Re: Web Accessibility browser testsuite???

You're right!  Indeed, "IMAGEMAP" shows on the status line when you're on
an imagemap link.  It's the same in lynx 2.7.1, which is what I have.
However, I had to switch to "expert" mode.

As to your rhetorical question about whether it's accessible to access
technology.  I suppose it's strictly speaking "accessible" to access
technology, in the sense that in principle you can hear it, but with an
ordinary screen reader you'd have to set it to always speak the status
line, which usually is just the URL which a user would not want to listen
to all the time.  That's a real annoyance I would think.

Hmmm. On the other hand, if you have a screen reader that alerts you when a
particular region of the screen changes, you could set a little 1x1 window
in the lower left hand corner and have it always spoken when it changed.
Then as the user went from link to link nothing would be spoken--because it
would remain "h"--till s/he reached an imagemap, at which point it would
say "I".  Or if it hit mailto: in which case it would say "m".   

The old DOS readers had something like that feature.  I don't know if that
works in a lynx or telnet window in win98.  Experienced DOS screenreader
users will know all this better than I.

Anyway, thats better than having to listen to http blah blah  most of the
time.

So now I get to ask rhetorically: is it "accessible" when the user has to
have that much special knowledge and make such a special setup?


At 02:31 PM 1/27/99 -0500, Charles McCathieNevile wrote:
>In the Status line of Lynx 2.8 an imagemap is given as a link to
>LYNXIMGMAP:http://wherever/it#is
>
>Is the status information available to Assistive technology?
>
>On Tue, 26 Jan 1999, Leonard R. Kasday wrote:
>
>  There's a test for image maps at
>  
>  http://astro.temple.edu/~kasday/web_access/image_map.html
>  
>  The user agent should make available the ALT text for the image itself,
>  inform the user that there is a series of ALT tag'd links, present those
>  links, and allow user to select any of them.
>  
>  Also, for "extra credit", the user agent should 
>  
>  1. at user's option, skip the ALT tags or go through them one by one.
>  
>  2. give a keyboard shortcut method, e.g. initial or highlighted letter, to
>  select an item.  Especially useful for nav bars that are used frequently.
>  
>  At this point I don't know of any browser that does all this, even without
>  the "extra credit" parts.
>  
>  
>  with JFW 3.2
>  Netscape doesn't show AREA tags.
>  There's no mode in which MSIE shows both the AREA ALT's and also the ALT
>  for the IMG.
>  
>  Lynx 2.7.1 is not fully satisfactory either.  It gives all ALT tags, but
>  when the user encounters the link it just just looks like an ordinary link
>  which the user must select to get to the AREA alt tags.  Thus, it relies on
>  proper IMG ALT text for the image to hint at menu it leads to.  It would be
>  better for the browser to explicitly say that there is an "image map"  or
>  "menu" etc.  (I don't know what best words are for beginner).
>  
>  I've been told, but have not personally verified, that 
>  pwWebSpeak
>  HomePageReader
>  emacspeak +w3 
>  
>  give the ALT tags for individual AREA's but from the answers I got so far I
>  don't know they give the ALT text of the image itself.  
>  
>  None of the browsers do the "extra credit" features.
>  
>  Len
>  
>  At 01:17 PM 1/26/99 -0500, B.K. DeLong wrote:
>  >This may be being discussed in User Agent but has anyone thought to
develop
>  >a Web Accessibility test suite? As mentioned previously, the Mozilla team
>  >is working hard to implement things like the TITLE, ACCESSKEY, and
TABINDEX
>  >attributes as well as elements like OPTGROUP, FIELDSET, and LEGEND. But
>  >they have no real basis for what they should look like. I'd like to
suggest
>  >we take all of the accessibility issues mentioned in:
>  >http://www.w3.org/WAI/References/HTML4-access
>  >
>  >and create a test suite. I will volunteer to create the pages but I need
>  >two bits of information:
>  >
>  >1) What the function of each attribute/element is. For instance, the
>  >FIELDSET element draws a box around a set of FORM fields and the LEGEND
>  >child element is the label imbedded at the start of the box's border. 
>  >
>  >2) What, if any, browsers implement these attributes/elements correctly.
>  >For example, the above mentioned elements are rendered correctly in IE5b2.
>  >
>  >Please let me know what you think. Microsoft is starting to mention to
>  >various people that they are "freezing" the code for IE5b2 which means any
>  >feedback on bugs will soon be cut out of the next version. Netscape is
>  >working hard on implementing full HTML 4.0 but needs guidance on how
>  >certain attributes/elements should be implemented. Basically, I want to do
>  >this ASAP if I do this at all.
>  >--
>  >B.K. DeLong                  360 Huntington Ave.
>  >Director                         Suite 140CSC-305
>  >New England Chapter     Boston, MA 02115
>  >World Organization        (617) 247-3753
>  >of Webmasters
>  >
>  >http://www.world-webmasters.org
>  >bkdelong@naw.org
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  -------
>  Leonard R. Kasday, Ph.D.
>  Universal Design Engineer, Institute on Disabilities/UAP, and
>  Adjunct Professor, Electrical Engineering
>  Temple University
>  
>  Ritter Hall Annex, Room 423, Philadelphia, PA 19122
>  kasday@acm.org        
>  (215} 204-2247 (voice)
>  (800) 750-7428 (TTY)
>  
>
>--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
>
>
>
-------
Leonard R. Kasday, Ph.D.
Universal Design Engineer, Institute on Disabilities/UAP, and
Adjunct Professor, Electrical Engineering
Temple University

Ritter Hall Annex, Room 423, Philadelphia, PA 19122
kasday@acm.org        
(215} 204-2247 (voice)
(800) 750-7428 (TTY)

Received on Wednesday, 27 January 1999 17:01:07 UTC