Thanks, Ben, this is pretty extensive. I'm going to have to figure out if
the linked text boxes can be made accessible, that would be my only pressing
need. Caption boxes and pull quote boxes are handled the same way in Quark,
and unless the art director is inserting graphics such as Illustrator files
forming the text, usually it's just some fiddlin' with fonts and that's what
fills the boxes. I could easily do without having to retrieve the graphics
data, I would have a description of those already, but at least now I have a
route to follow in which to see if I can handle text editing in the actual
layout.
Now, whether or not it's going to be worth it remains to be seen. ;)
Thanks much,
Best,
Joe Monks
Every day you haven't written is a day you've written off...
Chanting Monks Press
http://www.chantingmonks.com
Sight Unseen Pictures
http://www.sightunseenpictures.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS X by
theblind" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 6:53 PM
Subject: Re: Quark and VoiceOver?
The Quark website has a PDF file detailing how Quark XPress does and
doesn't comply with Section 508 (an American accessibility standard):
http://www.quark.com/products/xpress/pdf/VoluntaryProductAccessibilityTemplate.pdf
I haven't had time to read the whole thing, but what I have read is not
promising. I think they key thing is this. There is a Section 508
criterion that states:
At least one mode of operation and information retrieval that does not
require user vision shall be provided, or support for Assistive
Technology used by people who are blind or visually impaired shall
be provided.
For this key criterion, Quark say:
Retrieving information about graphic elements is not supported by
Assistive Technology. Using AppleScript, QuarkXPress can provide
text-to-speech capabilities for text elements on the Mac operating
system.
How well VoiceOver works out of the box with Quark, or could be made to
work with some AppleScript programming magic, rather depends on how much
Quark depends on "graphic elements".
There's been some recent discussion on this list about using AppleScript
to extend VoiceOver's capabilities in this way.
However, if you have a Mac to test with, you might as well download
Quark's 30-day trial of XPress and see what you can get to work:
http://www.quark.com/products/xpress/evaluate/demos.cfm
Quark XPress's big competitor is Adobe InDesign. Adobe also provide an 508
compliance breakdown in PDF and summary HTML form:
http://www.adobe.com/products/indesign/indesign_cs2_508.html
They say much the same thing as Quark for the same criterion:
Retrieving information about graphic elements is not supported by
Assistive Technology. Using AppleScript, InDesign CS2 can provide
text-to-speech
capabilities for text elements on the Macintosh operating system.
I can't find a trial download for InDesign CS3, although I think one will
be made available when it's nearer being ready to ship:
http://www.adobe.com/downloads/
I do have a copy of InDesign CS2 and I fired that up. My impression is
that, true to Adobe's word, it doesn't work well with VoiceOver out of the
box. I created a text box and typed some text in it, but couldn't get
VoiceOver to read the text. I should stress however that I'm not really
familiar with either VoiceOver or InDesign, so it's still worth more
experienced users seeing what they can accomplish, if they have a copy to
test with.
I've brought this thread to the attention of the developers of Scribus, a
free and open source cross-platform DTP program, so that they know there
would be VoiceOver users who'd want access to their software. I'll give
the development version of Scribus a go with VoiceOver, hopefully later
this week, then file a Request for Enhancement on the Scribus bug tracker.
The Scribus website is at:
http://www.scribus.net/
In case someone else is feeling adventurous, laconic instructions for
installing the development version on Intel Macs can be found at:
http://wiki.scribus.net/index.php/Installing_Scribus_on_Mac_Intel
Regards
--
Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis
Chanting Monks wrote:
Hi Greg,
That would work, but I am actually hoping to do it the other way around.
I used to edit for several magazine companies, and one of the tedious
jobs was to work with documents in the layouts, proofread, eliminate
widows, most hyphenations, etc. So I would need the material to be
editable after being flowed into the layouts, in order to make sure
columns end at the baselines, etc. If it were only proofing, I'd be in
great shape, I could just use an older copy of WORD or just bring docs in
and out of my PC programs, but the hope is to find a way to actually go
through layouts to proof across the board--captions, columns, pull
quotes, the whole enchilada.
Best,
Joe Monks
Every day you haven't written is a day you've written off...
Chanting Monks Press
http://www.chantingmonks.com
Sight Unseen Pictures
http://www.sightunseenpictures.com
----- Original Message ----- From: "Greg Kearney" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS X by
theblind" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 10:47 AM
Subject: Re: Quark and VoiceOver?
I would be surprised indeed if Quark Express is VO compatible. Even if
by some chance it were the navigation in such a program would be a
nightmare. All is not lost however, depending on what your needs are
you could use the Quark markup language or XML to do you work and when
it was imported into Quark it wold pick up the design elements.
Greg
On Apr 18, 2007, at 1:44 AM, Chanting Monks wrote:
Hi folks,
Can anybody tell me if Quark works with VoiceOver? Thanks.
Best,
Joe Monks
Chanting Monks Press
