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Re: PDFs that read one word per line

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From: Monir ElRayes
Date: Jan 29, 2010 4:06PM

Karen,

Good point about mechanical tools. The problem with purely manual testing
though, in the case of PDF, is that it simply cannot be done in a reasonable
period of time, in any comprehensive way, except for relatively simple
documents. Another problem with purely manual testing is that it is rarely
methodical or consistent.

As an aside, please note that CommonLook is not a mechanical tool (at least
the way most people would define it). While it automates the tasks that can
be automated (some of which, such as "text running together", cannot be
detected by manual testing), it does ask the user for input when required
(for example to verify that a textual description for an image is
meaningful). It also has a "verify and remediate" facility that simulates
how screens readers would read a document (but does it much faster). The
idea is to still do "manual" verification - when necessary- but assist the
user in doing it as a methodical process that verifies all 508 checkpoints.


Cheers,
Monir