Adobe And TRACE Launch Enhanced PDF Access Via Email
--New service enables conversion via email attachments
(http://access.adobe.com)
Adobe Systems and the TRACE Research Center are happy to
announce a new service to enhance the accessibility of PDF
documents to visually impaired users.
Ever since we launched our popular server-based
accessibility solutions on http://access.adobe.com in
March 1997, the single most oft voiced request has been the need
to convert PDF documents on a local disk or CDROM to ASCII
or HTML. In response, we have set up a a conversion service
hosted by the TRACE Research Center (http://trace.wisc.edu).
You can send PDF documents as email attachments to:
pdf2txt@sun.trace.wisc.edu -- for plain text
pdf2html@sun.trace.wisc.edu -- for HTML
and receive the result of the conversion in the reply.
Adobe would like to thank Dr. Gregg Vanderheiden and the
TRACE Research Center for helping us host this service.
Attached is a summary of accessibility services provided by
Adobe. Our WWW site (http://access.adobe.com) has been
revised in conjunction with the launch of this new service;
please take a momement to visit us and refresh your
bookmarks.
--Raman (and the access.adobe.com team)
----------------------------
Welcome To Access At Adobe!
----------------------------
Please visit http://access.adobe.com
This page is your launching point for learning more about
universal access to Adobe products. The primary focus at present
is enhancing the accessibility of PDF.
Portable Document Format (PDF) is a platform-independent means
of exchanging visually rich documents. PDF is fast becoming a
pervasive means of communicating richly formatted information
on electronic networks including the Internet and its most
popular segment, the World Wide Web (WWW). PDF documents are
rich in visual layout, and are popular among users capable of
appreciating the high-fidelity visual presentation. However,
visually impaired users have found PDF documents hard to
access. Conventional screen reading technologies ---software
that enables a visually impaired user listen to the contents of
a computer display--- prove ineffective when reading the rich
visual presentation.
In the last two years, Adobe has been working on a
platform-independent solution aimed at enhancing the
accessibility of PDF to visually impaired users on diverse
computing platforms. This new strategy relies on standard
WWW protocols and clients to bring PDF accessibility to
the standard HTML browser that users already use for
surfing the WWW. We have implemented a PDF2HTML
translator that converts textual content from PDF
documents to HTML. You can now use this conversion
technology to more readily access PDF documents using your
favorite WWW browser and screen access application. 1)
You can submit a URL to any PDF file you wish to read
using an interactive WWW form. The document will be
converted to HTML and presented in your WWW browser.
2) You can mail a URL to a PDF document in the body of an email
message to pdf2txt@adobe.com (for plain text) or to
pdf2html@adobe.com and have the convertor mail back the result of
translating the PDF file.
3) You can mail a URL to a PDF document or attach the PDF
document itself as a MIME attachment in the body of an email
message to pdf2txt@sun.trace.wisc.edu (for plain text) or to
pdf2html@sun.trace.wisc.edu and have the convertor mail back
the result of translating the PDF file.
For a detailed description of these accessibility services, read
http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/access.html
Note: All of these services are based on tools I developed for my
own use at Adobe; I have been using these tools on a daily basis
for over nine months now and find them indispensable for my work.
I hope they are equally helpful to readers on this list.
--Raman (and the access.adobe.com team)
-- Best Regards, --ramanAdobe Systems Tel: 1 (408) 536 3945 (W14-612) Advanced Technology Group Fax: 1 (408) 537 4042 (W14 129) 345 Park Avenue Email: raman@adobe.com San Jose , CA 95110 -2704 Email: raman@cs.cornell.edu http://labrador.corp.adobe.com/~raman/ (Adobe Intranet) http://cs.cornell.edu/home/raman/raman.html (Cornell) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer: The opinions expressed are my own and in no way should be taken as representative of my employer, Adobe Systems Inc. ____________________________________________________________
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