RE: PDF in WCAG 2

>>  It is sometimes necessary to use pdfs exactly because equivalent 
>>HTML files don't exist
>
>What type of content within a PDF is there no HTML equivalent for?

You're kidding, right?

You can't even do footnotes in HTML. (Oh, but you think you can hack 
those together with <sup> and a few <a>? But then you've created 
*endnotes*. What if you want both?) If this question were actually 
serious, I could give you a list a mile long of practices used in 
typography that cannot be replicated in HTML. And did you know that 
you can actually embed multimedia, with captions and/or descriptions, 
*in* a PDF now? Try *that* in HTML.

>>Making the same material available also in HTML, the material would 
>>not only loose all its historical authenticity,
>
>How so? Yes, it may lose its visual/presentational values, but the 
>content should not lose anything, no?

Some members of the Working Group fail to understand that 
presentation *is* content.

If you really believe the contrary, can we please just write out your 
wedding invitations on Bristol board in pink crayon?


>That final analysis rests with you, and in my mind it's quite 
>simple: if you want to be able to claim compliance with WCAG1.0, you 
>need to address the issue of PDFs.

It's been addressed. A wide variety of PDFs can be made adequately 
accessible to many groups. Time has marched on.

>Maybe I'm over-interpreting, but: I would class PDFs as non-text content

Except for all that text inside them.

>(particularly if the PDF is merely a container for scanned documents),

A fair example.

>  in which case the very first guideline, 1.1, would apply.

Why, exactly?

-- 

     Joe Clark | joeclark@joeclark.org
     Accessibility <http://joeclark.org/access/>
     Expect criticism if you top-post

Received on Wednesday, 18 August 2004 17:43:00 UTC