Assuring E-Accessibility: Providing Choices

Saturday, 19th August 2006

Author: Pam Berman and Charles Chen

Contents

• Introduction
• TetraLibro: 4 books in one
• Popular Choices
  • Accessible HTML/XHTML
  • Accessible PDF
  • Rich Text Format (RTF)
  • Microsoft Reader
• Marking Up the Title of a Document with Several Formats
• Accessible Document Preparation
  • Accessible HTML/XHTML Preparation
  • Accessible PDF Preparation
  • Acknowledgements

Introduction

Venice, winter of 1579. The Avogador de Comun, Sier Paul Priuli, of noble lineage, Magistrate of the Most Serene Republic, inquires into a series of crimes that have occurred in the city, assisted by his doctor - Hebrew astrologer Abraham of the Veronese, poet Veronica Franco and courtier Tiziana Orio. The plot/conspiracy develops between intrigues of state with an unexpected dramatic turn of events in the Venice Renaissance, to the height of its own economic and political power.

What does this murder mystery have to do with assuring e-accessibility? It is the first non-technical book made available in TetraLibro format.

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TetraLibro: 4 books in one

TetraLibro began with an idea conceived by Roberto Scano, president of IWA Italy, who enlisted the aid of his friend, Livio Mondini. Together in 2004, they offered Roberto's book, "Accessibility: from theory to reality", as the first text published in four formats; the paper version along with a CD-ROM containing the same text in accessible XHTML, accessible PDF, and Microsoft Reader (for mobile devices). IWA Italy has produced two books on accessibility in TetraLibro format as well as numerous other technical texts.

Roberto says, it makes sense to offer printed texts in digital format; after all, they start out in a digital format to begin with. Because some people are not able to access the information in printed texts, why not offer several digital formats? More choices translate into a wider customer base, including people with vision and mobility problems, because more people can now access the information according to their needs and preferences.

The newest publication is a murder mystery under the sponsorship of the City of Venice and written by Barbara Zolezzi and Elisabetta De Pieri both renowned Venetian authors. It is the first non-technical book published in accordance with the law of the 22 previewed technical requirements from the Stanca Law on Accessibility 4/2004. Accessibility of the digital versions has been verified by the Observatory of Internet Sites (OSI) commission of the Italian Union of the Blind.

More information on TetraLibro:

• Original TetraLibro press release (2004) in Italian
• English translation of 2004 TetraLibro press release
• First TetraLibro murder mystery book offering (2006) in Italian
• English translation of 2006 TetraLibro murder mystery book offering

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Popular Choices

A popular way of assuring you reach the widest audience is to produce your content in different file formats. The most common formats on the Web seem to be Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML), Portable Document Format (PDF), and Rich Text Format (RTF). Because the documents published in TetraLibro format are texts typically hundreds of pages in length, IWA Italy has chosen to include Microsoft Reader in lieu of RTF as MS-Reader software provides an interface that caters specifically to electronic versions of books.

These four formats are by no means a complete list of possibilities. Choice of formats should be based upon the needs of the target audience.

Accessible HTML/XHTML

HTML/XHTML presents the document as a plain text web page.

Benefits of HTML/XHTML

• If properly marked up, can provide information about the structure of the document to screen readers
• If properly marked up, allows user to override formatting as needed

Drawbacks of HTML/XHTML

• Not as easy to control page breaks if printed
• Graphic and other media files are separate making transfer of document more difficult
• Not all HTML authoring tools generate valid HTML (Non-standard HTML markup can hinder accessibility.)

Accessible PDF

PDF presents the document as fully formatted text.

Benefits of PDF

• If properly tagged and published, can provide information about the structure of the document to screen readers
• If properly tagged and published, can provide bookmark navigation
• Easy to control printing issues like page breaks
• Document looks the same on every computer
• Text and graphics are contained in one file making transfer of document easy

Drawbacks of PDF

• Requires Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Reader to view document
• Requires Adobe Acrobat or some other conversion tool to convert document to PDF
• Not all tools that convert or create PDFs properly tag information in the documents which can hinder accessibility

Rich Text Format (RTF)

RTF presents the document as an editable text file.

Benefits of RTF

• Can be viewed in almost all word processing programs as well as other types of programs
• Text and graphics are contained in one file making transfer of document easy
• Is easily editable and could be set up for printing on Braille printers

Drawbacks of RTF

• Although basic font styling and text information are preserved, other information (such as alt text for graphics and table information) is lost when saving to this file format
• Ability of users to easily edit the document can be a concern in some circumstances such as documents containing legal or compliance-related information

Microsoft Reader

According to the Frequently Asked Questions on the Microsoft Reader web site:

Microsoft Reader is a free software application designed to deliver an on-screen reading experience that approaches the convenience and quality of paper. Microsoft Reader is the first product to include patented ClearType display technology, which improves resolution on LCD screens by up to 300 percent to deliver a print-like display. Microsoft Reader also pays strict attention to the traditions and benefits of good typography. It offers a clean, uncluttered layout; ample margins; proper spacing, leading, and kerning; plus powerful tools for marking, highlighting, and annotating your eBooks.

Benefits of Microsoft Reader

• Can be viewed on mobile devices
• Can be activated on up to 6 devices with the same Microsoft Passport account

Drawbacks of Microsoft Reader

• Requires Microsoft Reader software to view the file
• Requires Visual C++ to create the files
• Requires a free license to create files for commercial use

Alone, any one of these formats presents problems for certain users but when several choices are presented, most people will be able to access the information in a way that best fits their needs and preferences.

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Marking Up the Title of a Document with Several Formats

When documents are made available on the Web, it is important to make sure the link to each document is unique so, when taken out of context such as in a list of links provided by screen reader applications, it can still be understood. For example, multiple "click here" links can be a nightmare for people trying to find specific information in a list of links when using a screen reader.

One way to prevent confusion and provide unique links is to list the title of each document with each format:

• Document Title.HTML
• Document Title.PDF
• Document Title.RTF

If the title is really long or someone wants to include the title as part of a paragraph, this method can be problematic. To address this issue, John Slatin, director of the Accessibility Institute at the University of Texas at Austin and member of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines working group, has proposed a new method for marking up documents in multiple formats. The method involves providing a parent tag around the title and formats. There are several ways this can help screen reader users.

Some screen readers such as JAWS and Window-Eyes allow users to read the current sentence or read the current paragraph. For example:

<p>
More information about the steps needed to 
complete a project of this magnitude can be
found in Document Title 
<a href="doc_title.html">HTML</a>, 
<a href="doc_title.pdf">PDF</a>, or 
<a href="doc_title.rtf">RTF</a>.
</p>

This works but if the sentence is long, it takes the user some time to get to the title of the document. Screen readers can be programmed to give users the ability to query the parent element in addition to the current sentence or current paragraph such as with Say Parent Node Text Content in Fire Vox for Firefox. Developers may then use markup to specify the title of the document as the parent node. For example:

<p>
More information about the steps needed to
complete a project of this magnitude can be
found in 
<span>
Document Title
<a href="doc_title.html">HTML</a>,
<a href="doc_title.pdf">PDF</a>, or 
<a href="doc_title.rtf">RTF</a>
</span>.
</p>

The user can activate the command to read the parent element and hear only the title of the document rather than the entire sentence. A working example of this technique can be found in the Fire Vox Tutorial: Getting Additional Information.

Another method for giving users contextual information is to put that information into the title attribute of the link. JAWS users have an option to make it read the title attribute instead of the displayed text, and Fire Vox users can use the Query for more information command to hear the title text. For example:

<p>
More information about the steps needed to
complete a project of this magnitude can be
found in Document Title
<a href="doc_title.html" title="Document Title">HTML</a>,
<a href="doc_title.pdf" title="Document Title">PDF</a>, or
<a href="doc_title.rtf" title="Document Title">RTF</a>.
</p>

Some screen readers require users to change settings in order to access contextual information found in the title attribute. Not all users may be aware this is available to them so another possibility is to use a combination of methods. For example:

<p>
More information about the steps needed to
complete a project of this magnitude can be
found in
<span>
Document Title
<a href="doc_title.html" title="Document Title">HTML</a>,
<a href="doc_title.pdf" title="Document Title">PDF</a>, or
<a href="doc_title.rtf" title="Document Title">RTF</a>.
</span>.
</p>

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Accessible Document Preparation

No matter what format is used to present information, it is important to prepare the document properly. There are some simple steps to begin to assure documents are accessible.

Accessible HTML/XHTML Preparation

• Separate content from presentation.
• Make sure the reading order makes sense.
• Use proper markup
• Validate markup.
• Make sure all non-text elements have text equivalents.

For more information on creating accessible HTML, check out the latest guidelines and techniques at the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

Accessible PDF Preparation

• Style the document properly before converting to PDF.
• Make sure all non-text elements have text equivalents.
• Make sure the reading order makes sense.
• Edit tags as necessary in the PDF. (You will need to have Adobe Acrobat Professional in order to do this.)

For more information on creating an accessible PDF see WebAIM PDF Accessibility.

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Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Livio Mondini, and Roberto Scano for their advice regarding this subject and their contributions to this article.

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Category: Accessibility.