Sv: why ALT text alone doesn't suffice for many blind/VI users

Hi,

Just one short question an add on to the answer already posted by Gregory. Does anybody know of any screenreader with configurations made for Opera? I do know that JFW does not contain any of the 5 needed configurations files often found with almost any application, and even though I am sure Opera is a wellbehaved windows application, I am equally sure that this is not enough given the enhancements that JFW has added to IE5's browser capabilities, inhancements not found in a standard ie5 at all.

Claus

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Kynn Bartlett <kynn-edapta@idyllmtn.com>
To: Gregory J. Rosmaita <unagi69@concentric.net>
Cc: Web Content Accessiblity Guidelines Mailing List <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
Sent: Friday, October 20, 2000 3:49 PM
Subject: Re: why ALT text alone doesn't suffice for many blind/VI users


> At 01:06 PM 10/20/2000 , Gregory J. Rosmaita wrote:
> >i simply believe very strongly that the WG needs to shy away from blanket statements such as "this is sufficient for disability group A" and "this is what members of disability group B should do" with the implicit (albeit mostly unconscious) unstated terminating clause, "instead of complaining to us" -- real life ain't that easy, and the utility of lumping individuals into amorphous categories which bear monolithic names, such as "the blind", "the deaf", and the "cognitively impaired/disabled" troubles me immensely..
> 
> But we -are- saying "This is what web designers should do" and we
> need to be able to justify all those.
> 
> If a page is designed in a way that it -can- be read, and there are
> freely available solutions which one can choose to use -- such as
> running Lynx with a high font size? -- then why exactly is it unfair
> to suggest that is a viable option?
> 
> For people who are blind, we say "give them text" -- and that assumes
> the use of proper assistive technology and settings on that assistive
> tech in order to meet their needs.  In other words, we assume a blind
> person will use a screenreader, a braille terminal, or something else
> which can convert text into a form they can use, if the tool is given
> enough information to do so.
> 
> Why should it be different for other people?  (Lynx, IE 5, and other
> browsers which can overcome this problem are free and even the "costly"
> Opera is a fraction of the cost of, say, JAWS or a braille display.)
> 
> -- 
> Kynn Bartlett  <kynn@idyllmtn.com>                    http://kynn.com/
> Director of Accessibility, Edapta               http://www.edapta.com/
> Chief Technologist, Idyll Mountain Internet   http://www.idyllmtn.com/
> AWARE Center Director                      http://www.awarecenter.org/
> What's on my bookshelf?                         http://kynn.com/books/
> 
>

Received on Friday, 20 October 2000 22:43:15 UTC