*** Resending note of 07/21/95 21:33
From: Steve Jacobson - National Federation of the Blind
Subject: Re: Adobe PDF Accessibility
Hi Guys, here is more correspondence between myself and Liz McQuarrie of
Adobe Systems about PDF. Some of you who know more about LYNX for DOS
and for Unix should read this carefully and give it some thought.
To: Liz McQuarrie - Adobe Systems
From: Steve Jacobson - National Federation of the Blind
*** Resending note of 07/21/95 16:12
Subject: Adobe PDF Accessibility
Liz,
Thank you for your quick response. I believe that most of us who use the
Unix version of Lynx are using DOS-based screen readers in conjunction
with DOS-based terminal emulators to access the unix systems as a VT-100
or some other terminal. My use of Lynx under Unix is limited, having
received access to a Unix shell within the past few weeks, so I am again
forwarding our correspondence to the NFB-RD list in case others can be
more specific. I know that some screen readers are at the very least
more sluggish when tracking highlight bars, so a "show_cursor" parameter
was added to force the cursor to move to "hot spots." My impression has
been that the Unix version of LYNX is easier to use with screen reading
software than is the DOS product, but that blind people are nevertheless
using both.
Thank you for your continuing interest.
Regards,
Steve Jacobson
INTERNET: SOJACOBSON@MMM.COM
*** Reply to note of 07/21/95 11:40
From: INTERNET.LIZMCQU
To: -- szilles
US057445--VM01 JACOBSON, STEVE
Subject: Re: Adobe PDF Accessibility
Originating Internet address appears below:
From: Liz_McQuarrie_at_AdobeAPDEng@mv.us.adobe.com
Hi Steve:
Thank you for the excellent feedback!
Regarding DOS Lynx and it's problems
when used with DOS Screen readers:
It would be really great if to get
a list of the problems. The Government
Services Agency may potentially kick
in some money to do some clean up of
DOS Lynx (it is also reputed to have a few
bugs). Perhaps we can get the University
of Kansas to fix the screen reader problems
at the same time.
Regarding access on UNIX: One of the
biggest pieces of feedback I have gotten
is "how about a UNIX version?" Since
it is trivial to port to UNIX once you
have a DOS version, I am sure we will
*strongly* consider it. By the way,
what products to folks use on UNIX
to read the screen? Does the UNIX version
of LYNX suffer the same problems interacting
with UNIX screen readers as DOS Lynx?
Best Regards,
Liz McQuarrie
Adobe Systems Inc
Acrobat Engineering
_______________________________________________________________________________
Subject: Adobe PDF Accessibility
From: sojacobson@mmm.com at cc_smtp2
Date: 7/20/95 12:59 PM
cc: NFB-RD list
From: Steve Jacobson - National Federation of the Blind
Liz:
It was nice to meet you at the Microsoft Accessibility Summit. Being
able to associate a real person with an Internet address makes E-mail
communications more pleasant. You may remember me as the representative
of the National Federation of the Blind with the least hair. {grin}
I have read with interest your correspondence with Mike Freeman and your
June 30 proposal for a "plug-in" accessibility module, and it seems to
me that you have a very thorough understanding of the situation. The
fact that you and Adobe have taken an interest in this is very
encouraging.
You mentioned that you were trying to determine the future level of DOS
usage by blind people. Although it is inevitible that we will eventually
leave DOS behind, to some degree because we will have to, I think it is
safe to say that the level of DOS usage will remain high among blind
people for several years to come. It is unfortunate that it appears to
be very difficult to create a product that will work on an 8088, but I
feel that concentrating on an 80386 and perhaps an 80286 product is
reasonable. With software that won't run on an 8088, high speed modems
that overpower 8088's, and the increase need for memory management for
larger screen access programs, many of us will be forced to give up our
good old 8088's even before we abandon DOS.
Your proposal to use DOS LYNX as the navigation tool for a DOS-based PDF
browser makes sense. Although I have not used DOS LYNX, some have said
that it could use some improvement in how it interacts with DOS screen
access software. Therefore, I would recommend that some effort be made
to determine whether some minor changes could be made to iron out some
of the rough edges. I have sent a copy of this note to the NFB-RD
research and development list, and others may wish to speak to this
point with more knowledge.
Many blind persons have found it most convenient to access the Internet
and the World Wide Web through Unix shell accounts and the Unix version
of LYNX. Certainly documents known to be in PDF could be downloaded to a
PC and browsed with DOS LYNX, but would this approach always work? Can
PDF documents on the Web contain pointers to other documents making it
desireable to process them interactively rather than downloading such
documents? There may be solutions that others on the NFB-RD list can
propose, or perhaps you already have answers.
You have obviously done much research into the PDF accessibility
problem, and your commitment to solving it shows. Your efforts are
appreciated!
Regards,
Steve Jacobson
INTERNET: SOJACOBSON@MMM.COM
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