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Re: Tables and Excel: merged or unmerged cells?

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From: Bevi Chagnon
Date: Apr 16, 2012 10:26AM

Duff wrote: "Assuming JAWS (and others) do get confused, why isn't this
simply a bug in the software to be fixed rather than a "fact of life" with
implications for document authors (as opposed to AT software developers)?"

Wow, Duff, you just opened a Pandora's box of questions on "why doesn't AT
technology do a better job at [fill-in-the-blank]."

I'm sure the solution involves any of the following:
-- More funding to AT software companies.
-- More funding and training for AT users to actually purchase upgraded
versions of their technology and training.
-- Better tools for accessing common documents, not just web pages, such as
Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Acrobat PDF.
-- Better coordination between AT software companies and Adobe, Microsoft,
W3.org, Amazon, and other key players in our various publishing
technologies.
-- Expanded accessibility standards that cover more than just garden-variety
text and graphics.

Here are a few questions I have from my clients just this morning:

1) Why doesn't AT correctly read superscripts, subscripts, and several dozen
other common characters? Why does it read 10-3 as 10 to the third power but
10-4 as one hundred four? (sorry, can't do super/subscripts in this ASCII
email.) And why doesn't AT access the thousands of characters (glyphs) in
Unicode fonts? It's been 12 years since the computer industry adopted
Unicode but AT can access only a small portion of a font's glyphs.

2) How can I provide sufficient Alt-text for highly complex graphics, such
as military maps, floor plans, 3-D schematic drawings, and complex
charts/graphs in a Word, PowerPoint, or PDF document? The recommended
Alt-text limit is 160 characters, Long-Desc attribute is only for HTML web
pages and is being deprecated by the W3.org, and writing the detailed
description in the main narrative forces sighted users to read redundant
information that they can quickly see in the graphic.

3) Why doesn't AT correctly read the formulas in Excel spreadsheets?
Spreadsheets have been around since VisiCalc in the early 1980's. They
haven't changed THAT much in 30 years. One would assume that AT
manufacturers would have made better progress in accessing them during the
past 3 decades.

4) Why doesn't AT recognize a link or other actions in Alt-text? That would
help with question #2: I could embed a link in a brief Alt-text to a
detailed description someplace else in the document.

Is it time to start a wish-list for AT manufacturers?
Are there any AT representatives on this list?

--Bevi Chagnon
(Who is waiting to see what questions her clients ask this afternoon <grin>)

--
Bevi Chagnon | <EMAIL REMOVED>
PubCom - Trainers, consultants, designers, and developers
Print, Web, Acrobat, XML, eBooks, and Federal Section 508
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