[g-a-devel] Re: [Kde-accessibility] PDF accessibility

[Bill Haneman <Bill Haneman Sun COM>]

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 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?
> > >      
>
>