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terrill
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Aug 29, 2002, 7:14 AM
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Visualy Impaired and YOUR Site
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Wal-Mart uses pages designed much like those produced by Artman and so MANY other design tools. Here's what someone using a screen reader would have HEARD on a recent W-Mart home page (remember, they can't actually read it visually, so close your eyes and have someone else read it to you out loud):
Automotive After listening to your suggestions, we're baby shop revamping our online store to serve you books better. You may notice some temporary cameras changes in our merchandise selection computers as you shop. We appreciate your garden business while we strive to meet your center needs. Health and beauty if you'd like us to keep you posted on home the changes we're making, enter your electronics email address by clicking here. We'll advanced home send you an announcement when we've store finder fashions finished our next stage of remodeling home plus a special offer you can use during improvement your holiday shopping!
Cna you imagine what YOUR news site sounds like???
I've raised the issue several times in my posts conerning the use of Internet Technologies and people with disabilities.
Here's a simple statistic: In the United States alone, EACH YEAR 75,000 people lose their eyesight!
Question: Are YOU next?
Just in the US, there are 1.5 million visually imparied people in one category based on completeness of impairment.
Of those 1.5 million, a whopping 87% WITH access to the Internet DON'T USE IT!!! Reason? "It's not a friendly place to visit!"
Did you know that for example, except for the most technically-savvy visually impaired person, that a PDF document is absolutely WORTHLESS to them? It's accessbile, but unusable!
Want to know more about how you can open your site to those people who'd LIKE to shop and read there?
Designing An Accessible Web Site:
http://www.afb.org/info_document_view.asp?documentid=1449
Document Tips:
http://www.afb.org/info_document_view.asp?documentid=1453
Document Usability Testing:
http://www.afb.org/info_document_view.asp?documentid=1718
Who's Surfing?
http://www.afb.org/info_document_view.asp?documentid=1521
Accessing the Internet Fact Sheet:
http://www.afb.org/info_document_view.asp?documentid=222
Creating Accessible Computer Applications:
http://www.afb.org/info_document_view.asp?documentid=198
"Other" Index:
http://www.afb.org/info_documents.asp?collectionid=27
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dlo_itools
Staff
Aug 29, 2002, 9:27 AM
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Re: [terrill] Visualy Impaired and YOUR Site
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Other good sites for accessibility issues include
http://www.anybrowser.org/campaign/
http://www.w3.org/WAI/
One note about Article Manager's templates: although the default templates use tables for layout, that's completely customizable by the user. The hard part is in coming up with an innovative and accessible design.
/Dave Lo
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fraser_itools
Staff
Aug 29, 2002, 9:54 AM
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In my previous job, one of the things I spearheaded was the addition of accessiblity requirements to any website we developed. I highly recommend every webdeveloper download a screen reader and actually try it out on any website your developing. Generally the culprit is tables.
Here's a link to IBM's set of tools.
http://www-3.ibm.com/able/prodsol_vision.html
As we move to a new world of using CSS for actual layout and positioning, I think we're going to find it's much easier to create layouts which are both easy on the eyes and accessible to people with disabilities.
Ignorance to this important design requirement is no excuse, in fact, some websites have actually been threatened with legal action because they weren't accessible.
Fraser Cain - Product Manager
interactivetools.com, inc.
Tel: (604)689-3347 - Fax: (604)689-3342 - Toll Free: 1(800)752-0455
Software for your Website - http://www.interactivetools.com/
(This post was edited by Fraser on Aug 29, 2002, 9:57 AM)
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terrill
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Aug 29, 2002, 12:10 PM
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Re: [dlo] Visualy Impaired and YOUR Site
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DLO and Fraser,
Actually, I know my copy of Winows 2K Pro has a screen reader built-in. And, it works rather well most of the time.
JAWS (Job Access With Speech) from http://www.synapseadaptive.com is a very popular program. It's been around for a very long time. $40 timed-demo available. Full version ranges from $895 to $1200 (in case you were wondering!).
Also:  I LOVE ARTMAN!!! Yeah, I haven't played with the templates, yet, to make them more accessible. If (or more correctly, WHEN) I do, I'll make certain a copy of what I've done will be placed online for others!!!
The price will be the same as all my stuff: free to use, modify and enjoy. But, if you feel like donating, nothing less than $1,000,000 USD will be accepted! (Strange... I've never received a donation. I just can't understand why!?!)
(This post was edited by terrill on Aug 29, 2002, 12:33 PM)
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fraser_itools
Staff
Aug 29, 2002, 3:20 PM
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I think this is an important enough topic that I'll write an article about it in our upcoming newsletter. At least get people thinking about it.
Fraser Cain - Product Manager
interactivetools.com, inc.
Tel: (604)689-3347 - Fax: (604)689-3342 - Toll Free: 1(800)752-0455
Software for your Website - http://www.interactivetools.com/
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Amaranta
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Oct 27, 2002, 3:52 PM
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Can anyone offer more advice about this? I have several questions (as usual!)
How do visually impaired people navigate the web? I understand about making links accessible by the use of alt tags, etc. but how do they actually click on links? Is there any point me putting 'click here for plain text version'? Can they actually click on that link? How?
I have experimented with various test readers and they seem to operate differently. Is there a standard? For instance, I have a problem with saying "open 11am to 11pm Monday to Friday" in a way that text readers can get right. If I write it as above, the 'am' is read as the word 'am'. If I write '11p.m. Monday to...' the text reader assumes that the period means end of sentance and pauses noticably as says Monday as though it's the beginning of a new sentance.
Zip codes are a problem too. If I write 33301, the text readers says 'thirty three thousand three hundred and one'. If I write 3 3 3 0 1, which is the solution, it looks odd to sighted viewers.
Are there any standard ways that text readers read various punctuation marks? The one I've been using reads / as over - so 24/7 would be read as '24 over 7'. 5 - 6 is read as '5 dash 6' whereas 5-6 is read as 'five to six'. But 'five-six' is read as 'five six'. So 9-11 or 9/11 (and 9.11 is 'nine point eleven') wouldn't work, it would have to be 9 11. (Yes, I know the answer is to write 'nine eleven', but I want to know!)
Do visually impaired people tend to use regular browsers such as IE with images turned off for faster loading? Or are they more likely to use a text only browser such as Lynx?
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Amaranta
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Oct 27, 2002, 4:31 PM
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I've just realised that there's a difference between English and America text readers - just to make life more difficult!
1.4.7.8
America - one dot four dot seven dot eight
England - one point four point seven point eight
Aaaaargh!
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