RE: [Fwd: Re: Adobe article on accessibility]

Great.

Not only that, but the article fails to import into Access Adobe 
(http://access.adobe.com/simple_form.html)!

Even more damaging is that the article does not articulate current problems 
with PDF, and goes as far as to clearly imply that all PDF is accessible 
and that all difficulties have been neatly resolved.  I quote:

> In the past, PDF (portable document format) files
> presented problems for visually-impaired users because
> screen readers couldn't decipher them.

I have not tried the new 4.0 Access plug-in tool for Acrobat Reader.
How well does it work in general?
How well does it work with this article in particular?

I was relieved that the article did include text (as opposed to the 
infamous and common "picture of text" only).

The document is set with "Selecting Text and Graphics: Not Allowed" so 
quoting from the article, is annoying to say the least.  I should think 
this would also interfere with Screen Readers as one can put the system 
text cursor into the body of the document.  I assume that the access 
plug-in takes care of this though.  Still, this option is a great 
disservice to all readers.

The article does mention the WCAG (by URL, but not by name).

For those that this might help, you can find the link to the article at 
URL:
http://www.adobe.com/publications/adobemag/archive/sum99na.html
I think this may helpful, because my understanding is that the Access 
plug-in does not work if the PDF file is brought up inside a browser 
window.
In any case, the browsers "Find on this page" feature is disabled for PDF 
files, although the (inaccessible 'cause it is mouse-only) Acrobat search 
command in the Reader toolbar works.

Bruce Bailey


On Tuesday, August 10, 1999 4:00 PM, David Poehlman 
[SMTP:poehlman@clark.net] wrote:
> here's an url for the pdf article wouldn't ya know it would be in pdf.
>
> http://www.adobe.com/publications/adobemag/archive/PDFS/99smmfmw.pdf

Received on Tuesday, 10 August 1999 17:19:37 UTC