Steven, I think your observations on the proposed standard for portable
document format is accurate. It has more positive benefit than negative
for blind surfers on the Internet.
It's my view that the most useful standard that could be adopted is one
that opens opportunities for third party venders to compete in the market
place to offer useful solutions to the GUI and other multimedia documents
to blind computer users. It seems to me that the Adobe PDF, placed in
the public domain, will do just that.
We cannot, and should not, prevent progress in communications for the
general public in order to assure access for the blind. Our efforts will
be more productive if we can require two things:
1. We must be able, at all times, to perceive and manipulate the
controls of the system: i.e., we must be able to get on the NET, find
what is there, and download any and all materials that are offered.
2. Any product that is offered to the public must be decodable. That
is, the method for producing the graphic, the soundbyte, or whatever must
be a matter of public knowlege. With this requirement, blind individuals
or third party venders will be able to convert the image, sound byte, et
cetera, into a form that is useful to him.
I hope that others in this group will sound off on this topic.
Tim Cranmer
tvc@iglou.com
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