[guispeak] Re: eBook Accessibility

  • From: "david poehlman" <david.poehlman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <guispeak@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sun, 2 Jan 2005 13:56:02 -0500

Will and all,

One way to go is to have what is called a trusted technology certificate 
which publishers could attach to their documents if they really want to give 
access to assistive technology.  I am not of the mind that ignorance is 
entirely to blame here although I don't think anyone wants to deny access 
but rather it is a known fact that if you put a small hole in a bucket, it 
can be worn larger.  Althoug work can be protected by other than adobe drm, 
people who buy adobe products specifically so that they can publish should 
not be forced into a business model where they will lac the effectiveness to 
do what they feel they must unless they purchase or obtain yet again 
something else.  Yes, adobe might well be better served by a reader that 
does not allow on access technology to provide access to documents, but this 
would not change the landscape where drm is concerned.  It might in fact, 
change it though in ways that would not bode well for us for if I was able 
to access a document in the clear then what would keep me from doing 
whatever I wanted to do with that document.  The main thing that is being 
protected in this way is authenticity.  Certainly, if I download a document 
I have purchased, I can make as many copies of it or send as many copies of 
it as I wish so that's not a real issue but authentitity is.  How do I know 
that the document you purchase from me is the document I say it is?  It will 
be interesting to see what the pdf standards group comes up with.

Johnnie Apple Seed

----- 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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> >
> > --------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > 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:
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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:
> http://www.visionrx.com/library/resources/resource_int1.asp
> > Web site address: http://www.BlindProgramming.com
> >
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>
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