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Re: PowerPoint accessibility-alt question

for

From: Clark, Michelle - NRCS, Washington, DC
Date: Apr 25, 2014 8:25AM

Duff,

You struck gold with the statement of "Do users know how to author for accessibility.". In the agency in which I work as in others I imagine, is where much of the problem begins.

Recently, there was a "Resource " event and I was sitting at the Section 508 table. One employee became indignant and rather nasty when we tried to inform her about 508. She left in a huff. That's problematic for what we do.

Michelle

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Duff Johnson
Sent: Friday, April 25, 2014 10:18 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] PowerPoint accessibility-alt question

Lisa,

> What strikes me as I read this thread is that I see huge technological
> advances on Twitter almost every day now. They involve helping people
> navigate the physical space, or are computer oriented (hardware,
> peripherals, etc.). This is the most sustained and profound growth that I
> have seen in the last 15 years, which is wonderful.
>
> However, I am surprised at how far behind we are in terms of PDFs, and
> things we have talked about in this thread. There is no reason for it
> today, and okay you could also say that there was no reason for it 15 years
> ago either. We are talking huge companies, not start ups...

Twitter is hip, modern... even sexy.

PDF is old enough to drink (in the US) which is very very old indeed in the computing world.

Much as PDF is indipsensible (theres no realistic alternative for "electronic hardcopy"), even I can't claim it's sexy.

Once the larger companies (and the AT vendors) get their act together the question of "Is PDF accessible on X" will be taken for granted.

The only remaining question will be the one that never goes away, irrespective of format: "Do users know how to author for accessibility."

Twitter's great advantage in this regard is that it's so simple (from an author's perspective) that it's almost impossible to get wrong.

Duff.
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