File Formats, Applets, and Downloads

ISSUE:

A number of proprietary file formats (e.g., PDF, QuickTime and Macromedia FLASH) may be difficult or impossible to access for users of some adaptive technologies. When presenting information using a proprietary file format, it is a good practice to provide one or more of the following options:

• An alternative accessible format (e.g., html, text, RTF).



• A link to the appropriate plug-in.



• A link to an accessibility plug-in or conversion site, if one is available.



• An alternative means of obtaining the information contained in the file (e.g., E-mail, postal mail, telephone or in-person).

Note: This final option is especially important when the nature of the information prohibits presentation in an accessible format (e.g., maps or other pictorial information that cannot be adequately described in a text narrative of reasonable length).

Users may not possess the skills or utilities to extract archived files, such as *.zip (Windows) and *.sit (Macintosh). Self-extracting archives (i.e., *.exe (Windows) and *.sea (Macintosh) should be provided in order to avoid requiring users to possess an extraction tool and/or knowledge regarding its use. In order to make information accessible to the widest possible audience, offer a choice of file types — including non-archive files — for download.

STANDARD:

• Include the following options for information presented in a proprietary file format:
  
  
  • The information in an alternative accessible format.
  
  
  
  • A link to the appropriate plug-in.
  
  
  
  • A link to an accessibility plug-in or conversion site, if available.
  
  
  
  • An alternative means of obtaining the information.
  
  
  
• When feasible, information to be down-loaded shall be made available in a variety of file types.

EXAMPLE:

A link can be created that passes the URL of a PDF document — as a query string — to an Adobe Acrobat conversion utility script on the access.adobe.com server. A HTML document is returned, which approximates the logical reading order of the text in the PDF document and is formatted it as a single column of text.

All existing hypertext links are converted into HTML links. This includes intra-document links as well as links to other documents on the Internet. Extra HTML links are also created to enable easy navigation between pages.

Link for the PDF version:
<a href="http://cap.umn.edu/ait/example.pdf">Example Document</a>

Link for the HTML version:
<a href="http://access.adobe.com/perl/convertPDF.pl?url=http://cap.umn.edu/ait/example.pdf">Convert "Example Document" to HTML</a>