FSFE have a campaign to stop European governments linking to Adobe as a supplier of PDF readers. I agree with their aims, but I find the presence of Microsoft Word documents more problematic (Especially for people with older versions of Word, the latest version of Libre Office opens pretty much everything). I assume the FSFE considered that removing links is less work than actually changing the format of documents into something more accessible, so if folks won’t do that there is little hope, and it side steps the complications of what is an open standard.

Looking at the UK sites reported to the FSFE I was struck by the omission of the Competition Commission’s website. Now you’d think that is an organisation that might be sympathetic, or at least sensitive to the campaigns aims. Currently you need to be able to read a Microsoft Word document to discover what address to send postal applications for a job at the Competition Commission, Digital Signatures are acceptable on job applications. I wonder if ODF based signatures are acceptable?