PDF Technology Notes -- Re: 9 June 2011 Agenda ==============================

  Dear WCAG WG,

I appreciate the recent edits to the draft PDF Technology Notes at <http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/2011/WD-WCAG20-TECHS-20110310/pdf_notes.html>. Additional edits that I suggest are described below:

1. Current wording: "Producing PDF Files That Support Accessibility"

Issue: Currently it is not possible to produce PDF files that support the accessibility needs of some people with low vision.

Suggested wording: "Producing More Accessible PDF Files"
OR "Producing PDF Files that are More Accessible"
OR "Producing PDF Files that Better Support Accessibility"
OR "Producing PDF Files with Better Support Accessibility"


2. Current wording: "PDF Authoring Tools that Support Accessibility"

Issue: (same as above) "Support Accessibility" sounds like it covers all accessibility issues.

Suggested wording: "Authoring Tools that Produce Tagged PDF"
(If above not acceptable, possibly "PDF Authoring Tools with Accessibility Support" wouldn't have the same implications of accessibility for all.)


3. Current wording: "An accessibility application can extract the content of a document for presentation to users with disabilities by traversing the structure hierarchy and presenting the contents of each node."

Issue: What is an "accessibility application" here? Really, you mean screen reader, yes? Given that user agents and assistive technologies do not currently provide the customization needed by some people with low vision, I think it’s not appropriate to say "for presentation to users with disabilities".

Suggested re-wording: "For example, screen readers can extract the content of a document by traversing the structure hierarchy and presenting the contents of each node."
(I tried "For example, screen readers can extract the content of a document for presentation to users who are blind by traversing the structure hierarchy and presenting the contents of each node." but that leaves out sighted people who use screen readers because of cognitive disabilities – but maybe OK since it starts with "For example". Also tried "For example, screen readers can extract the content of a document by traversing the structure hierarchy and presenting the contents of each node auditorilyy." but that leaves out dynamic braille. If really don't want to say screen readers, could say "some assistive technologies"...)


4. Current wording: "Xenos Axess™ for Accessible Statements - PDF accessibility software solution that enables enterprises to produce high-volume PDF documents that are accessible, using assistive technology, and usable by visually-impaired customers. It integrates with an organization's existing enterprise content management (ECM) infrastructure to capture high-volume print streams and automatically transform them into [begin change]tagged[end change] PDFs.

Issue: Similar issue, especially with the phrase "usable by visually-impaired customers" which just plain wrong. And given it’s automatic, probably doesn't to alt text for images. Also, too salesy.

Suggested re-wording: "Xenos Axess™ for Accessible Statements - PDF software integrates with an organization's existing enterprise content management (ECM) infrastructure to capture high-volume print streams and automatically transform them into tagged PDFs."


LOW priority, but I’ll go ahead and mention it while I’m at it:
5. Current wording: "PAW - PDF Accessibility Wizard for Microsoft Office from Netcentric Technologies is an add-in to Microsoft® Word that makes it possible to create tagged PDF documents. PAW provides tools to allow content authors to run accessibility tests in the Microsoft Word environment and to remediate accessibility issues, thus enabling organizations to greatly improve the accessibility of both Word and PDF documents."
Issue: Salesy.
Suggested re-wording: Delete the bit at the end: "thus enabling organizations to greatly improve the accessibility of both Word and PDF documents."


Food for thought: Given that in Adobe Reader the Find functionality does not work with Reflow, I find it interesting that the following are listed under "intended for use by tools that perform the following types of operations:
- Automatic reflow of text and associated graphics to fit a page of a different size than was assumed for the original layout.
- Processing text for such purposes as searching, indexing, and spell-checking."


Note for Editor: http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/WCAG20-TECHS/pdf.html includes several instances of "See the list of other software tools in _Applications that Can Produce Accessible PDF_." And the section heading will need to be edited there, too.


Thank you for considering these edit suggestions.

Regards,

~Shawn



-----
Shawn Lawton Henry
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
e-mail: shawn@w3.org
phone: +1.617.395.7664
about: http://www.w3.org/People/Shawn/

Received on Wednesday, 8 June 2011 21:49:17 UTC