ADA remediation - screen reader issues.
I work for a government agency and we’re currently making sure our exported PDFs meet ADA accessibility requirements, including compatibility with screen readers.
My coworker and I are running into inconsistent results when testing the same remediated PDFs using NVDA with Acrobat.
On my computer:
Some tables cause Acrobat to crash.
NVDA reads the content in a different order than what’s shown in Acrobat.
If I close and reopen the file, I sometimes get different results, for example, NVDA grouping two headings together and announcing them as a graphic when they aren’t.
On my coworker’s computer:
They don’t experience the crashes or heading issues.
Instead, all images are read at the very end of the document.
We’ve confirmed we’re using the same versions of Acrobat and NVDA with matching settings. I also reinstalled NVDA to rule out a corrupted install, but I’m still seeing the same behavior.
We’ve also gone through our accessibility checklist in InDesign, confirming tags are set up correctly, the Layers and Articles panels are in the proper order, and that everything appears ADA compliant in both InDesign and Acrobat.
Has anyone experienced this kind of inconsistency between machines? Any recommendations for NVDA settings or PDF testing best practices?
Thanks in advance!