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Re: Section 508(m) question

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From: John E. Brandt
Date: Apr 29, 2010 3:36PM

I don't believe it is completely correct to say that "browsers have built in capabilities to view Flash and PDFs."

I think universally - in all Oss and all browsers, Flash is still a plug-in that has to be installed.

The Mac OS has Preview which will allow you to view PDFs. I recall having to install Flash to work in Safari and FireFox.

Not sure about Win7 (IE8) since I installed CS4 immediately when I setup my new PC computer and Acrobat was installed including the plugins for the browsers. I believe the Flash plugin may have also been installed then too.

I do recall that on my Ubuntu/Linux setup I had to install plugins to view Flash and PDF using FireFox.

I had to also install Adobe AIR on my PC and Mac computers in order to use certain applications.

Then of course there is the whole issue of Mr. Jobs, Flash, iPhone, iPads and iPods....making the news today!

But in fairness, I think you have a valid point about the need to provide a link. If the plugin is not installed on your computer, and you encounter content that requires it, you are likely to get either a message on the page, or a pop-up warning in the browser (or both) indicating the need for the plugin AND by merely clicking on the warning, brought to the location where the plugin is available and in some cases, the same script will automatically install the plugin.

I suspect this is to be addressed in the Section 508 revisions.

John E. Brandt
jebswebs.com
Augusta, ME USA
<EMAIL REMOVED>
www.jebswebs.com