RE: Is embedded audio helping accessibility?

One pitfall to be wary of:
Embedding audio shouldn't be INSTEAD of designing the site to be accessible
to third-party assistive technologies. I've heard well-meaning developers
who are new to accessibility pitch that approach a few times...

-----Original Message-----
From: w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org]On
Behalf Of David Poehlman
Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2001 7:56 PM
To: David Poehlman; Kelly Ford; w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: Re: Is embedded audio helping accessibility?

another thought is that it does no apparent harm and could help some.


On Thu, 2 Aug 2001, Kynn Bartlett wrote:

> At 8:36 AM -0700 2001/8/02, Kynn Bartlett wrote:
> >Assuming it's coded sensibly, it's roughly neutral, but tends to be
more
> >of a "help" than a "hindrance".  It's usually true that most users
with
> >special needs have assistive technology, but not always.
>
> I want to amend this.
>
> It's usually true that most _blind_ users have assistive technology,
or
> at least that they would need it to get that far.  Without some sort
of
> assistive tech (screenreader, etc) won't be able to get to your web
site
> in the first place; simply starting an application (such as a web
> browser) would be next to impossible.
>
> However, it's also usually true that most users who have _other_
> disabilities likely _don't_ have an appropriate assistive technology
> program or device.  In this case, talking about the benefits of an
> audio track, there are two groups who would benefit from such a
> thing:
>
> 1.  People who can't see the text.
>
> 2.  People who can't read the text.
>
> The first group are the blind users; these are the ones who _probably_
> already have a solution, in the form of a screenreader (or Braille
> terminal or whatever).
>
> The second group includes a NUMBER of people -- adult non-readers,
> people reading in a foreign language, children, and people with
> cognitive disabilities that prevent them from being able to read
> text easily, but who may be able to understand spoken words -- or
> spoken words PLUS text -- easier than text alone.
>
> These audiences overwhelmingly do NOT have access to screenreaders
> and the like, and for those people, embedded audio would indeed
> prove beneficial.
>
> So while I make the correction above, I still stand by my suggestion
> that you not remove this, as it could help some people.
>
> --Kynn
>
> --
> Kynn Bartlett <kynn@reef.com>
> Technical Developer Liaison
> Reef North America
> Accessibility - W3C - Integrator Network
> Tel +1 949-567-7006
> ________________________________________
> BUSINESS IS DYNAMIC. TAKE CONTROL.
> ________________________________________
> http://www.reef.com
>

Received on Friday, 3 August 2001 15:05:46 UTC