Re: Digital Web Magazine - Seven Accessibility Mistakes (Part 1)

On 2/3/06, Kynn Bartlett <nextofkynn@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 2/3/06, Anthony Ettinger <aettinger@sdsualumni.org> wrote:
> > i definitely recommend using a screen reader. Those things really do
> work
> > differently than what you expect, at least that was my experience.
>
> How many hours' experience do you have using a screenreader?
>
> E.g., are you comfortable in using it as your primary method for net
> access?
>
> To clarify once again, I am not opposed to people trying out
> screenreaders so their eyes can be opened and they go "oh, look at
> that, it's something new! The world isn't as simple as I thought!"
> But when it comes to actual experience with using one, nothing
> replaces having a skilled user rather than an unskilled user.
>
> In fact, most developers' experience with screenreaders can give them
> very wrong and inaccurate ideas about that software due to their own
> inability to operate the very complex software.  Unless you invest
> major amounts of time, you will not be able to distinguish errors
> caused by your own unfamiliarity with errors in the page itself, or
> errors in the screenreader software.
>
> For example, a very telling comment on this page which I just came
> across illustrates one such problem:
>
> http://www.access-matters.com/2005/07/23/daring-fireball-footnotes/
>
> "Interesting that the reviewer talks about listening to the page as a
> stream and the difficulty this causes. The only people I've come
> across who ever use a screenreader in this way are developers.  It
> isn't in my experience how VI people use screenreaders.  Happy to be
> contradicted by any screenreader users but it's not what I've seen or
> what I have trained."
>
> (The original statement was in all capitals, I've cleaned it up here.)
>
> Developers don't use screenreaders like actual users use
> screenreaders.  To use a screenreader like a visually impaired user,
> you'd likely need to turn off your monitor for at least two weeks
> straight.
>
> --Kynn
>
>
By no means am I suggesting I"m an expert at using screen readers, I'd have
to be blind and using the software on a regular basis. But I did install one
to see what it was like. It took awhile of playing around with it before I
was able to get it to read the text I wanted it to. And that was with my
eyes open.

I'm trying to use it here at work when I get the chance. I'm mainly
interested in reading web sites with it, but the entire window environment
is read out as well. many many options to control the verbosity. Like I
said, the implication like the article states, is that it's not as easy as
one might have thought having never used one.



--
Anthony Ettinger
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