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Re: A clear EU accessibility law proposed? At what cost?

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From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Dec 22, 2012 7:49AM


Hi

I believe that off-line documentation does not fall under the
definition of "web content" even if it is downloaded from a website. I
wonder, with a PDF form with a submit button, whether that is
web-content, though the user can work on it off-line, but my
understanding of WCAG 2.0 (and anyone feel free to correct me if I am
wrong), is that off-line documents are not something coverred natively
by the standard, though the standard could be applied almost in its
entirety to such documents (see the WAI document draft on applying
WCAG to none web-ICTs).
If I am wrong, and WCAG applies to these documents, then we are in
good shape. If not, I'd want it to be explicitly stated in the EU
directive that documents downloaded from websites need to be
accessible as well, ideally applying the principles of WCAG to
evaluating these documents.
I have seen too many WCAG 2.0 AA compliant websites where you can
download untagged PDF forms with no labels, sometimes even PDF
documents that are simply pictures of text and/or Microsoft Word
documents using content controls that are inaccessible to screen
readers, and even mouse-only controls (that even from a social
security administration website).

Cheers
-B

On 12/22/12, Ramón Corominas < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> Hi, Birkir and all,
>
> Birkir wrote:
>
>> 2. the standard does not cover documents and electronic forms that
>> often are offerred via these websites (no fault of WCAG per se of
>> course, it is not designed to be a non-web documents standard, but it
>> could of course be applied as such, plus there are accessibility
>> guidelines for PDF and other document types),
>
> Why do you think WCAG does not cover these documents? WCAg 2.0 allows
> any web content technology, as far as it is used in an
> accessibility-supported way.
>
> Regards,
> Ramón.
>
> --
> Ramón Corominas
> Accessibility specialist
> Technosite - Fundación ONCE
> E: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> T: @ramoncorominas
> P: +34 91 121 0330
> W: http://technosite.es
> > > >