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Re: EC proposes rules to make government websites accessible for all

for

From: Mark Magennis
Date: Dec 4, 2012 3:01AM

My take on WCAG is that other documents are definitely covered by it as it clearly encompasses Web Content in any format, so it DOES indicate that any documents downloaded from websites need to be compliant.

The tricky bit when determining whether a PDF (or Word doc or anything else) is 'accessible' is the concept of Accessibility Support which is pretty much left to the website owners, format providers, assistive technology vendors and users to argue about in the pub isn't it?

Mark

On 3 Dec 2012, at 22:40, Birkir R. Gunnarsson wrote:

> I certainly don't want to start obsessing over PDF or some such, but
> it bothers me that the proposed directive does not seem to address, in
> any way, the accessibility of documents (text or forms) available
> through these websites.
> Of course I'd prefer all forms in HTML, but the reality is that PDF is
> used, to quite a large extent, for electronic forms/applications for
> services or announcements, and various file formats are used for
> longer text, ranging from Word documents to epub.
> WCAG 2.0 actually has some excellent definitions for accessibility
> that can be applied to pretty much any technology, but it is made for
> the web, and when talking about websites being WCAG compliant, I
> believe that does not indicate that any documents downloaded from such
> websites need to be compliant with any accessibility standard.
> Cheers
> -B
>
> On 12/3/12, Paul Bohman < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>> And here's a link that includes Annex 1: "Websites falling under the
>> jurisdiction of the proposed EU Directive on accessibility of public sector
>> bodies' websites" (at the bottom, below the main text of the press release
>> and links):
>>
>> http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-12-1305_en.htm
>>
>> Paul Bohman, PhD
>> Director of Training
>> Deque Systems, Inc
>> 703-646-0514, ext.121
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Dec 3, 2012 at 7:24 AM, J. B-Vincent < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>>
>>> http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n293903
>>> >>> >>> >>>
>> >> >> >>
> > > >