Here, here! Well said.
Denis Anson
Steuerwalt, Jon C. wrote:
>Hi Kathy and Richard and other interested listers.
>
>In Maine state government we have a web accessibility policy that
>requires that an accessible alternative - either ASCII text or HTML
text -
>be
>posted along with each posting in PDF format.
>
>Personally, I believe it's a massive waste of resources to spend time
trying
>to make PDF files accessible - both on the part of the document's
author as
>well as on the collective part of all the individuals who use screen
readers
>who must first locate the correct version of Acrobat Reader, download
it,
>install it, and learn how to operate it. After all that effort and the
use
>of valuable bandwidth and time to download the bloated PDF version of a
>document that they want to access, screen reader users often cannot
access
>the document anyway.
>And there is no "access" version of Acrobat Reader for Macintosh
computers
>or for several other operating systems.
>
>I think authors and/or webmasters would better serve their readers if
they
>spent the time and energy they would otherwise use learning how to make
>"accessible" PDF and instead learned how to make accessible HTML. It
is,
>after
>all, the web page authoring language and it works well for that purpose.
>PDF is a good tool for creating a hard copy that appears the same
regardless
>of what operating system you have on your computer, but forcing it to
render
>easily accessible contents to screen readers is a waste of everyone's
time
>and effort. After all, it's the information that needs to be
accessible,
>not the PDF. Jon
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Richard Jones [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>Sent: Monday, February 24, 2003 3:12 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Creating accessible PDFs
>
>
>The PDF file is more restrictive in terms of accessibility than HTML.
The
>newer versions of Acrobat doesn't change that. There is a perceived
freedom
>from Web standards when proprietary documents are attached to a web
site.
>HTML files should be accessible according to W3C, Priority One or Sec.
508,
>depending on the state and the agency. When using PDF, you are
dependent on
>the version of Adobe Acrobat that created the file, the expertise of
the PDF
>author, and the type of material being inserted into the PDF file. The
>structure of Adobe Acrobat and the Adobe marketing is completely
against the
>effort used to make some Acrobat files accessible. Acrobat is still a
>proprietary system. If you use PDF based documents, you should also
have,
>on the same page, an HTML document.
>You might want to look at the Adobe Acrobat web site.
>http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/main.html Acrobat Accessibility
is in
>the smallest type used on the page and id inserted between "Language
>Versions" and "Licensing Programs." This is much better than it used
to be
>when there was nothing on the Adobe pages about accessibility. They
kept an
>unpublished web site for accessibility. Now you can get, with some
effort,
>to information on the work necessary to make a PDF file accessible.
>Accessibility is not a major selling point for Adobe Acrobat and they
have
>provided obtuse and constrained software tools that match their
dedication
>to accessibility.
>It is doubling the effort of web masters to make a PDF file accessible.
It
>is better to slam up a dirty PDF and add a link to an accessible HTML
file.
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Kathleen Cahill [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>Sent: Monday, February 24, 2003 8:50 AM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Creating accessible PDFs
>
>
>Hello everyone;
>I'm wondering what some of you are telling your web developers regarding
>PDFs these days. We have a number of departments who put up course
>information in PDF; however, the information in the PDF also contains
>diagrams, charts and math notation. Even if we recommended that these
>documents were put up in HTML format, there would still be accessibility
>issues around making the non-textual elements accessible. Are any of
you
>recommending that PDFs be converted into accessible versions? How well
is
>it working? Are people able to follow the instructions from Adobe
>regarding the creation of accessible PDFs?
>Many thanks,
>Kathy
>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>Kathy Cahill
>MIT Adaptive Technology (ATIC) lab
>77 Mass. Ave. 7-143
>Cambridge MA 02139
>(617) 253-5111
>[log in to unmask]
>
--------------------
Denis Anson, MS, OTR
Assistant Professor
College Misericordia
301 Lake St.
Dallas, PA 18612
Phone: 570-674-6413
|
