[Athen] Athen Digest, Vol 26, Issue 26

[Saroj Primlani]

Great summary Sean
Saroj

_________________________________ 
Saroj Primlani 
Coordinator of University IT Accessibility 
Office of Information Technology
919 513 4087 
http://ncsu.edu/it/access 

-----Original Message-----
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Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2008 1:56 AM
To: athen at athenpro.org
Subject: Athen Digest, Vol 26, Issue 26

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Today's Topics:

   1. question re Excel and accessible html (Prof Norm Coombs)
   2. Just spent three lonely days in the brown LA haze... (Sean Keegan)
   3. Re: question re Excel and accessible html (John Gardner)
   4. Re: question re Excel and accessible html (Gaeir Dietrich)
   5. Re: question re Excel and accessible html (Patrick Burke)
   6. Re: question re Excel and accessible html (John Gardner)
   7. Re: Just spent three lonely days in the brown LA haze...
      (Wink Harner)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:17:00 -0700
From: Prof Norm Coombs <easi.easi at gmail.com>
Subject: [Athen] question re Excel and accessible html
To: "athen-athenpro.org" <athen at athenpro.org>
Message-ID: <6.0.3.0.2.20080319131445.0209d870 at pop.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

I am trying to find a way that a faculty member not knowing a html 
authoring tool can save a spreadsheet in an html format a screen reader can 
use.  Just saving as html JAWS seems to treat it as if it were just one 
long column.

I tried to paste it into Dreamweaver to see if it would do something down 
and dirty.  I got the html but no better than saving to html from excel


Any ideas??
Norm


EASI Webinars http://easi.cc/clinic.htm
"What You See Is What You Get" Web Design a 4-part Webinar Series April 8

EASI April Online Month-long, Courses starting April 7:
Accessible Internet Multimedia: Podcasts, Vodcasts and Streaming
Train the Trainer
http://easi.cc/workshop.htm

Norman Coombs, Ph.D.
CEO EASI http://easi.cc
Laguna Hills CA 92653





------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:21:03 -0700
From: "Sean Keegan" <skeegan at htctu.net>
Subject: [Athen] Just spent three lonely days in the brown LA haze...
To: "'Alternate Media'" <altmedia at htclistserv.htctu.fhda.edu>,
	"'Designing Accessible Web Pages'"
	<webaccess at htclistserv.htctu.fhda.edu>, 	"'Access
Technologists in
	Higher Education Network'" <athen at athenpro.org>
Message-ID: <001c01c889fe$c176dc70$99821299 at htctu.fhda.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"

Well, okay, perhaps it was not exactly *lonely* at CSUN but I wasn't sure
how else to get a Jimmy Buffett line into this thread.

Yes, this past week was the CSU Northridge Conference and it was busy.  This
year the conference was at the Marriott and Renaissance hotels and, to me,
it seemed a bit smaller than in the past.  Presentations were good with a
few highlights.  I made myself suffer through several that seemed more
intent on the marketing angle as opposed to demonstrating new or innovative
technologies for individuals with disabilities.

Note to presenters - you can only use phrases like "empower users" or
"paradigm change" so many times before we stop listening.  Please - have
mercy on us listening.

A few presentations and technologies that were noteworthy:

Dojo - An accessible Javascript toolkit
This was a great presentation that focused on how to improve the
accessibility of new Web technologies relying on javascript (I am not going
to say "Web 2.0 technologies" no matter how much brainwashing is involved).
Dojo is an open-source toolkit written in Javascript that allows developers
to create rich Internet applications that emulate a desktop application, but
reside in a Web browser.  One example would be something like the Yahoo!
Mail interface that is very similar to MS Outlook (i.e., tree menu systems,
different viewing panes, etc.) but would provide support for assistive
technologies.  Dojo is supporting access by following many of the guidelines
developed by the Web Accessibility Initiatives - Accessible Rich Internet
Applications (WAI-ARIA) working group (http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/aria).
Right now, support is limited to Firefox and the recent version of
Window-Eyes, but more support will be coming in Firefox 3, Internet Explorer
8, Opera, and other screen-readers.  More on Dojo and accessibility is
available at http://tinyurl.com/yvbcm4 .


Refreshing the Section 255 and 508 Accessibility Regulations
This session reviewed where the TEITAC group (Telecommunications, Electronic
and Information Technology Advisory Committee) was in the refresh of the
Section 508 Standards and Section 255 Regulations.  The short version of the
session was the TEITAC group would be passing along their recommendations to
the Access Board on April 3.  You can see the current working draft of the
recommendations at http://teitac.org/wiki/EWG:Draft_Jan_7 .  Basically, the
TEITAC group has worked to "harmonize" the various accessibility criteria
with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 draft (WCAG 2.0).


Net-Centric's PDF Accessibility Wizard (PAW) and CommonLook Plug-in to Adobe
Acrobat
Net-Centric is a Canadian company that has two tools to address PDF
accessibility.  The PAW tool (http://www.net-centric.com/products/paw.aspx)
integrates into MS Word and provides a wizard interface that checks the MS
Word document for accessibility issues.  Some of the features were not quite
working yet, but for the most part it looks like a useful tool.  One thing
that was very useful was that you could create tagged-PDF documents without
having to install Adobe Acrobat.  Tagged PDF files are a necessary step to
ensuring accessible PDF versions.  It was also easy to markup data tables
for accessibility in MS Word, which has limitations as to what header types
are supported.  I will be taking a look at the beta in the next few weeks to
see what actually is being implemented in the application.

The other tool, the CommonLook Plug-In to Adobe Acrobat
(http://www.net-centric.com/products/cl_s508_adobe.aspx) does make it easier
to remediate PDF documents for accessibility in some circumstances.  If you
are dealing with documents that have not had accessibility addressed during
the authoring stage (e.g., in MS Word) or are dealing with documents that
have a lot of complex data tables and a rich visual layout, then this tool
will make it easier to include accessibility into the PDF.  The Net-Centric
representatives did mention that they have made some changes to the
application since I last used it, so I am going to take another look at the
application in the coming weeks.  For simple PDF documents, based on what I
saw at CSUN, I think this tool is overkill and believe that improving PDF
accessibility can be met by altering the document creation workflow - in
other words, build accessibility into the authoring process.  There is not
much one has to do and it is far easier to address accessibility issues
early in document creation than to try and fix a PDF later on in the
process.  For complex PDF documents, PDF documents with a rich visual
layout, PDF documents that were created by tools that do not support
accessibility (e.g., Quark), I think this tool could be useful and provide a
benefit.

Net-Centric has a number of Webinars that are conducted on a semi-regular
weekly basis.  You can visit their Webinar site at
http://www.net-centric.com/customers/webinar_reg.aspx to see when the next
session is being conducted.


Math Accessibility at the Post-Secondary Level
This was a presentation by Steve Noble from Design Science and focused on
some of the progress that Design Science (http://www.dessci.com) has made
with respect to improving math accessibility.  Most of the discussion was on
the support for MathML in a HTML/XHTML environment as well as some examples
of MathML "in the wild" (e.g., ATPC's activities with MathML production,
Rice University's Connexions - www.cnx.org - and others).  A beta version of
the new MathPlayer plug-in was also demonstrated, showing how a user can
customize the speech for different math equations.  Also in development is
the ability to use MathType and MS Word to create equations and then convert
to Nemeth through Duxbury - no intermediate steps necessary.  More
information should be coming "soon".


Web 2.0 and Future Accessibility Development in the Opera Browser
I have always thought of Opera as this cool Web browser that always did more
than the others (e.g., first with tabbed browsing, voice control, aural CSS
support, etc).  I even bought a Nintendo DS Lite with the Opera browser so I
could check e-mail when I was traveling in Europe (ahem,...and maybe to play
a few games).  That being said, there have been serious accessibility issues
with respect to screen-reader support.  The good news is that the new Opera
9.5 Beta has improved support for screen-reader support and has been working
with GW Micro (Window-Eyes) and Dolphin (Supernova) to improve access.  If
you are feeling a bit gutsy and are willing to get your hands dirty with the
Beta version, visit http://www.opera.com/products/desktop/next/ .
Otherwise, stay tuned for more information about when the new version of
Opera is released as I think it will provide some useful features.


Those were some of the more memorable sessions at CSUN 2008.  It will be
nice to see what actually materializes in the coming weeks and months
regarding all this new technology (e.g., where are all those flying cars?),
but I am optimistic that there will be some new tools that will provide
options.

Take care,
Sean

Sean Keegan
Web Accessibility Instructor
High Tech Center Training Unit of the California Community Colleges 

















Sean Keegan
Web Accessibility Instructor
High Tech Center Training Unit of the California Community Colleges 





------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 15:25:26 -0700
From: "John Gardner" <john.gardner at orst.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] question re Excel and accessible html
To: "'Access Technologists in Higher Education Network'"
	<athen at athenpro.org>
Message-ID: <008f01c88a10$21ccf850$0100a8c0 at johnz>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"

Hi Norm, I guess I don't understand what the problem is. Excel gives you two
choices - a single file web page and a standard htm/html page.  I tried
both, and both saved as perfectly respectable web tables.  Maybe the problem
is Jaws?  These web pages read just fine with Window-Eyes.  I have Jaws but
don't know how to navigate web tables with Jaws.  If somebody will tell me
how, I'll try it.

John


John


-----Original Message-----
From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On
Behalf Of Prof Norm Coombs
Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 1:17 PM
To: athen-athenpro.org
Subject: [Athen] question re Excel and accessible html

I am trying to find a way that a faculty member not knowing a html authoring
tool can save a spreadsheet in an html format a screen reader can use.  Just
saving as html JAWS seems to treat it as if it were just one long column.

I tried to paste it into Dreamweaver to see if it would do something down
and dirty.  I got the html but no better than saving to html from excel


Any ideas??
Norm


EASI Webinars http://easi.cc/clinic.htm
"What You See Is What You Get" Web Design a 4-part Webinar Series April 8

EASI April Online Month-long, Courses starting April 7:
Accessible Internet Multimedia: Podcasts, Vodcasts and Streaming
Train the Trainer
http://easi.cc/workshop.htm

Norman Coombs, Ph.D.
CEO EASI http://easi.cc
Laguna Hills CA 92653



_______________________________________________
Athen mailing list
Athen at athenpro.org
http://athenpro.org/mailman/listinfo/athen_athenpro.org





------------------------------

Message: 4
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 15:43:08 -0700
From: "Gaeir Dietrich" <gdietrich at htctu.net>
Subject: Re: [Athen] question re Excel and accessible html
To: "'Access Technologists in Higher Education Network'"
	<athen at athenpro.org>
Message-ID: <016b01c88a12$9b08d1b0$9a821299 at htctu.fhda.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="US-ASCII"

If it's a simple spreadsheet, you can copy it and paste it into a Word
table. Not sure how well that would work with JAWS for this user, but you
can also go from Word to HTML or even out to Braille with Duxbury.

Good luck!

******************************************************
Gaeir (rhymes with "fire") Dietrich
High Tech Center Training Unit of the
California Community Colleges
De Anza College, Cupertino, CA
www.htctu.net
408-996-6043

-----Original Message-----
From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On
Behalf Of Prof Norm Coombs
Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 1:17 PM
To: athen-athenpro.org
Subject: [Athen] question re Excel and accessible html

I am trying to find a way that a faculty member not knowing a html 
authoring tool can save a spreadsheet in an html format a screen reader can 
use.  Just saving as html JAWS seems to treat it as if it were just one 
long column.

I tried to paste it into Dreamweaver to see if it would do something down 
and dirty.  I got the html but no better than saving to html from excel


Any ideas??
Norm


EASI Webinars http://easi.cc/clinic.htm
"What You See Is What You Get" Web Design a 4-part Webinar Series April 8

EASI April Online Month-long, Courses starting April 7:
Accessible Internet Multimedia: Podcasts, Vodcasts and Streaming
Train the Trainer
http://easi.cc/workshop.htm

Norman Coombs, Ph.D.
CEO EASI http://easi.cc
Laguna Hills CA 92653



_______________________________________________
Athen mailing list
Athen at athenpro.org
http://athenpro.org/mailman/listinfo/athen_athenpro.org





------------------------------

Message: 5
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 15:46:50 -0700
From: Patrick Burke <burke at ucla.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] question re Excel and accessible html
To: athen at athenpro.org
Message-ID: <7.0.1.0.2.20080319153957.024e0518 at ucla.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

Hi John, Norm & all,

Jaws table commands in IE are: Control-Alt-Arrow keys to move around 
the table (Control-Alt-Numpad 5 to read current cell).

I have gotten Excel files to export successfully in the past, using 
the .mht filetype. (Lots of extra frames & things around, but the 
table itself came through in readable form.)

Hope this helps,
Patrick

At 03:25 PM 3/19/2008, John Gardner wrote:

>Hi Norm, I guess I don't understand what the problem is. Excel gives you

two

>choices - a single file web page and a standard htm/html page.  I tried

>both, and both saved as perfectly respectable web tables.  Maybe the

problem

>is Jaws?  These web pages read just fine with Window-Eyes.  I have Jaws but

>don't know how to navigate web tables with Jaws.  If somebody will tell me

>how, I'll try it.

>

>John

>

>

>John

>

>

>-----Original Message-----

>From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On

>Behalf Of Prof Norm Coombs

>Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 1:17 PM

>To: athen-athenpro.org

>Subject: [Athen] question re Excel and accessible html

>

>I am trying to find a way that a faculty member not knowing a html

authoring

>tool can save a spreadsheet in an html format a screen reader can use.

Just

>saving as html JAWS seems to treat it as if it were just one long column.

>

>I tried to paste it into Dreamweaver to see if it would do something down

>and dirty.  I got the html but no better than saving to html from excel

>

>

>Any ideas??

>Norm

>

>

>EASI Webinars http://easi.cc/clinic.htm

>"What You See Is What You Get" Web Design a 4-part Webinar Series April 8

>

>EASI April Online Month-long, Courses starting April 7:

>Accessible Internet Multimedia: Podcasts, Vodcasts and Streaming

>Train the Trainer

>http://easi.cc/workshop.htm

>

>Norman Coombs, Ph.D.

>CEO EASI http://easi.cc

>Laguna Hills CA 92653

>

>

>

>_______________________________________________

>Athen mailing list

>Athen at athenpro.org

>http://athenpro.org/mailman/listinfo/athen_athenpro.org

>

>

>

>_______________________________________________

>Athen mailing list

>Athen at athenpro.org

>http://athenpro.org/mailman/listinfo/athen_athenpro.org



--
Patrick J. Burke

Coordinator
UCLA Disabilities &
Computing Program

Phone: 310 206-6004
E-mail: burke <at> ucla. edu




------------------------------

Message: 6
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:33:01 -0700
From: "John Gardner" <john.gardner at orst.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] question re Excel and accessible html
To: "'Access Technologists in Higher Education Network'"
	<athen at athenpro.org>
Message-ID: <000b01c88a43$7be73110$0100a8c0 at johnz>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="US-ASCII"

Hi.  Well I still don't see any problem.  I exported from Excel to HTML and
could read it fine with either screen reader in IE. 

John

-----Original Message-----
From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On
Behalf Of Patrick Burke
Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 3:47 PM
To: athen at athenpro.org
Subject: Re: [Athen] question re Excel and accessible html

Hi John, Norm & all,

Jaws table commands in IE are: Control-Alt-Arrow keys to move around the
table (Control-Alt-Numpad 5 to read current cell).

I have gotten Excel files to export successfully in the past, using the .mht
filetype. (Lots of extra frames & things around, but the table itself came
through in readable form.)

Hope this helps,
Patrick

At 03:25 PM 3/19/2008, John Gardner wrote:

>Hi Norm, I guess I don't understand what the problem is. Excel gives 

>you two choices - a single file web page and a standard htm/html page.  

>I tried both, and both saved as perfectly respectable web tables.  

>Maybe the problem is Jaws?  These web pages read just fine with 

>Window-Eyes.  I have Jaws but don't know how to navigate web tables 

>with Jaws.  If somebody will tell me how, I'll try it.

>

>John

>

>

>John

>

>

>-----Original Message-----

>From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On 

>Behalf Of Prof Norm Coombs

>Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 1:17 PM

>To: athen-athenpro.org

>Subject: [Athen] question re Excel and accessible html

>

>I am trying to find a way that a faculty member not knowing a html 

>authoring tool can save a spreadsheet in an html format a screen reader 

>can use.  Just saving as html JAWS seems to treat it as if it were just one

long column.

>

>I tried to paste it into Dreamweaver to see if it would do something 

>down and dirty.  I got the html but no better than saving to html from 

>excel

>

>

>Any ideas??

>Norm

>

>

>EASI Webinars http://easi.cc/clinic.htm "What You See Is What You Get" 

>Web Design a 4-part Webinar Series April 8

>

>EASI April Online Month-long, Courses starting April 7:

>Accessible Internet Multimedia: Podcasts, Vodcasts and Streaming Train 

>the Trainer http://easi.cc/workshop.htm

>

>Norman Coombs, Ph.D.

>CEO EASI http://easi.cc

>Laguna Hills CA 92653

>

>

>

>_______________________________________________

>Athen mailing list

>Athen at athenpro.org

>http://athenpro.org/mailman/listinfo/athen_athenpro.org

>

>

>

>_______________________________________________

>Athen mailing list

>Athen at athenpro.org

>http://athenpro.org/mailman/listinfo/athen_athenpro.org



--
Patrick J. Burke

Coordinator
UCLA Disabilities &
Computing Program

Phone: 310 206-6004
E-mail: burke <at> ucla. edu


_______________________________________________
Athen mailing list
Athen at athenpro.org
http://athenpro.org/mailman/listinfo/athen_athenpro.org





------------------------------

Message: 7
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 22:56:05 -0700
From: "Wink Harner" <wink.harner at mcmail.maricopa.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] Just spent three lonely days in the brown LA
	haze...
To: skeegan at htctu.net,	"Access Technologists in Higher Education
	Network" <athen at athenpro.org>
Message-ID: <479AE6BF000070E4 at email3.dist.maricopa.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

That was a positively brilliant, inspirational & thoughtful reflection,
Sean!
I applaud you. We all should go to workshops & conferences with this in
mind:
to reflect on what was good, innovative, inspirational, and problem-solving
about our experiences in the workshops as well as on what could be changed
or added to improve. Even your few criticisms were really said as good
suggestions
--not as criticism. We also should share with each other these reflections
just as you did. This is the follow up to learning--like clinching the deal!

I have a question for you, if you don't mind. I had an opportunity last fall
to present some research to our VPs & IT dept. about I-TUNES U. Our IT dept.
is so enamored of it and is promoting its use college-wide without any
consideration
about its inherent inaccessibility. My suggestions, recommendations and
research
on OCR complaints were all completely discounted. Poo-poo'ed, in fact. I,
however discouraged I was last fall, am NOT GIVING UP!! A positively
brilliant
opportunity has presented itself --a real "teaching moment." Our Center for
Teaching & Learning is offering an all-day technology in the classroom
workshop
mid-May, and one of the topics is I-TUNES U. How convenient!! I would like
to do an hour-long workshop presentation and show how inaccessible this is
out of the box and what it takes to MAKE it accessible. Have you or do you
know anyone who might have done a presentation on I-TUNES demonstrating how
it works (or not) and who might be willing to share some of the presentation
materials with me? It would be such a help to me to have a bit of supporting
materials to start. One of my thoughts is to video a couple of students
trying
to access captioning and screen readers, do something with showing the steps
necessary to imbed captions for the Deaf & HoH + tags/descriptions for the
VI. I am not being lazy --really! I was hoping not to have to completely
reinvent the wheel.

Anything you might be able to suggest or anyone to whom you might direct
my request would be very much appreciated.

It was really nice to see you again at CSUN. I have very much appreciated
your knowledge & expertise through your posts on ATHEN & look forward to
more from you in the future. You are a good teacher.

Thanks in advance,

Wink
 



>-- Original Message --

>From: "Sean Keegan" <skeegan at htctu.net>

>To: "'Alternate Media'" <altmedia at htclistserv.htctu.fhda.edu>,

>	"'Designing Accessible Web Pages'"

<webaccess at htclistserv.htctu.fhda.edu>,

>

>	"'Access Technologists in Higher Education Network'"

<athen at athenpro.org>

>Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:21:03 -0700

>Subject: [Athen] Just spent three lonely days in the brown LA haze...

>Reply-To: skeegan at htctu.net, Access Technologists in Higher Education

Network

>	<athen at athenpro.org>

>

>

>Well, okay, perhaps it was not exactly *lonely* at CSUN but I wasn't sure

>how else to get a Jimmy Buffett line into this thread.

>

>Yes, this past week was the CSU Northridge Conference and it was busy. 

This

>year the conference was at the Marriott and Renaissance hotels and, to me,

>it seemed a bit smaller than in the past.  Presentations were good with

a

>few highlights.  I made myself suffer through several that seemed more

>intent on the marketing angle as opposed to demonstrating new or innovative

>technologies for individuals with disabilities.

>

>Note to presenters - you can only use phrases like "empower users" or

>"paradigm change" so many times before we stop listening.  Please - have

>mercy on us listening.

>

>A few presentations and technologies that were noteworthy:

>

>Dojo - An accessible Javascript toolkit

>This was a great presentation that focused on how to improve the

>accessibility of new Web technologies relying on javascript (I am not going

>to say "Web 2.0 technologies" no matter how much brainwashing is involved).

>Dojo is an open-source toolkit written in Javascript that allows developers

>to create rich Internet applications that emulate a desktop application,

>but

>reside in a Web browser.  One example would be something like the Yahoo!

>Mail interface that is very similar to MS Outlook (i.e., tree menu systems,

>different viewing panes, etc.) but would provide support for assistive

>technologies.  Dojo is supporting access by following many of the

guidelines

>developed by the Web Accessibility Initiatives - Accessible Rich Internet

>Applications (WAI-ARIA) working group (http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/aria).

>Right now, support is limited to Firefox and the recent version of

>Window-Eyes, but more support will be coming in Firefox 3, Internet

Explorer

>8, Opera, and other screen-readers.  More on Dojo and accessibility is

>available at http://tinyurl.com/yvbcm4 .

>

>

>Refreshing the Section 255 and 508 Accessibility Regulations

>This session reviewed where the TEITAC group (Telecommunications,

Electronic

>and Information Technology Advisory Committee) was in the refresh of the

>Section 508 Standards and Section 255 Regulations.  The short version of

>the

>session was the TEITAC group would be passing along their recommendations

>to

>the Access Board on April 3.  You can see the current working draft of the

>recommendations at http://teitac.org/wiki/EWG:Draft_Jan_7 .  Basically,

the

>TEITAC group has worked to "harmonize" the various accessibility criteria

>with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 draft (WCAG 2.0).

>

>

>Net-Centric's PDF Accessibility Wizard (PAW) and CommonLook Plug-in to

Adobe

>Acrobat

>Net-Centric is a Canadian company that has two tools to address PDF

>accessibility.  The PAW tool (http://www.net-centric.com/products/paw.aspx)

>integrates into MS Word and provides a wizard interface that checks the

MS

>Word document for accessibility issues.  Some of the features were not

quite

>working yet, but for the most part it looks like a useful tool.  One thing

>that was very useful was that you could create tagged-PDF documents without

>having to install Adobe Acrobat.  Tagged PDF files are a necessary step

to

>ensuring accessible PDF versions.  It was also easy to markup data tables

>for accessibility in MS Word, which has limitations as to what header types

>are supported.  I will be taking a look at the beta in the next few weeks

>to

>see what actually is being implemented in the application.

>

>The other tool, the CommonLook Plug-In to Adobe Acrobat

>(http://www.net-centric.com/products/cl_s508_adobe.aspx) does make it

easier

>to remediate PDF documents for accessibility in some circumstances.  If

you

>are dealing with documents that have not had accessibility addressed during

>the authoring stage (e.g., in MS Word) or are dealing with documents that

>have a lot of complex data tables and a rich visual layout, then this tool

>will make it easier to include accessibility into the PDF.  The Net-Centric

>representatives did mention that they have made some changes to the

>application since I last used it, so I am going to take another look at

the

>application in the coming weeks.  For simple PDF documents, based on what

>I

>saw at CSUN, I think this tool is overkill and believe that improving PDF

>accessibility can be met by altering the document creation workflow - in

>other words, build accessibility into the authoring process.  There is not

>much one has to do and it is far easier to address accessibility issues

>early in document creation than to try and fix a PDF later on in the

>process.  For complex PDF documents, PDF documents with a rich visual

>layout, PDF documents that were created by tools that do not support

>accessibility (e.g., Quark), I think this tool could be useful and provide

>a

>benefit.

>

>Net-Centric has a number of Webinars that are conducted on a semi-regular

>weekly basis.  You can visit their Webinar site at

>http://www.net-centric.com/customers/webinar_reg.aspx to see when the next

>session is being conducted.

>

>

>Math Accessibility at the Post-Secondary Level

>This was a presentation by Steve Noble from Design Science and focused on

>some of the progress that Design Science (http://www.dessci.com) has made

>with respect to improving math accessibility.  Most of the discussion was

>on

>the support for MathML in a HTML/XHTML environment as well as some examples

>of MathML "in the wild" (e.g., ATPC's activities with MathML production,

>Rice University's Connexions - www.cnx.org - and others).  A beta version

>of

>the new MathPlayer plug-in was also demonstrated, showing how a user can

>customize the speech for different math equations.  Also in development

is

>the ability to use MathType and MS Word to create equations and then

convert

>to Nemeth through Duxbury - no intermediate steps necessary.  More

>information should be coming "soon".

>

>

>Web 2.0 and Future Accessibility Development in the Opera Browser

>I have always thought of Opera as this cool Web browser that always did

more

>than the others (e.g., first with tabbed browsing, voice control, aural

CSS

>support, etc).  I even bought a Nintendo DS Lite with the Opera browser

so

>I

>could check e-mail when I was traveling in Europe (ahem,...and maybe to

play

>a few games).  That being said, there have been serious accessibility

issues

>with respect to screen-reader support.  The good news is that the new Opera

>9.5 Beta has improved support for screen-reader support and has been

working

>with GW Micro (Window-Eyes) and Dolphin (Supernova) to improve access. 

If

>you are feeling a bit gutsy and are willing to get your hands dirty with

>the

>Beta version, visit http://www.opera.com/products/desktop/next/ .

>Otherwise, stay tuned for more information about when the new version of

>Opera is released as I think it will provide some useful features.

>

>

>Those were some of the more memorable sessions at CSUN 2008.  It will be

>nice to see what actually materializes in the coming weeks and months

>regarding all this new technology (e.g., where are all those flying cars?),

>but I am optimistic that there will be some new tools that will provide

>options.

>

>Take care,

>Sean

>

>Sean Keegan

>Web Accessibility Instructor

>High Tech Center Training Unit of the California Community Colleges 

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>Sean Keegan

>Web Accessibility Instructor

>High Tech Center Training Unit of the California Community Colleges 

>

>

>

>_______________________________________________

>Athen mailing list

>Athen at athenpro.org

>http://athenpro.org/mailman/listinfo/athen_athenpro.org


Ms. Wink Harner
Manager
Disability Resources & Services
Mesa Community College
Mesa AZ

480-461-7447






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End of Athen Digest, Vol 26, Issue 26
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