Re: Screen Enlargement Software

All the program that let people to interact with contents are user agent. For eg. Windows Media Player and Real Media Player are user agent for audio/video, MathSpeak and AsTeR for the Mathematics, a mailreader is an user agent, and a browser is an "user agent".
The list could be longer (eg: assistive tecnologies, etc.). I think that sometimes we misundrestand the difference between browser and user agent. 
There are W3C Guidelines for this:
http://www.w3.org/TR/UAAG10/
with a clear definition of "user agent":
http://www.w3.org/TR/UAAG10/glossary.html#def-user-agent 

"In this document, the term "user agent" is used in two ways: 
1. The software and documentation components that together, conform to the requirements of this document. This is the most common use of the term in this document and is the usage in the checkpoints. 
2. Any software that retrieves and renders Web content for users. This may include Web browsers, media players, plug-ins, and other programs — including assistive technologies — that help in retrieving and rendering Web content."

In this case if there is a browser inside the tool and this don't respect the UAAG, I think that we need evalutate the tool only for its primary functionality - in this case screen magnifier eventually inviting the developers to optimize the browser for UAAG conformance in future versions.

---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: Doyle Burnett <dburnett@sesa.org>
Date:  Fri, 16 Jan 2004 09:50:33 -0900

>
>To The Group -
>
>During our audio conference yesterday and the brief discussion related to
>screen enlargement software, I decided to do a bit of experimenting.  The
>program I used to check a few things out was WYNN (What Yon Need Now) by
>Freedom Scientific and it's NOT really a screen enlargement package outside
>its own parameters.  But, it does have a built-in browser as one of its
>features.  
>
>It appears that the web reading capabilities of WYNN does not read alt tags
>nor does it seem to support the label element that we discussed yesterday.
>
>Would we consider the browser capabilities in WYNN to be a "user agent"? It
>seems we would as I know for sure this program is heavily used in the realm
>of the education world and the browser feature is used by students with at
>least low vision - also a good program for students with learning
>disabilities.  Is this being addressed by the user agent working group?
>
>Just some thoughts.
>
>Doyle
>
>
>Doyle Burnett
>Education and Training Specialist
>Multiple Disabilities Program
>Special Education Service Agency
>dburnett@sesa.org
>Www.sesa.org
>-- 
>
> 
>
>
>

Received on Saturday, 17 January 2004 04:42:13 UTC