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Re: PDF will be legally accessible with the new 508

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From: John Foliot
Date: Mar 19, 2010 6:42PM

Wayne Dick wrote:
>
> Well the new 508 requires that visual
> accommodation only be required for individuals
> with legal blindness. People with print
> disabilities caused by low vision who are not
> blind must use those accommodations. Since
> everyone can use screen enlargement, everyone must.
>
> That makes PDF accessible.

Wayne,

Sorry, but what are you trying to say here?

Is it a criticism of the new Section 508 proposals, or are you taking on
PDF? Or are you happy with these developments? Could you elaborate on what
you feel we should be focusing on? I've not had a chance to fully digest
the change proposals, as I am still digging out from under my 6 days at
SXSW, and prepping for CSUN.

Re: PDF; done properly, they are meeting a very good level of
accessibility - the key of course is the "done properly" part. All
delivery formats have the ability to be made inaccessible by unknowing or
uncaring authors, and singling out one technology (one in particular that
has spent a lot of time working towards improved accessibility) without
something concrete to put forward to improve things further leaves me
scratching my head... Could PDF continue to improve? Likely, but so could
HTML if you want to get down to it (spacing, kerning and leading, etc.).
And in both regards, I believe that growth continues still (for example
the new @font-face in CSS3 allows us to use an expanded palette of fonts
in HTML, which could improve legibility and readability on web pages - "If
Done Properly").

JF