Adobe LiveCycle Designer

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Adobe LiveCycle Designer generates tagged accessible PDF files. Designer includes a number of features and capabilities that enhance the usability of forms for users with a range of disabilities, and assist form authors in creating PDF forms that are more accessible to people with disabilities.

LiveCycle Designer provides support for creating accessible HTML (AHTML) files using Form Server and tagged Adobe PDF forms. Tagged PDF forms include a complete logical structure plus additional information about a document's contents that substantially increases accessibility.

Preparing an Adobe LiveCycle Document for Making Accessible PDF

Accessible forms require a tabbing order, whether the form is interactive or designed for print. Additionally, a screen reader will read the form in geographic order, which in Designer is set when you use the default tabbing order.

For both interactive and non-interactive forms, tabbing order is critical if your forms need to be accessible to users with vision or mobility impairments. These users typically do not use a mouse to navigate through the form, so they depend on the keyboard keys and a logical tabbing order sequence to ensure that they have full access to all the fields on the form.

Tagging

Screen readers use the PDF logical structure to read a form. Logical structure is provided when you save the form as tagged PDF. The logical structure determines the order in which form objects are read. The logical structure is created in tabbing order. In a tagged PDF form, all static objects and fields are included in the logical structure.

If your form uses the default tabbing order, the tabbing order will be in geographic order, left-to-right, top-to-bottom. When you use a default tabbing order, Designer includes all boilerplate and field objects in the structure. A screen reader reads the form in geographic order, and reads all speak text and values for the static objects.

One of the final tasks you should do when creating a form is set the tabbing order. Until you have finished laying out the form design, the objects may move, so it is best to wait until your form design is finished before specifying the tabbing order.

To view the tabbing order for the fields and objects on a form:

Select View >Tab Order. The body page shows the current tabbing order (See Figure 3 - 16 Specifying Tab Order in the Adobe LiveCycle Designer) .

To change the tabbing order:

Do one of the following steps:

If the form design is not showing the tabbing order, select View >Tab Order.

If the tabbing order is currently displayed on the screen, select View > Tab Order to deselect it. Then reselect Tab Order.

Click the field you want to be number 1. The tabbing order is modified so that the current field becomes number 1. The remaining fields are renumbered starting with the field that was previously number 1.

To continue editing the tabbing order, click the rest of the fields to establish the desired sequence.

To change the tabbing order using keyboard shortcuts:

To specify the location where you want to start editing the tabbing order, Ctrl+click the desired field on the form design.

To specify a new number 1 in the tabbing order, press Shift+click on the desired field.

Hold down Ctrl+Shift on a field to drop that field from the sequence, reverting to geographic order and possibly splitting one sequence into two if the field was in the middle of an existing sequence.

To save changes and leave Tab Order mode, click Enter.

To discard changes made during the current session of the Tab Order mode, click Esc. This action also exits Tab Order mode.

Figure 3 - 16 Specifying Tab Order in the Adobe LiveCycle Designer

Adding Alt Text to LiveCycle Designer Objects

Use the Accessibility palette to define a tooltip for an object. Tooltips appear at run time when the user hovers over an object with the mouse. To display the Adobe LiveCycle Designer accessibility properties palette, select Window > Accessibility from the menu (See Figure 3 - 17 Displaying the Accessibility Properties Palette in Adobe LiveCycle Designer) .

Figure 3 - 17 Displaying the Accessibility Properties Palette in Adobe LiveCycle Designer

The Alt Text for a form field in LiveCycle Designer is referred to as either a tooltip or custom screen reader text.

If there is no custom screen reader text for the object, the screen reader will, by default, read the tooltip text. However, if there is custom screen reader text, the screen reader, by default, reads the custom text and not the tooltip. You can change this default behavior using the Screen Reader Precedence option.

To specify a tooltip for an object:

Select the desired object on the form design layout.

Click the Accessibility palette tab and, in the Tooltip box, type the desired text (See Figure 3 - 18 Tooltip Set Up Dialog in Adobe LiveCycle Designer 7.0) .

If there is also custom screen reader text defined for this object, and you want the screen reader to read the tooltip, in the Screen Reader Precedence list, select Tooltip.

Figure 3 - 18 Tooltip Set Up Dialog in Adobe LiveCycle Designer 7.0

Generating Accessible PDF from Adobe LiveCycle Designer

In addition to specifying text for screen readers, you must also create a tagged PDF form so that the screen reader can read the text. You do this by generating accessibility tags when saving the form design as a PDF file. Tagged PDF forms include a complete logical structure plus additional information about a document's contents that substantially increases accessibility. In Adobe LiveCycle Designer, the default behavior is to create tagged PDF forms.

Once the tab order has been established and the tooltips / custom screen reader text have been assigned for objects on the form, use the save as command to save the form as an accessible PDF document. Select File > Save As from the LiveCycle Designer Menu or use the keyboard shortcut Shift + Ctrl + S to display the LiveCycle Designer Save As Dialog (See Figure 3 - 19 Saving As a Tagged Accessible PDF form in Adobe LiveCycle Designer 7.0) .

Choose the desired PDF output style either static or dynamic, being sure to have the save options checkboxes checked for generating accessibility information for Acrobat (tags) and for embedding fonts.

Static forms present a fixed set of text, graphics, and fields at all times, regardless of the amount of data merged with the form. If more data is available than the static form was designed to hold, the excess data is not displayed in the rendered form. Conversely, if less data is available than the static form was designed to hold, the excess space is left blank in the rendered form.

Designer enables you to create dynamic interactive forms that users open and fill online with Acrobat or Adobe Reader. Dynamic interactive forms combine both dynamic and interactive form functionality such that users can enter data directly into expandable fields, add or remove sections, and return the form data electronically.

Unlike a static interactive form, which has a fixed layout (format and length), the layout of a dynamic interactive form adjusts according to the amount of data the user enters into the various fields and the number of items they add or remove. For example, in the sample dynamic interactive Purchase Order form, users can add or remove item rows, and choose to add their comments to the form. In either case, the layout of the form adjusts to accommodate the changes.

Creating dynamic interactive forms involves implementing the same features and methods you use to create static interactive forms. However, to add dynamic functionality to interactive forms,you also work with master pages, content areas, and subforms to control how Designer lays down objects in the form as the form adjusts to display varying amounts of data.

Figure 3 - 19 Saving As a Tagged Accessible PDF form in Adobe LiveCycle Designer 7.0