RE: An article about Yahoo's simplicity of design

At 05:10 PM 2/3/2000 -0800, Dick Brown wrote:
>But I guess my question is more bottom-line: How can site owners (such as
the WAI) represent large amounts of text (such as guidelines) so that it is
accessible to non-readers? How can the many concepts in those guidelines be
represented in non-text form?

Jonathon has made suggestions for this previously. Large amounts of text
will pose the same problem as large numbers of graphics. The blind person
will lose comprehension of a page of graphics, even if tagged, just as a
severely cognitively/reading disabled person will lose comprehension of a
page of text even if it is marked with eye-catching fonts in titles and
subtitles, and the use of color to mark items of note in the text. 

>Likewise, what can the online version of the New York Times do to make it
possible for non-readers to get all of the day's news? Is it enough that an
audio summary is available via Audible.com?
>
Let Jonathon answer definitively for his end of the population, but the
folks I've worked with would enjoy an audio summary on something that can
be installed free, such as real player. 

>Do sighted non-readers ever use screen reader software so they can listen to
>the text on a Web page?

The PC's just delivered for my computer lab at a K-2nd grade school do NOT
include any screen reader software. Nor have I been given a budget to
purchase software even tho this is a change from MAC's to PC's (Actually,
the only software tha came with it is Windows NT with Paint, Notepad and
Wordpad... if this  were the place to do it, I'd be soliciting software
donations!)

					Anne



Anne L. Pemberton
http://www.pen.k12.va.us/Pav/Academy1
http://www.erols.com/stevepem/Homeschooling
apembert@crosslink.net
Enabling Support Foundation
http://www.enabling.org

Received on Friday, 4 February 2000 20:08:26 UTC