Why not just make *all* the docs accessible?

[kestrell]

Re: that faux pas of receiving an acceptance letter to a disability-related group, sent in an inaccessible PDF format: I received an apology from both the team leader and the IT person, assuring me that usually an accessible Word doc is also included along with the PDF, but somehow it failed in my case.

I really wanted to ask why they didn't just make all the PDF docs accessible, but didn't want to sound antagonistic.

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

WTF is an "accessible Word doc"?

Why can't people use the platform agnostic, language non-specific HTML God gave them?

[kestrell]

The phrase "accessible word doc" is mine, what they meant was, they usually also attach the same document in Word format, which they think of as being more accessible, as a format, than the PDF version. Did I tell you about the time last summer when I got into an argument on a con panel with a man who kept insisting that PDF was completely inaccessible as a format?Argh.

Sorry, I forgot to include my rant

[jesse_the_k]

As my vision gets worse, I'm getting crankier and crankier about PDF. A truly accessible PDF is great for screen-reader users, but for my not quite-low-visionista eyes, it's nauseating to scroll back and forth for each fucking line.

I don't understand why, since most sighted people create fuckin' hideous documents, they seem to care so much about their own font size/style/coloring.

I want ?style=mine for the universe.

rant ends.

[bibliofile]

>why they didn't just make all the PDF docs accessible,

That's the real question, isn't it. Alas.