[guispeak] Re: eBook Accessibility

  • From: <ptusing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <guispeak@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sun, 2 Jan 2005 13:53:34 -0500

Thanks, Will, for those comments. From my reading I would  hope some blind
people in the U.K.  or Europe--not singling you  out of  course by any
means--might persue exactly what you are suggesting.
What I hear from a small sampling of  publishers is that they would help
disabled access  more but Adobe keeps changing versions on them so often
andthey were burned with Adobe 5 and so many  complaints from subscribers
per Adobe 5.
Great comments, Will.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Will Pearson" <will-pearson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <guispeak@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, January 02, 2005 12:18 PM
Subject: [guispeak] Re: eBook Accessibility


> Dave;
>
> I don't want to deny people the right to protect their work.  However,
> there's technical ways for people to protect their work whilst still
> allowing access by "trusted" access technologies.  From what I can
remember
> of the press release from Adobe regarding the introduction of the "Trusted
> access technology" scheme, the option to allow content extraction by
access
> technologies is only available to those access technologies that are
trusted
> under Adobe's scheme.
>
> The problem is, that publishers are not aware of the implications and
> technicalities of allowing or not, access to PDF documents by access
> technologies.  So, publishers turn it off, fearing that these "access
> technologies" will be able to copy their material.
>
> Ultimately, one solution would be for Adobe to make Reader accessible out
of
> the box.  There's no reason why screen readers such as JAWS need use the
> virtual buffer to display PDF documents, other than Adobe only support
> keyboard navigation between elements in the tab sequence.  This is a
similar
> problem to that which is facing web browsers, where the Mozilla project,
> along with Sun Microsystems, are developing a keyboard navigation model
for
> Mozilla that allows  a user to browse a web page within Mozilla in the
same
> manner as they would do a Word document.  This indicates that it is
possible
> to have such a system in PDF, destroying the need for a virtual buffer, as
> the PDF mark-up code is similar to HTML.
>
> Will
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "david poehlman" <david.poehlman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <guispeak@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Sunday, January 02, 2005 4:44 PM
> Subject: [guispeak] Re: eBook Accessibility
>
>
> > Will Said:
> >
> > So, the only way to guarantee accessibility to PDF documents, in my
> opinion,
> > is for the ability to turn off content extraction by access technology
to
> be
> > taken out of Adobe's DRM system.  The other methods either have
technical
> or
> > legal implications."
> >
> > Actually, restricting purchasers of tools from doing what they feel
> > appropriate may not be the best course of action.  I'd be in favor of
> > providing a method for the right combination of tools to automatically
and
> > securely render content to "trusted technologies".
> >
> > Johnnie Apple Seed
> >
> > ----- Original Message ----- 
> > From: "Will Pearson" <will-pearson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > To: <Programming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <guispeak@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Sent: Sunday, January 02, 2005 11:07 AM
> > Subject: [guispeak] Re: eBook Accessibility
> >
> >
> > Hi;
> >
> > Yes, Open Book and Kurzweil do allow you to print to a virtual printer
> > driver so that you may perform OCR on PDF documents.  However, the
problem
> > with this approach in terms of the PDF digital rights management system,
> is
> > that a publisher can disable printing of that PDF document, rendering
> > conventional OCR useless.  I can think of a way to perform OCR, but it
> would
> > be restricted to the currently visible portion of the Window, and would
be
> > CPU intensive, as it would work based on the GDI GetPixel() function.
> >
> > So, the only way to guarantee accessibility to PDF documents, in my
> opinion,
> > is for the ability to turn off content extraction by access technology
to
> be
> > taken out of Adobe's DRM system.  The other methods either have
technical
> or
> > legal implications.
> >
> > Will
> > ----- Original Message ----- 
> > From: "Laura Eaves" <leaves1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > To: <Programming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Sent: Sunday, January 02, 2005 9:56 AM
> > Subject: Re: eBook Accessibility
> >
> >
> > > Hi Kevin -- I have a question: Do the various book reading programs
such
> > as
> > > OpenBook and K1000 do much the same thing as this program? I know the
> > access
> > > programs do much more than OCR in that they also speak and read DAISY
> and
> > > brf and who knows what else, but not having used any of them as yet,
I'd
> > be
> > > interested in knowing more about pdfmagic and what exactly it
translates
> > the
> > > pdf document to.
> > > Also, there is a program called pdfconvert that I bought from
> scansoft.com
> > > for $49 that translates pdf docs to Microsoft Word format with all
> forms,
> > > images and layout preserved.  Obviously this is useful for pdf access,
> but
> > > what I'm wondering is how this would work with a pdf doc with the
> > > accessibility options turned off. I have never tried it on such a
file.
> > > Also, jaws 6.0 and acrobat 7.0 are now working together better than
ever
> > > before to make pdf docs accessible, so could you please tell me more
> about
> > > the access options that you say can be turned on or off by publishers?
> Is
> > > this still a problem? or are all pdf docs now accessible?
> > > Confused...
> > > Thanks in advance.
> > > --le
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message ----- 
> > > From: "Kevin Jones" <kevin@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> > > To: <Programming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > > Sent: Saturday, January 01, 2005 9:46 PM
> > > Subject: RE: eBook Accessibility
> > >
> > >
> > > also, there's a program called pdf magic
> > > you can buy it from
> > > www.readingmadeeasy.com
> > > along with other similar tools.
> > > this program performs ocr on pdf files thus extracting even the locked
> > ones.
> > > it costs around $60 and I have found it very useful.
> > >
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Programming-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > > [mailto:Programming-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Will
> > > Pearson
> > > Sent: Saturday, January 01, 2005 3:42 PM
> > > To: bcab@xxxxxxxxxxxx; guispeak@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx;
> > > Programming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > > Subject: eBook Accessibility
> > >
> > >
> > > Hi;
> > >
> > > I've just downloaded a few e-books from Amazon, and thought I would
> notify
> > > you of the current state of affairs, as books are useful in a range of
> > > situations.
> > >
> > > Whilst Adobe still allow content publishers to disallow content
> extraction
> > > by access technology, meaning screen readers won't be able to read
books
> > > that have had this option disallowed, more publishers are allowing it.
> I
> > > downloaded about three books published by John Wiley and son.  All
these
> > had
> > > content extraction by access technology allowed, which was something
> Wiley
> > > turned off in their e-books only six or so months ago.  So, it looks
> like
> > > Wiley books are now accessible, as well as those from some smaller
> > > publishers.
> > >
> > > Whilst persuading publishers to allow access is a difficult task, and
> one
> > > Adobe should have taken the lead on by not allowing them to disable
> > content
> > > extraction by access technology, it does seem as some of the big
> > publishers
> > > are now gaining social consciences.
> > >
> > > Will Pearson
> > > Microsoft MVP
> > >
> > > --------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > The Basics of Scripting Manual:
> > >
> >
>
http://www.freedomscientific.com/fs_support/documentation/JAWS_Scripting_Doc
> > > s/Basics_of_Scripting.exe
> > >
> > > The JAWS Scripting Reference:
> > > http://www.freedomscientific.com/fs_support/doc_scriptfunction.asp
> > >
> > > The JAWS Scripting manual, older version:
> > > http://www.BlindProgramming.com/ftp/jfw/Scripting.exe
> > >
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> > >
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> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > The Basics of Scripting Manual:
> > >
> >
>
http://www.freedomscientific.com/fs_support/documentation/JAWS_Scripting_Docs/Basics_of_Scripting.exe
> > >
> > > The JAWS Scripting Reference:
> > > http://www.freedomscientific.com/fs_support/doc_scriptfunction.asp
> > >
> > > The JAWS Scripting manual, older version:
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> > >
> > > --------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > The Basics of Scripting Manual:
> >
>
http://www.freedomscientific.com/fs_support/documentation/JAWS_Scripting_Docs/Basics_of_Scripting.exe
> > >
> > > The JAWS Scripting Reference:
> > http://www.freedomscientific.com/fs_support/doc_scriptfunction.asp
> > >
> > > The JAWS Scripting manual, older version:
> > http://www.BlindProgramming.com/ftp/jfw/Scripting.exe
> > >
> > > Information about all of our lists:
> > http://blindprogramming.com/mailman/listinfo
> > > Other blindness lists:
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