Re: PDF accessibility (wasRe: N:Vision CFL's)

["Robert L Bass" <no-sales-spam@bassburglaralarms>]

> I am curious to know why your experience
> with PDF's seems so positive compared to
> the sight impaired people I know (including
> me) who quite literally despise PDFs (at
> least when compared to equivalent HTML
> documents viewed on a normal PC monitor
> side by side with or without the use of reader
> software or other adaptive devices*)...

I have no idea why you have problems viewing
PDFs.  If I can't read a PDF I just click "+" to
enlarge it.  Usually when it's at full screen
width I can read it.

Unlike HTML, when I enlarge a PDF file the
images remain in the same place in relation
to the text.  The images also enlarge in direct
proportion to the text.  If the source image was
high resolution the enlarged image is much
better, too.

> The American Foundation for the Blind

There is a significant difference between
poor eyesight and blindness.  "Screens" for
the blind are actually, text units which raise
electo-magnetic rods to "display" one line
of Braille at a time.  TTBOMK, they don't
work well with anything but text.  Note,
however, that it has been some time since
I saw a Braille PC monitor.  It is entirely
possible that things have changed since then.

That said, it is inappropriate to use the
extreme needs of blind users to try to denigrate
the value of a medium designed for sighted
persons.

> What size and type of display and what
> resolution settings are you using?

I'm currently using a 24" Sony flat
screen (LCD) monitor set for 1600 x 1200
pixels and 32-bit color.

On my desktop there are currently 16
PDF files from which I am in the process
of extracting text and images for my
HTML-based web pages.  I use HTML
for the pages because it is more suited
to my shopping cart system.  However,
I get most of my technical documents in
PDFs format.

Face it, Bobby.  On this subject you
are deep in the minority.  The vast majority
of developers prefer to create technical
docs in PDF.  There's no laziness in doing
it either.  I've create PDFs for online
contracts.  It's a lot of work getting them
just right but the results are well worth
the effort.

--

Regards,
Robert L Bass

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