RE: Accessible PDFs?

Maybe we should define what me mean by pdf.
Pdf is not one but several file formats all having the one extension.
Pdf files can be created by scanning documents, in which case the
document is more like an image and hence is inherently inaccessible.
In older pdfs they may be converted from word or other documents and
these may be accessible to some degree as the text is able to be
accessed under some circumstances.
If they are prepared in Adobe Acrobat 5 by scanning they are
inaccessible.
If they are prepared in Acrobat 5 and marked up correctly or distilled
in the latest format they may be accessible.
If they are prepared even in acrobat 5 and then distilled using an older
type of format, as are many print prepared documents because many print
shops can't handle the latest converters they will not be accessible.

So can some knowledgeable person suggest a way we can refer to they
myriad of pdf files in a way in which we can all know which we are
referring to.

Harry Woodrow


-----Original Message-----
From: w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org] On
Behalf Of Access Systems
Sent: Monday, 2 December 2002 11:13 PM
To: Scarlett Julian (ED)
Cc: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: RE: Accessible PDFs?


On Mon, 2 Dec 2002, Scarlett Julian (ED) wrote:

> that's a less than useful answer in that it doesn't really give a true
> picture of the situation. Yes, it's true that AT cannot read pdf
documents
> created using Acrobat 4 but (correct me if I'm wrong) it *is* possible
using
> version 5 to produce documents that are accessible if the creator
knows what
> they're doing. 

AND the user has the conversion software AND is running the
"correct" operating system, AND the user is using the "correct"
webrowser.

show me how it will ever work no matter how good the creator is if 

the user does not buy the conversion software
or 
is not running Windoze
or 
is not using IE

give me a site to view that you think has accessible pdf and I'll try
reading it,  I sincerely wish you were right, but haven't found it yet.

Bob


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Received on Monday, 2 December 2002 10:31:25 UTC