Re: Leveraging Mashups For Accessibility:

I would also add that, in my experience, persons using adaptive 
technology will often postpone updating their software until they update 
their hardware. They do this for a couple of reasons: 1) new adaptive 
technology software tends to be quite expensive, and 2) installing 
everything at once helps to insure a common level of compatibility, and 
a greater degree of dependability.

So, as we march into the brave new world of 2.0 widgets and ARIA-ready 
applications, let's be sure that we not only create accessible 
interactive software, but software thats work for people with pre-ARIA 
browsers and screen readers.

Mike Elledge

Phill Jenkins wrote:
>
> What is so short sighted about "If it works with a screenreader it's 
> accessible"?  Accessibility is, and has always been to me, so much 
> about all the stakeholders doing their part, and all you have 
> described is enablement for accessibility and labeled it "Universal 
> Accessibility".  Let me explain, that; as you stated in the last 
> paragraph: "all it needs is a relatively modern Web browser like 
> Firefox that implements _W3C ARIA_ 
> <http://www.w3.org/TR/2007/WD-aria-roadmap-20071019/%20GMT%3B%20Path%3D/%20Set-Cookie:%20TPExits%3Dnull%7Cnull%7Cnull%7C10%7Cnull%7Cnull%7C%3B%20Expires%3DWed,%2001-Oct-2008%2022:22:31%20GMT%3B%20Path%3D/%20Connection:%20close%20Content-Type:%20text/html%3B%20charset%3DISO-8859-1> 
> and adaptive technology that has been updated to work with the event 
> notifications raised by conformant AJAX applications".
>
> So, what you haven't said is that IE isn't yet a relatively modern 
> browser like Firefox because it doesn't yet support W3C ARIA.  I agree 
> that Microsoft IE should support ARIA, but my point is that it doesn't 
> yet.  So, to all those employees in real world jobs (not high tech 
> ones like you at Google and me at IBM where we can have multiple 
> copies of browsers installed, and maybe even mutiple laptops with 
> Linux, Windows, and whatever), that have to wait till IE supports 
> ARIA, what are they suppose to do?  What I tell their companies is 
> that: "If they let them already install nonstandard adaptive 
> technology, then why not let them install non-standard browsers and 
> such too if it removes the barriers to accessibility?  The answer is, 
> "Well, who's going to test it all to make sure it works and is 
> supported?" Ah, good point.
>
> You also didn't say that both JAWS and WindowEyes have been updated to 
> support ARIA as implemented in Firefox, and that the Linux Screen 
> Reader also supports ARIA as well.  So at least those users who have 
> the permission to install and run Firefox or Linux will be able to 
> benefit from the enablement you describe. With some education, 
> outreach support, and affordability (funding) for the end users 
> themselves, like making sure the user knows how to use mash-ups and 
> configure things correctly, and can afford to make the upgrades - we 
> have most of the right side of the stake holders covered.
>
> Lets discuss the left side of the stake holders (the part before the 
> content is conformant and published on a server).  We have the ARIA 
> spec, check, we have the AxsJAX for injecting accessibility, check, 
> and you have described mashing up (bringing together): "the XKCD 
> sketches with the associated transcript to create a mashed-up view 
> where the user gets to listen to the transcript while at the XKCD 
> site", check.  But who (developers, service provider, content 
> provider) is going to do all this?  Where are the tools and 
> motivations for them?
>
> Today in the Web 1.0 world we have spec for things like alt="text" and 
> XML for adding timed text to audio and video.  And we even have a good 
> start at authoring tools and checking and repair tools to help the 
> authors and developers to make the content conform to some basic 
> standards.  But where are things on Web 2.0?  Even when the suport is 
> implemented in IE, and even when the user has an "updated adaptive 
> technology", somebody has to create the "conformant AJAX" application 
> and someone has to create the "associated transcript", and they have 
> to do it under budget and within the project deadline.  
>
> So, back to ""If it works with a screenreader",  maybe is 
> simplistisct, but I see it as a test of a more wholestic view because 
> it considers the whole food chain, all of the stake holders, the 
> complete supply and delivery cycle, and [insert your latest buzz word 
> here], because at the end of the day if it doesn't work - its not 
> accessible to the end user!
>
> I do like the title of the post - leveraging Mashups for 
> Accessibility, just didn't want any readers to thinks there is a 
> silver bullet here.  Reminds me of the old days when GUIs were first 
> coming out and there was talk about how they were going to make things 
> more universally accessible, or when the Web was introduced, or even 
> proprietary technologies like PDF - my point being that until all the 
> stake holders get lined up and do their part, enablement and 
> leveraging is necessary and great, but not sufficient.  If it doesn't 
> work in the adaptive technology, its not accessible to the end user.
>
> Regards,
> Phill Jenkins
> IBM Research - Human Ability & Accessibility Center
>
>
>
>
> *"T.V Raman" <raman@google.com>*
> Sent by: w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org
>
> 12/20/2007 04:31 PM
>
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> To
> 	w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
> cc
> 	
> Subject
> 	Leveraging Mashups For Accessibility:
>
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>
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> See
> http://xml-applications.blogspot.com/2007/12/leveraging-2w-for-accessibility.html
>
> -- 
> Best Regards,
> --raman
>
> Title:  Research Scientist      
> Email:  raman@google.com
> WWW:    http://emacspeak.sf.net/raman/
> Google: tv+raman
> GTalk:  raman@google.com, tv.raman.tv@gmail.com
> PGP:    http://emacspeak.sf.net/raman/raman-almaden.asc
>
>
>

Received on Friday, 21 December 2007 02:49:02 UTC