RE: Accessible PDFs?

> It will be several years if at all before we can say that pdf is
> accessible. 

But is this an inherent property of the format or the way in which pdf
documents are created? If the latter then it should be a topic of discussion
for this group to promote techiniques for accessibility in the same way as
we do for mark-up languages.

> ... we already have a ton of
> formats that are better suited for accessibility.

That may be true in certain circumstances but given the premise that PDF
will always be used on websites and that there are emerging techniques for
making them accessible should we not be exploring rather than putting up the
barriers. 

Advocates of accesibility have acquired a reputation (rightly or wrongly)
for opposing anything other than the status quo. By looking at ways in which
we can utilise new technologies and make them usable by those who don't
access the Internet with 'normal' methods we will be raising the profile of
WAI and maybe winning over the hearts and minds of those developers who see
it as a bunch of noisy Luddites.

I'll shut up now.

J.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Poehlman [mailto:poehlman1@comcast.net]
> Sent: Monday, December 02, 2002 11:52 AM
> To: Scarlett Julian (ED); w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
> Subject: Re: Accessible PDFs?
> 
> 
> It will be several years if at all before we can say that pdf is
> accessible.  Yes, It is correct to say that There are some 
> circumstances
> where in it is possible to provide access to and accessible pdf
> documents but those are few in the world and we already have a ton of
> formats that are better suited for accessibility.
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Scarlett Julian (ED)" <Julian.Scarlett@sheffield.gov.uk>
> To: <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
> Sent: Monday, December 02, 2002 3:33 AM
> Subject: RE: Accessible PDFs?
> 
> 
> 
> 
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Received on Monday, 2 December 2002 07:10:19 UTC