Hi there,

We are currently trying to deal with the accessibility of our University's
E-Reserve project (The digitisation of short loan material). Currently
library staff are using Adobe Acrobat to create PDF versions of reading
materials which are then put on the web for students to view and print. I'm
sure most of you are already aware of this type of project which is why I
am emailing this list.

I have been working my way through the range of documents which ADOBE has
produced regarding its valiant attempts to improve the lives of people with
a disability and have become increasingly confused as to what they have
actually done. After thinking that Acrobat 5.0 would do the trick we have
just realised that to create an accessible paper to PDF file we will
probably need to use ADOBE Paper Capture 3.0 with its built in OCR.
Consequently we have also just looked at the price and realised that this
software costs considerably more than your standard Acrobat 5.0.

I must admit at this point to being a bit of a conspiracy theorist and as
such I have drawn some conclusions as to the motives of ADOBE in the
context of the new US law relating to the accessibility of Government
on-line information and the ADOBE announcements about how they will help
Government and business solve their accessibility problems.

Anyway enough said about that. I would be extremely grateful to anyone who
is currently grappling with this issue in a University library context who
could advise us on whether we are on the right track or barking up the
wrong tree totally.

Thanks very much for taking the time and effort to read this email.

Trevor