Is this a Job for SVG and WAI?

As the SVG and WAI working groups discuss WCAG and UAAG, it can be helpful 
to have some sample content to evaluate against.

Michael Diggles has produced a PDF file with some embedded maps and has 
issued a challenge asking how someone might approach making this particular 
real-world graphical content accessible. I was wondering if perhaps 
volunteers from the SVG and WAI working groups might be willing to do a 
conference call with Michael to have him explain the sorts of information 
that his maps contain, and then have the WAI team explain the sorts of 
accessibility issues that could possible be addressed, and then review 
WCAG, UAAG and SVG to see how they measure up.

Ian, it seems like this sort of a thing might be something which would 
interest you.

Jon

>X-Mailer: exmh version 2.3.1 01/18/2001 with version: MH 6.8.3 #10[UCI]
>To: jferraio@adobe.com
>Subject: Is this a Job for SVG?
>
>IN talking with the USGS about accessibility and PDF this morning, there was
>some discussion of the Diggle Challenge. I looked at this file, and there 
>are,
>no unexpectedly, some very complex figures. My question for you: is this the
>sort of thing for which SVG could produce an accessible solution?
>
>         Loretta
>
>------- Forwarded Message
>
>From: Michael Diggles <mdiggles@usgs.gov>
>Subject: Diggles' PDF with four figures - challenge
>Cc: kkirk@usgs.gov
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>  21, 2001) at 07/31/2001 12:18:52 PM,
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>
>Hi Loretta,
>
>I'm sorry I missed the conference call this morning.  I talked to
>Keith Kirk this morning after it and he said you would like to try
>your hand at my "challenge" tagging problem.
>
>Here is my note to the listserve:
>
> >From mkwitter@usgs.gov
> >
> >Is everyone out there still in the state of shock or are we the only
> >District that relies totally on Macs to produce reports?  The statement at
> >the end of the second paragraph (see web site below) of the "Guide to
> >making 508-compliant PDF files"..."The Macintosh operating system is
> >incapable of tagging PDF files for accessibility."
>
>I don't see any evidence that Windows machines do a much better job.
>
>Here is a 3-foot-by 4-foot poster with four figures in it.
>
>http://caldera.wr.usgs.gov/InSAR_slo.pdf
>
>I will buy a beer for anybody who can make it accessible other than
>using the strip-the-graphics technique.  I use both a Mac and a PC
>and I gave up and made a stripped version and a graphic-containing
>version for between now and when we figure out how to tag PDF's that
>come from the plethora of PostScript-generating applications with
>which we have been making our living for years.  I do admit that for
>the version with the graphics stripped out, I moved it from my Mac to
>my PC to use the Make-Accessible plug-in.  Just for fun, here is the
>stripped version:  it passed the accessibility checker
>
>http://caldera.wr.usgs.gov/InSAR_slo_Accessible.pdf
>
>I guess I'll put a little front-end on these two files that say
>something like "click here for graphic-rich version" and "click here
>for accessible version"
>
>I'd love to have a clean way to do it; so that offer of a beer is open.
>
>- --Mike Diggles
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Michael F. Diggles, Geologist
>Western Publications Group, CD-ROM publications
>Building 3, Room 3-202H
>U.S. Geological Survey, MS-951
>345 Middlefield Road
>Menlo Park, CA 94025
>
>Phone:  (650) 329-5404
>Fax, (650) 329-5453
>mailto:mdiggles@usgs.gov
>http://caldera.wr.usgs.gov
>http://wpg.wr.usgs.gov/
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
>------- End of Forwarded Message

Received on Wednesday, 1 August 2001 19:14:03 UTC