Re: Assistive Technology Detection

The question comes up regularly over the last couple of decades.

The privacy aspect is one part - and could be mitigated by thoughtful  
design of what you would offer screen reader users so it is a client-side  
option like responsive design.

Although like responsive design it can be done or at least tracked  
server-side.

Some will therefore stay away, some will use it unaware, some will just  
use it.

With regard to the issue of tracking usage, I hope that sort of behaviour  
is covered by a clear, simple to understand, and reasonable privacy  
policy. Have a look at the one from JAWS for something I think is pretty  
good, or the one from Skype for something I think is dreadful (took me  
most of an hour to read, as I recall, and has some real surprises. I trust  
nobody calls their children with Skype, since it violates the terms of use  
which form a legal agreement...).

There is also the issue of whether what you offer is actually good - let  
alone good enough to justify your work and the user trying it out. This is  
complicated, as can be seen by the fact that generally developers get it  
wrong, and worse over time.

There are approaches to accessibility that use information provided by  
users to give a better experience, successfully improving on what  
thoughtful design according to modern standards for universal  
accessibility can do. But it turns out to be much much harder, with many  
potential pitfalls that catch most of the people who try to do it.

cheers

Chaals

On Thu, 25 Jan 2018 18:41:30 +0100, Léonie Watson <tink@tink.uk> wrote:

>
> On 25/01/2018 17:04, Patti Burke Lund wrote:
>> Question:
>> "I understand accessibility needs to be integrated into every aspect of  
>> your website. I was wondering if there is any way to detect whether a  
>> user is using support for their disability and then adjust your website  
>> to support them even more? Kind of similar to the way Responsive Web  
>> Design detects browser window size then adjusts accordingly?"
>
> It's possible to do this with native apps on mobile platforms, but not  
> with websites and webapps.
>
> It's also an extremely controversial idea because it has implications  
> for privacy, quality, maintenance, and a few other things besides.  
> Here's my take on it as a screen reader user:
> https://tink.uk/thoughts-on-screen-reader-detection/
>
>
>
>>  Thank you!
>>  Best,
>> Patti
>>  Patti Burke Lund
>> Colorado State University | Journalism & Media Communication
>> patricia.burke-lund@colostate.edu | pburkelund@yahoo.com |  
>> www.colostate.edu
>> LinkedIn <https://www.linkedin.com/in/pburkelund/>
>>
>


-- 
Chaals is Charles McCathie Nevile
find more at http://yandex.com

Received on Thursday, 25 January 2018 19:38:32 UTC