Thread Subject: Re: Authoring tools with no user interface

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From: Sean Hayes
Date: Tue, Aug 14 2007 3:45 AM

<quote Norm>
We should remove the qualifiers "for each accessible content format
supported" as all content covers all scenarios,
</quote Norm>

<quote Judy>
I believe that this was added to account for situations where for instance
the output might be something other than electronic content, for instance,
a printed format. Sean, didn't this come from you, and if so can you remind us?
</quote Judy>

Yes the problem here is that authoring systems often provide the ability to export into formats which are not able to pass all the content requirements.
Some examples: Creating a FAX document for transmission. Creating an image of the content to include in an advertisement. Creating a thumbnail for use as a web preview. Saving as simple text to migrate content between incompatible systems.

If we prevent authoring tools from supporting these scenarios, this will cause a lot of problems in the market. On the other hand we do want to make sure that where the tool is saving to a format that can pass the provisions, the necessary information is added appropriately.

I'm not sure what the right language is here, but that is my concern.

Sean Hayes
Incubation Lab
Accessibility Business Unit
Microsoft

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