RE: Accessibility - A perfect solution?

>You're describing exactly the scenario envisioned by Edapta -- but
>we go beyond simply "accessibility" hardware/software, and see user
>agents of all kinds sending capabilities information, using the
>W3C's Composite Capabilities/Preferences Profiles (CC/PP) system.

Edapta sounds interesting and useful. Where can I find out more? I had
always thought that even though you can identify, to some degree, the type
of browser that someone is using, it is impossible to determine if they are
using an assistive technology such as a screen reader and that it would
therefore be impossible to serve up different interfaces to suit.

Am I mistaken and if so, is there somewhere I can find out what the
technique for doing this is?

thanks

Anthony

-----Original Message-----
From: Kynn Bartlett [mailto:kynn-edapta@idyllmtn.com]
Sent: 23 January 2001 18:16
To: Fitzgerald, Jimmie
Cc: 'w3c-wai-ig@w3.org'
Subject: Re: Accessibility - A perfect solution?


At 09:58 AM 1/23/2001 , Fitzgerald, Jimmie wrote:
>One solution could be to have user agents identify any accessibility
>software/hardware to the host server upon a file request.  The server could
>then include particular style sheets or 'filter' the requested document
>through an in-process package to make the requested page accessible for the
>technology that is being used by the requestor.

You're describing exactly the scenario envisioned by Edapta -- but
we go beyond simply "accessibility" hardware/software, and see user
agents of all kinds sending capabilities information, using the
W3C's Composite Capabilities/Preferences Profiles (CC/PP) system.

Once received by the server, our intelligent decision-making
engine, the Edaptation Engine, assembles what information it knows
about you from all sources -- user registration, user agent strings,
CC/PP profiles, etc. -- and produces a page which is optimized for
your specific needs, desires, and capabilities.

>A prediction I'll make is that any company producing this kind of
in-process
>application would flat make tons of money.

You'd think -- but Edapta had a heck of a time getting funding for
this project; no venture capitalists were interested and things were
looking pretty dark for Edapta's future.

Fortunately, though, our ideas caught the attention of a European
software company, Reef, who makes a suite of Internetware products
including content and user management, and more.

Currently we are working on integrating Edapta's technology with
Reef's, so that a future version of Reef's product suite will be
fully edaptable, off the shelf.

>And, if you need someone to be
>the developmental lead on it...well, you know how to reach me.  :)

I'll ask you off-list if you really want a job. :)


--
Kynn Bartlett  <kynn@idyllmtn.com>                http://kynn.com/
Technical Developer Relations, Reef           http://www.reef.com/
Chief Technologist, Idyll Mountain Internet   http://idyllmtn.com/
Contributor, Special Ed. Using XHTML     http://kynn.com/+seuxhtml
Unofficial Section 508 Checklist       http://kynn.com/+section508

Received on Wednesday, 24 January 2001 12:33:44 UTC