Acrobat and LiveCycle Reading Language Option

This is not a solution but I tried making a document in LiveCycle Designer 8.0 with all of the document properties filled out and added a couple of fields each with some custom text. I don't have JAWS but thought Acrobat would read the document but all the voice said was "Warning. Empty page.".

I got in touch with an Adobe Systems developer and several other resources and found out that this is actually intentional that you cannot edit these settings in Acrobat if the form is done in a publishing software. The reasoning being that it gets too confusing. What I have actually works, but my clients have their own specific accessibility check list and it does not correspond with reality.

Tell me it ain't so. Does anyone know how to set the language on a form created by LiveCycle Designer?

When one tries the usual trick of setting the language with Acrobat 8 Pro, the language choice is disabled.

If AcroHok is correct, it seems one cannot set the language specification on a form. And if that's correct, LiveCycle is useless to anyone who needs to create Section 508 compliant forms.

A response from an Adobe rep would be greatly appreciated.

I've spoken with Adobe and they say that you can set the language in Adobe LiveCycle and it will be retained into Acrobat. The reason the language is disabled in Acrobat is to avoid confusion. 508 Compliant forms are indeed possible, though it would appear that the rules are a bit different.

It's a bit confusing but once a form is created in LiveCycle, all of the accessibility options have to be set in LiveCycle. Under Form Properties in LiveCycle most, if not all of, the same options are available.

If you are using the Acrobat Accessibility checker you should check out the disclaimer at the bottom of the accessibility report. It basically says that the checker is flawed because it checks for very specific criteria in Acrobat and does not account for documents created in other software.

Thanks for your response. I have tried to set all the accessibility options I can find in Live Cycle (CS3), but none of the meta-data (including the language specification) seems not to be retained. I must be missing something, but I honestly cannot figure out what it is.

Ironically, if I begin with a form in, say, MS-Word, import it into LiveCycle, then the language setting *is* retained (along with other meta-data). However, when I do things this way, then in LiveCycle not all of the form elements are "live" in the Library! (I also tried starting with something from Illustrator and even InDesign but it was all to no avail.)

In the end, I decided to re-create the form in MS-Word and add the fields in manually with Acrobat Pro 8. This is not great, because any updates to the form will be very time consuming in the future. Also, setting tabbing and reading order (to coincide with document structure) is more cumbersome in Acrobat, the controls are not as "nice", and the entire exercise is a bit more of a hack job.

It is very disappointing that by going the more "professional" route and using the specialized form authoring software from Adobe one runs into such basic compliance issues. So I'm not sure why the presenter on a video on forms from Adobe I recently watched was so surprised that even Harvard University with all its money fails to have fillable forms.

I wonder. Did you manage to have the language specification and all the other meta-data retained when you began with a blank form in LiveCycle in the end? I can't quite tell from your post.

If you did, and you don't mind, some quick tips on how may be welcome by all users who wish to make accessible forms.

Thanks again.

That's the weird thing about this, it appears that nothing is retained. HOWEVER, a developer I talked to from Adobe insisted that the information is in there. Really what this all goes back to is when Adobe bought the creators of LiveCycle, JetForms. The two programs, Acrobat and LiveCycle, seem to have plenty of disconnect.

And while nothing seems to be set in Acrobat, when tested with a screen reader my forms' tab order, reading order, custom reader text, etc. are present and correct.

As for tips:
First, I try to stay as basic as possible to remain accessible. The biggest technical problem I've had with LiveCycle has to do with glitches in the reading order when I use subforms. For some reason, whenever I use subforms, what the reading/tab order are set as and what they actually are when tested have seemingly no correlation. So, unless someone makes a special request I steer clear of subforms.

Second, while it is incredibly counter intuitive, once a form is created or worked on in LiveCycle it cannot be worked on in Acrobat. All changes should be made in LiveCycle. We've had issues where someone makes a change in Acrobat and the entire reading order changes.

Lastly, it needs to be clear that what makes an accessible document is really only one thing: That it be readable with the industry standard screen reader which is either JAWS or the Adobe Read Out Loud.

AcroHock