Hi Les
Ta for the reply.
Funnily enough I was talking to David Sloan (a co-author of two of the
accessibility papers) and he raised the issue of publishers house styles
acting as a barrier to accessibility, rather than providing best practices
and documenting the requirements in structural rather than presentational
terms.
Looking at the ACM SIG Proceedings Templates at
<http://www.acm.org/sigs/pubs/proceed/template.html#qL2> the MS Word
template is revealing:
-------------------------------------------------------------
ABSTRACT, Categories and Subject Descriptors, General Terms and Keywords
headings: style is Normal + font size change (no structure)
Image - contains no ALT text (nor information requiring LAT text be
provided.
Main text: mixture of styles:
Body Text Indent + First line: 0 cm, After: 6 pt;
Normal + After: 6 pt
Using the Format menu and Format Styles option reveals a mess of
presentational and structural style definitions.
Tables: All presentational styles used for column headings, data, etc.
Presentational character styles (e.g. Italics) used for details of
publications in the references.
-------------------------------------------------------------
So, yes I would agree with you that the publishers need to get their
house in order. Possibly we could help by setting a standard for templates
that we manage (internal reports, etc), the advice we provide to authors and
the policies we provide for our institutional repositories.
Could WWW 2007 provide an opportunity to engage with the publishers of
the WWW2007 proceedings?- I know last year that the ACM template was used.
Thanks
Brian
--------------------------------
Brian Kelly
UKOLN, University of Bath, BATH, UK, BA2 7AY
Email: [log in to unmask]
Phone: +44 1225 383943
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Leslie Carr [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 19 December 2006 12:36
> To: Brian Kelly
> Cc: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Accessibility of resources in institutional repositories
>
> With regards to the repository infrastructure, no-one is
> would deny that WCAG (or other appropriate standards) should
> rule. However, arguing about the contents of repositories is
> like trying to apply standards to stable doors after the
> horse has bolted. It is the PUBLISHERS that determine the
> house styles and format rules, not the repositories. They can
> do little, if anything, to improve the accessibility of the
> material that they hold. Yes, they can apply post-hoc PDF -
> XHTML conversions, but these rarely improve matters; you need
> to build in issues of accessibility into the authoring process.
>
> I for one would love it if there could be a concerted effort
> to get publishers to take these issues seriously. I have
> tried to encourage (and mandate!) XHTML submissions for
> conferences that I have run, but it really needs the backing
> of publishers to be taken seriously.
>
> Now, what happens when it comes to data repositories? I don't
> think that WCAG was specified with this in mind!
> --
> Les
>
> On 18 Dec 2006, at 19:05, Brian Kelly wrote:
>
> > I have been giving some further thought to the issue of the
> > accessibility of resources in institutional repositories. From a
> > simple perspective, based on seeking to comply with WAI WCAG 1.0
> > guidelines, PDF can be a bit of a non-no (WCAG requires use of open
> > W3C formats) and from a less prescriptive perspective (e.g.
> the WCAG
> > 2.0 draft guidelines are neutral regarding file
> > formats) there are still issues about whether the PDFs will be
> > accessible.
> >
> > However myself, David Sloan, Lawrie Phipps and others have
> argued for
> > a more holistic approach to accessibility, which is based on the
> > notion of widening participation and inclusion rather than the
> > absolutist perspective associated with the term 'universal
> > accessibility'. This viewpoint is described in more detail in:
> > Contextual Web Accessibility - Maximizing the Benefit of
> Accessibility
> > Guidelines, <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/papers/w4a-2006/>
> > and Forcing Standardization or Accommodating Diversity? A Framework
> > for Applying the WCAG in the Real World,
> > <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/papers/w4a-2005/>
> >
> > This approach can then be aligned with Steven Harnard's
> argument about
> > the need to maximise the number of resources held in institutional
> > repositories (something I'd agree with). However to comply with UK
> > legal requirements, there will be a need to take
> 'reasonable measures'
> > to ensure the resources can be made accessible. I think
> that this can
> > be addressed by policies, education and training, supported
> by better
> > tools in the workflow process.
> >
> > I've expanded on this at:
> > http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2006/12/12/accessibility-and-
> > institutional-r
> > epositories/
> >
> > Comments welcome.
> >
> > Brian
> >
> > --------------------------------
> > Brian Kelly
> > UKOLN, University of Bath, BATH, UK, BA2 7AY
> > Email: [log in to unmask]
> > Phone: +44 1225 383943
>
>
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