- From: Tina Marie Holmboe <tina@elfi.org>
- Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2003 08:30:55 +0100
- To: Graham Oliver <goliver@accease.com>
- Cc: "'w3c-wai-ig@w3.org'" <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>, "'poehlman1@comcast.net'" <poehlman1@comcast.net>
On Mon, Mar 17, 2003 at 03:40:38PM +1200, Graham Oliver wrote: > I am wondering why Word documents are not accessible to you? > Would you care to share the details? Certainly. I am a Unix user, and as I don't really have the permissions to install anything like OpenOffice on the machines on which I am using, it is rather difficult to handle a proprietary, and binary, format such as Word. I'm afraid I don't feel like paying money for a machine on which to run Microsoft Windows, not for the explicit purpose of reading Word-documents. The Unix command 'strings' is, of course, an alternative, but as so many here persist in pointing out: plain text isn't always accessible, and the text that 'strings' produce is rarely plain. May I ask why you chose that particular format over one which is - or can be made to be - accessible, such as HTML ? I must admit that I have little experience with it, but I can't say I've run across programs that make Microsoft Word accessible to the blind, but I am certain they exist free of cost[1]. [1] Or are we about to redefine - as many have before - accessibility to mean the availability of funds to buy certain types of systems ? -- - Tina Holmboe
Received on Monday, 17 March 2003 02:16:49 UTC