Fundraising for sustained and integrated software development

[AndyClifton]

Accessibility was developed as a proof of concept for KOMA-script classes more than 10 years ago and it's simply not up for the job anymore. I'm also not able to fix it.

(Related to this I have tagged the readme.md for this project with a )

I'm now starting to look for ways to leverage the ideas in this package, other related "accessibility" packages, and core LaTeX to create a solution that is much more deeply integrated into LaTeX than these sticking-plaster approaches.

This would be a multi-year software development project that would benefit from sustained, full-time attention by someone / a group who knows what they are doing, and can help develop a solution that is more integrated with the core LaTeX code. If you've looked at any of my repos here you'll see that this person is not me.

I'm now starting to scope a project, and using this issue to collect related ideas / thoughts.

[AndyClifton]

Possible funding source - https://www.vdk.de/deutschland/?dscc=ok

[viktoriasee]

Excellent idea! https://www.access-for-all.ch/ could be another source.

[car222222]

You might want to also follow up some of the references to current ‘professional work’ in this area that appear, for example, under this discussion:

https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/550511/what-is-the-best-package-for-accessibility-tagging/550523#550523

[AndyClifton]

@car222222 - thanks for the link! I talked to Ulrike this morning before posting this issue. I'm also in contact with Frank Mittelbach now.

[TobiBS]

I did a quick research and wanted to add some possible German associations that have programs to fund such activities:

• https://www.paritaet-mv.de/service/foerdermoeglichkeiten/aktion-mensch/zusaetzliche-foerderung-der-barrierefreiheit.html
• https://www.aktion-mensch.de/foerderung/foerderprogramme/lebensbereich-barrierefreiheit-mobilitaet/barrierefreiheit-fuer-alle.html
• https://www.einfach-fuer-alle.de/umsetzen/
• https://drk-wohlfahrt.de/sonderseiten/soziale-innovation-digitalisierung/kompetenzzentren-digitalisierung/foerderung-digitalisierung/#c27189

[colegleason]

Hi,

ACM is interested in achieving accessible PDFs and I believe that organization could have funds for this or part of this. I had trouble finding someone qualified when I last looked in 2016 or so!

[AndyClifton]

@colegleason - thanks for the tip! And could you confirm that "ACM"==Association for Computing Machinery? if this is something we could talk about, could you send me a mail directly, please?

[colegleason]

Yes, ACM == Association for Computing Machinery. I'll email you.

On Sun, Aug 16, 2020 at 11:21 AM Andy notifications@github.com wrote:

@colegleason https://github.com/colegleason - thanks for the tip! And could you confirm that "ACM"==Association for Computing Machinery? if this is something we could talk about, could you send me a mail directly, please?

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/AndyClifton/accessibility/issues/42#issuecomment-674539593, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AABYXB4KVWCJH2RO2RHPTK3SA72OLANCNFSM4OJEFDHQ .

-- Cole Gleason

Student, Carnegie Mellon University Email: cg@colegleason.com Website: colegleason.com

[jfine2358]

Perhaps off-topic. I'm holding a zoom TeX Hour on accessible mathematics, on Thursday 11 January (6:30 to 7:30pm). All are welcome. For the zoom info see https://jfine2358.github.io/contact/. I've emailed @AndyClifton providing more information.

Also relevant is https://jfine2358.github.io/post/2021/01/21/blind-math-news/.

[AndyClifton]

For anyone stumbling in here or wondering why this issue is closed, the question of accessibility in PDFs has now been taken up by the LaTeX project in a multiyear project. See https://www.latex-project.org/publications/indexbytopic/pdf/ for news.

The article, "LaTeX Tagged PDF — A blueprint for a large project" may be particularly useful.