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Re: plug-in/viewer links

for

From: smithj7
Date: Aug 22, 2007 5:50PM

Michael,
I keep posts that I think I might need at some point in the future. I
like the way you responded. I need to meet 508 complaince.

Do you think 508 would allow a link to a page with the plugin link?
Currently, we have all plugin links in the footer. Speech users
complain. So from one of the other posts, I got the idea to put all the
plugin links on a page and was going to take them off the footer.

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Michael D.
Roush
Sent: Friday, June 29, 2007 10:49 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] plug-in/viewer links


Cheryl Amato wrote:
> I am doing some work for an agency that puts lots of PDFs and Office
> documents online. Must a link to the appropriate plug-in or viewer be
> included on each and every page that accesses them, or can all links
> be provided on a separate page. Of course there would be a link to the

> plug-in page on the page requiring the plug-in.
>
> I realize that HTML is always best but I have little or no control
> over that.
>

I think this is a case of "it depends". If the agency in question is
shooting for Section 508 compliance (whether they are legally bound to
it or not), then the answer is yes, a link to the appropriate plug-in or

viewer must appear on the same page where the link to the proprietary
document format appears. See §1194.22(m):

(m) When a web page requires that an applet, plug-in or other
application be present on the client system to interpret page content,
the page must provide a link to a plug-in or applet that complies with
§1194.21(a) through (l).

If we're talking about various flavors of WCAG for our standard, WCAG
1.0 Guideline 11 is where we land. It basically says "use HTML/XML
instead or along with the other format(s)". However, the only Priority
1 Checkpoint in guideline 11 is 11.4, and it is one of the "if all else
fails" statements.

Now, if we're not all that worried about adhering to standards and only
concerned with a pragmatic "can the users get the info they want"
approach, I think PDF has become ubiquitous enough that not providing an

html equivalent won't make the information inaccessible to users. But,
whether I think so certainly won't change the opinions of some users out

there.

So, I guess the answer to your question is, "Only if the standard you
are designing for requires that such a link be placed on the page."
That standard may be one developed by an outside agent (508, WCAG, etc)
or one you develop yourself.

Michael