Accessibility and Re: [LINK] Smart Card Submissions Online

[Jan Whitaker]

At 10:16 AM 6/09/2006, Tom Worthington wrote:
>>... it's not credible that they can't publish submissions received only 
>>in PDF (containing text) for fear of breaching the DDA. ...
>
>Yes. I have suggested the task force consult the Health Department's 
>staff, as they seem to be able to do an okay job of web publishing. Apart 
>from web accessibility guidelines, there are penalties in the Archives Act 
>for not correctly handling mail messages and electronic documents 
><http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/aa198398/s24.html>.

I did a test with the Blind Citizens Australia on this. I created a word 
document with an embedded image, html markup (an email address), text in 
various fonts and renderings, a table and a two column. I then converted it 
to PDF using PDFreDirect. I sent that to BCA asking them to try it with a 
screen reader, which they did, using Jaws for Windows. It was fine.

I think there is some confusion about how advanced PDF rendering has come 
in the past few years.

Jan



Jan Whitaker
JLWhitaker Associates, Melbourne Victoria
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
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'Seed planting is often the most important step. Without the seed, there is 
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