has four basic steps.
Step 1: Design and build the form
If you have Acrobat 7.0 Professional, you can launch LiveCycle Designer by choosing Advanced > Forms > Create
New Form. LiveCycle Designer provides a New Form Assistant to walk you through the setup of the new form. See
"Creating accessible forms" in LiveCycle Designer 7.0 Help for specific tips on designing forms for people with
disabilities.
Step 2: Add descriptions to form fields
In LiveCycle Designer, descriptions are called Custom Screen Reader Text. Screen readers read this text for a field if
you also select Custom from the Screen Reader Precedence drop-down menu in the Accessibility palette of LiveCycle
Designer. See "About the Accessibility palette" in LiveCycle Designer 7.0 Help for instructions.
ADOBE ACROBAT 7.0
Section 8: Making Adobe PDF forms accessible
42
Advertisement
Table of Contents
