Re: Alternative Browsers and Screen-readers

Peter,

This is a great start!! Thanks for getting this resource going.

A few thoughts: 

Please, particularly since the page is using the W3C & WAI logos, clearly
mark at the top that this is a draft resource page for Education & Outreach
Working Group review.

Also please add a sentence "This does not represent W3C or WAI endorsement
of these products"

Browsers: 
- Add a pointer to Avanti which has some cross-disability access features
-- Daniel do you have a link for that? 
- and to Kurzweil which I believe has a browser add-on for learning
disabilities.
- add Lynx
- isn't there also an alternative browser by "Bliss..."? 
- would be helpful to list product name and company name next to each
other, since in some cases people are familiar with one but not the other.

Classification: Categorization is a little confusing. We should probably
clarify what "alternative browsers" itself means (maybe anything that's not
a graphical desktop browser?)
In terms of overall "user agent" categories, I think of (for starters):
	- graphical desktop browsers
	- text browsers
	- voice browsers
	- multimedia players
	- screen readers
	- other assistive technologies that work with browsers
- though the lines between these get unclear at times, and "voice browsers"
in particular is very unclear right now, so I'm not sure this would provide
the best organizing structure.

While this collection may have started as links to screen reader demos
only, it may grow to list anything that's an "alternative" to graphical
desktop browsers. I'm wondering then though whether it makes sense to list
those as well, for reference, also since in some cases some access features
are being built in. Besides, there are not that many to add: IE, Navigator,
Opera, Amaya, etc. I would not make these the focus of the page -- seems
like the focus of the page should be on the alternative access products.
But let's discuss this more at our meeting tomorrow.

Screen readers: Do any of the listed screen readers work with Braille
output as well? I believe several do, but the intro to the listings is
misleading then. Should be noted; also if there are others that support
Braille but not speech those should be listed as well.

Copyright notice should be 1999.

Note: I'm still getting some bounce-backs from your e-mail address, can you
let me know if you get this message, thanks!

Thanks,

Judy


At 10:50 AM 1/20/99 -0500, Charles McCathieNevile wrote:
>Another alternative browser is the combination of w3 and emacspeak.
>
>Charles McCathieNevile
>
>On Wed, 20 Jan 1999, Peter Bosher wrote:
>
>  Greetings EOWG,
>  
>  I'm working on a collection of alternative browsers and screen-readers for
>  one of the EO deliverables.   this is for reference and to help check pages
>  with different browsers and combinations of browsers and screen-readers.
>  
>  this may be discussed during Friday's meeting, and I'd welcome any
>  suggestions for improvements or additions.
>  
>  In particular, there could be a third section for "mainstream alternative
>  browsers" such as LYNX, Opera, net-tamer ..., would this be helpful?  And
>  can you let me have references for any others, Arach.... and others I can't
>  call to mind.
>  
>  the first draft is at http://www.soundlinks.com/absr.htm.
>  
>  Regards,
>  
>  Peter.
>  
>  *******
>  
>  Peter Bosher,
>  Email: peter@soundlinks.com
>  
>  www.soundlinks.com/
>  Tel. +44 (0) 1494 794 797
>  Fax: +44 (0) 1494 583 146
>  snail://
>  SoundLinks Limited,
>  43 Broadlands Avenue,
>  Chesham, 
>  Bucks. 
>  HP5 1AL
>  England.
>  
>  
>
>--Charles McCathieNevile -  mailto:charles@w3.org
>phone: * +1 (617) 258 0992 *  http://purl.oclc.org/net/charles
>W3C Web Accessibility Initiative -  http://www.w3.org/WAI
>545 Technology sq., Cambridge MA, USA
>
----------
Judy Brewer    jbrewer@w3.org    +1.617.258.9741    http://www.w3.org/WAI
Director, Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) International Program Office
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
MIT/LCS Room NE43-355, 545 Technology Square, Cambridge, MA,  02139,  USA

Received on Thursday, 21 January 1999 11:12:17 UTC