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Re: PDF will be legally accessible with the new 508

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From: Christophe Strobbe
Date: Mar 25, 2010 5:12AM

Dear Monir AlRayes,

At 00:03 25/03/2010, Monir ElRayes wrote:
>I don't think accessibility of document formats has to do with a particular
>screen reader. Note that there are many screen readers out there and they
>have to work according to accessibility standards such as S508 (if they
>don't then it is a problem with the screen reader rather than with the
>standard). Standards are screen reader-independent (as they should) and they
>deal with other disabilities in addition to vision impairment. Hence the
>importance of making sure documents are accessible based on a given standard
>(such as S508) rather than a given screen reader (which may or may not
>provide an accurate implementation of the standard)

Standards are independent of any specific screen reader, but the
accessibility of a document format is not independent of the
capablities of screen readers (or AT in general) as a technology.
That is why WCAG 2.0 defined the concept of "accessibility-supported
technology":
* <http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#accessibility-supporteddef>;,
*
<http://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/conformance.html#uc-accessibility-support-head>;.

(However, if there is only one screenreader for a specific language,
then the set of accessibility-supported technologies for content in
that language will be determined by what that screenreader supports.
The English-speaking part of the world is spoilt for choice in
assistive technologies compared to some other languages.)


Best regards,

Christophe Strobbe



>Best Regards,
>
>Monir ElRayes
>President
>NetCentric Technologies
>