Re:for the blind/visually impaired....
PG can't fix all the ebook reader issues, but, PG can put their own house in order.
My understanding is that one is required to make web sites accessible.
In the case of HTML books that PG puts up on their website, that means that alt-tags on images need to be there, and to be meaningful and useful. And that hacks such as initial caps -- when implemented in a way that breaks screen readers -- should not be permitted. Also, HTML books that implement some of its text as image-only should not be accepted. Text needs to be implemented AS text, and not as images. Admittedly, I don't read a lot of books from pg in html format, I usually grab the txt, or pdf versions, and read them in either text edit, preview, or another pdf viewer. However, if there are html books with passages of text as images, I agree wholeheartedly, that
On Mar 8, 2011, at 11:11 AM, Jim Adcock wrote: this breaks all kinds of accessibility rules, as well as breaks a few common sense rules as well. Since the intent of html is to display the text in whatever format the browser has been configured to do so, turning final drafts back into fixed formats doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, especially if that fixed format isn't necessary for the conveying of information (such as a graph or visual representation to make a point) This kind of thing has indeed become rather prevalent on the web, and I'd thought pg was (thankfully) immune to such things. But, then again, this is exactly the reason I opt for plain text whenever possible, for exactly that reason.