NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
IN COMPUTER SCIENCE
_________________________________________________________________
Curtis Chong 20 Northeast 2nd Street, Apartment 908
President Minneapolis, MN 55413-2265
Phone: 612/379-3493 Internet: curtisc@winternet.com
July 22, 1995
Liz McQuarrie and Steve Zilles
Adobe Systems Incorporated
Hello Liz and Steve:
I would like to take this opportunity to comment concerning your
proposal to provide access to PDF for blind and visually impaired
people who are still using DOS. I would also like to comment on
the over-all efforts currently under way at Adobe to ensure that
PDF will be generally accessible to the blind.
Regarding the DOS proposal, I heartily concur with your plan to
provide access to PDF documents by creating a modified version of
LYNX which first translates PDF documents into HTML. As you so
rightly point out, LYNX is a popular web browser among blind
people who access the World Wide Web. I also concur with your
proposal to develop the modified LYNX to run on (at a minimum) an
intel (or equivalent) 80386 processor with two megabytes of RAM.
However, I would like to put in a plug for a modified version of
LYNX to run on a UNIX platform and urge you to develop this
software ahead of the DOS LYNX program. LYNX, running under
UNIX, is a popular means for accessing the Web used by persons
who are blind. In fact, my guess is that you will find more
blind people using LYNX on UNIX than LYNX running under DOS,
simply because it is easier for us to establish a connection with
UNIX platforms using popular telecommunications programs such as
Procomm Plus, Telix, and the like. In other words, if you want
to help more blind people sooner, build the modified LYNX
software for UNIX and work on the modified DOS LYNX program
later.
If you need further justification for working on the DOs
development, I would point out that you will not find many blind
people rushing to use Windows--at least, not for the next two to
three years. As we learned from the Microsoft Accessibility
Summit, held on July 14-16, the efforts currently under way at
Microsoft will not solve today's Windows access problems. Today's
problems can only be meaningfully addressed by "work around"
solutions developed by screen reader software manufacturers and
by companies such as Adobe, which take an interest in ensuring
accessibility to their software and data formats.
I applaud your proposal to develop a special "plug-in" for
Acrobat in the Windows environment. I believe that you have a
clear grasp of the capabilities of current screen reading
programs for Windows and that you are taking those capabilities
into account in the design process. Since some blind people run
Windows programs using the OS/2 operating system, I would urge
you to ensure that the plug-in operates successfully in this
environment as well as in the Microsoft Windows environment.
I think it is only fair to point out that today, some blind
people are beginning to make in-roads into web browsers running
under Windows. At this year's meeting of the National Federation
of the Blind in Computer Science, held in Chicago on July 3, two
blind people talked about their use of the Web with programs such
as Netscape and Netcruiser. So clearly, we won't be stuck on
DOS-based communication programs indefinitely. This is only to
say that as you design your future upgrades and enhancements,
please be sure that you ensure compatibility with existing screen
reading technology for the blind.
In conclusion, I wish to commend you and Adobe Systems for your
efforts on our behalf. No, PDF is not today truly accessible to
the blind, but if you keep going the way you seem to be headed,
things will certainly improve. Keep it up!
Regards,
Curtis Chong
President
National Federation of the Blind in Computer Science
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