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Re: how to handle line numbers in legal documents

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From: John Foliot
Date: Feb 22, 2011 6:00PM

Langum, Michael J wrote:
>
> I have been asked to post a legal transcript. It has line numbers
> along the left side of that page. These were added using MS Word's
> "line number" tool, and they were converted to artifacts when the
> document was converted to PDF.
>
> My question is, since the line number artifacts will not be exposed to
> the screen reader, should this be considered accessible? If not, the
> only alternative I can think of is to manually re-write the WORD source
> document as a two column table.

I didn't see a response come through, and I am not a lawyer Michael, but I
believe that the line number is in fact a requirement of the legal
transcript (along with line-breaks, etc.). While the reasoning is archaic
(citation and reference - almost similar to biblical verse), I do believe
it is a mandate in many instances. I would double check from the source.

FWIW

JF