[Kde-accessibility] PDF accessibility

[Bill Haneman]

I don't believe an XML conversion would help here.  What is needed is a 
PDF viewer component/canvas that is able to report character positions 
as well as string content.  Only the rendering component can know this 
for sure - converting the content defeats the purpose of knowing where 
the "regular/normal" output is rendered to the screen.

This is one of the key things that the at-spi interfaces provide, and 
AFAICS the requirement can't be satisfied without building it into the 
canvas.

thanks

Bill

Gary Cramblitt wrote:

>On Thursday 01 September 2005 05:09 am, Bill Haneman wrote:
>  
>
>>Gary Cramblitt wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>...
>>>
>>>Olaf Schmidt mentioned that we ought to have support for Accessibility PDF
>>>docs in KDE and that should be a goal for KPDF.  I doubt however that most
>>>documents are Accessibility PDF, so we still need a solution for them.
>>>Someone should also take a look at the PDF printer and other PDF output
>>>capabilities in KDE to ensure they produce Accessibile PDF.  I am pretty
>>>sure the PDF Printer does not as it tends to produce image only.
>>>      
>>>
>>Note also that there is more to PDF accessibility than just text
>>extraction; use cases such as magnification and physical/mobility
>>restrictions place other requirements on the the viewer.  For instance,
>>character position and bounds coordinates for onscreen PDF text, and
>>keyboard navigation via a text caret, are both needed.  This means that
>>just pulling out the "accessibility tags" even for "accessibile PDF"
>>isn't sufficient.
>>    
>>
>
>The immediate goal is to speak pdfs, but you are quite right about other uses.  
>Brad is trying to develop a general module for converting pdfs to xml.  The 
>module could be used as a plugin for KPDF, but perhaps also in a general 
>screen reader.  The idea is to develop a series of loadable modules for 
>extracting accessibility information from document contents.  The module 
>would probably be loaded based on mime type and perhaps would interface with 
>AT-SPI.  Do you know if there has been any work on a standard for such a 
>thing?
>
>  
>
>>>The best place for accessibility discussions would be the
>>>kde-accessibility.kde.org mailing list.  Subscribe at
>>>https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-accessibility
>>>      
>>>
>>I would like to request that any PDF accessibility discussions also CC
>>the gnome-accessibility-devel at gnome.org list.
>>
>>Thanks,
>>
>>Bill Haneman
>>
>>    
>>
>>>On the other hand, perhaps it should be discussed in front of the PDF
>>>developers.  Where do most hang out?
>>>      
>>>
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