Re: ACollab Work Groups 1.1 Content accessible?

There is a tool to conver Microsoft Office documents to
accessible valid HTML.

http://cita.rehab.uiuc.edu/software/office

Jon


---- Original message ----
>Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2004 20:44:48 -0400 (EDT)
>From: "Steven Dale" <sdale@stevendale.com>  
>Subject: Re: ACollab Work Groups 1.1   Content accessible?  
>To: <g.gay@utoronto.ca>
>Cc: <info@atutor.ca>, <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
>
>
>> Perhaps someday AChecker could evaluate uploaded content,
but that's a
>> ways off. AChecker is a web content accessibility verifier.
It evaluates
>>  HTML. Though you could use HTML files with ACollab, users
would
>> probably  be more likely to be sharing MSword docs, text
files, or some
>> other  non-web format.
>Yes, That is what I am having problems trying to solve.  When
someone
>uploads an article, for instance in word format, how do you
make sure it
>is converted to accessible html on the fly?  If web desingers
didnt have
>to adapt the uploaded files for accessibility, their
acceptance of an
>accessible web would be more open.
>
>>
>> Forcing authors to make their content accessible, though
perhaps
>> desirable, is not practical from a business perspective. If
they don't
>> like being forced, they will use someone else product that
does not
>> force accessibility upon them.
>> There has to be legislation to enforce
>> this type of requirement. You're better off making the
accessibility
>> tools available, and informing your users, than forcing
them to abide
>> (in most cases).
>>
>
>I think they should be forced, and the legislation, though
not quite there
>at the moment, is certainly headed there.  I think having a
tool to
>convert the different files into something accessible would
be a good
>start.  I believe having the authoring tools force
accessibility while
>creating the documents would eliminate these problems.  As to
companies
>using other products, if the accessibility were forced with
little extra
>effort on the user, I would think they would use the product.
 I believe
>the choice of a product would be for other reasons where
accessibility
>forcefullness being at the bottom.
>
>-Steve
>
>
Jon Gunderson, Ph.D., ATP
Coordinator of Assistive Communication and Information Technology
Division of Rehabilitation - Education Services
MC-574
College of Applied Life Studies
University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign
1207 S. Oak Street, Champaign, IL  61820

Voice: (217) 244-5870
Fax: (217) 333-0248

E-mail: jongund@uiuc.edu

WWW: http://cita.rehab.uiuc.edu/
WWW: http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~jongund

Received on Monday, 14 June 2004 20:54:18 UTC