Joe Clark reviews the PAS 78 document; from the font, the purchase, the delivery to the actual recommendations. The PDF was not available when he ordered, so he reviewes the printed guide.
Joe has some serious concerns for though as well as some thought provoking dilemmas that are created by the document. Joe’s ultimate advice is that some additional writing could clear up many of the apparent contradictions in the document and explain things much better to the typical web manager.
On PDF’s, i thought he nailed it with this observation:
” §7.5.2.1, p. 24: “As PDF is not a W3C technology, technically its use does not uphold WCAG.” Actually, Checkpoint 11.1 merely requires developers to “[u]se W3C technologies when they are available and appropriate for a task.” W3C technologies are widely available, but in at least 14 defined use cases, (X)HTML+CSS is not appropriate and PDF is, meaning you are in fact complying with WCAG in those cases.”
Overall, he feels that the guide provides a good resource, and it worth the price to have in your possession (ok, ok, I’m getting it now.) However, I would recommend reading his summary for yourself. There is also a “healthy” discussion about the document over at the Accessify Forums.
An excellent article. Joe is a well respected name in this field.
Comment by Shaun Anderson — June 13, 2006 @ 9:05 pm