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PDF/Flash, even when universal design concepts are implemented, is a significant barrier

Friday, 26 February 2010

Firstly, I have to commend the original author of this discussion/suggestion. I've read countless postings online and rarely have I come across something that is so well thought out. Despite Adobes best efforts, their PDF/Flash technologies by design, will always be a major obsticle with respect to screen reading technology. The issue lies not with the tools, but rather the additional layer of sophistication required to make the technology function with adaptive software. In many aspects, asking publishers and designers to incorporate accessibility into PDF/Flash web media is almost the same as admitting that the technology isn't accessible and there by needs to be retrofitted. As with most acomodations for anyone with a disability, it's been proven over and over again, that the most effective approach to make any product or technology truly accessible is to build reasonable access from the beginning. In this case, that means that the paradime needs to shift from designer to the publisher of the tools. Specifically, only create objects and authoring tools which automatically structure the end product in an accessible format. Expecting authors or web managers to stay current on changing access technology, its limitations or strengths isn't a long term viable fix. Having said this, I have to take exception with a point made in the original thread. Its been stated that this research isn't a critique of Adobe; why not. I suspect that if truly put to the test, most of the Adobe tools would fail even a simple accessability screening. For example, Dreamweaver CS4, touted by Adobe to be an accessible web page authoring tool is completely incorrect. Yes, much functionality probably exists within the application to be able to author accessible sites, but the authoring tool itself fails miserably when put to the test. Yet, I would wager that at least a small part of Adobes success in marketing this technology has at least a small part to play with the perception that Dreamweaver is accessible. The answer? Clearly differentiate between products which are accessible and those which can be used to help improve accessibility of the finished produt. This, isn't splitting hairs as I'm sure some might hold.