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Re: Html from a .pdf file, what is the best way?

for

From: Stephan Wehner
Date: Apr 8, 2010 2:39PM

On Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 8:03 AM, Birkir Gunnarsson
< <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> Hey gang
>
> I apologize if this question is borderline topic.
> There is a big government report being published in a couple of weeks in my
> home country, over 2000 pages, but one which will interest a lot of people.
> I was contacted this morning and asked what would be the best way to make
> its contents accessible to our blind/VI users.
> They have it as plain text and as a series of .pdf files.


Isn't plain text the best in terms of accessibility? I prefer it
myself when it comes to reading
lengthy stuff.

You might also consider tools like markdown,
http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/
and Textile, http://www.textism.com/tools/textile/

It doesn't seem likely they generated the PDF from the plain text
version. Do you know how
they produced the PDF's?

Stephan


> I believe a .pdf file of this size (each of them over 150 pges) may cause
> problems with Adobe reader accessibility, not unless the buffer is set to 30
> pages or less (please correct me if I am wrong here).
> Also, if there is a link on page 2 in that document that refers to page,
> say, 120, what happens with the Adobe reader in this case,. Assume the
> reader clicks on the link, will the reader load page 120 and the followign
> 30 pages into a buffer?
> I am just not sure if .pdf is a good format, I am not sure if the .txt
> format is good either, since it does not allow for any textlinks and it is
> an awfully large document.
> But, assuming I get to the person with the source document, how hard is it
> to export it to a marked up html (headings etc)?
> I would think that be ideal format for a very lrge document in many
> sections, for a blind user.
> If anyone has an opinion on this it would be most appreciated.
> Thanks
> -Birkir
>
>
>