- From: Denise Wood <Denise.Wood@unisa.edu.au>
- Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 01:56:24 +0930
- To: "'Harry Woodrow'" <harrry@email.com>, Denise Wood <Denise.Wood@unisa.edu.au>, "'David Woolley'" <david@djwhome.demon.co.uk>, w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
- Message-ID: <E1962E8F1DF0D411878300A0C9ACB0F902463727@exstaff4.magill.unisa.edu.au>
Thanks Harry Yes we are also conscious of the problems relating to use of JAVA. We have been comparing the functionality we can achieve through Flash with what is possible using JAVA but we are encountering the problem that no one solution meets all of our requirements and will certainly not meet the needs of every user. We may end up having to create several alternative interactive modules of the same models/simulations from which users can choose. That approach will accommodate a broad range of individual needs but will also end up becoming a labour intensive task. Ay suggestions for ways of overcoming the problem will be very welcome! Denise Dr Denise L Wood Lecturer: Professional Development (online teaching and learning) University of South Australia CE Campus, North Terrace, Adelaide SA 5000 Ph: (61 8) 8302 2172 / (61 8) 8302 4472 (Tuesdays & Thursdays) Fax: (61 8) 8302 2363 / (61 8) 8302 4390 Mob: (0413 648 260) Email: Denise.Wood@unisa.edu.au WWW: http://www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/staff/homepage.asp?Name=Denise.Wood <http://www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/staff/homepage.asp?Name=Denise.Wood> -----Original Message----- From: Harry Woodrow [mailto:harrry@email.com] Sent: Thursday, 25 October 2001 1:51 AM To: Denise Wood; 'David Woolley'; w3c-wai-ig@w3.org Subject: RE: a question of scripts (this time completed) Java of course presents its own problems of Accessibility. There are a set of Accessibility Classes which expose the objects to Adaptive Technology but I do not know of them being used by any developers. In addition to this these only help if the required Adaptive Technology is used., they do not help users with moderate levels of disability who are confronted with pictorial display of text in a fixed size in the wrong colour on the wrong background. Java is available for a variety of machines however it is still an extra download which may or may not be permitted and involves large volume downloads which can be a problem for many. At least applications such as Flash and Real do provide closed captioning but still of course present compatibility problems. Harry Woodrow -----Original Message----- From: w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org]On Behalf Of Denise Wood Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2001 11:16 PM To: 'David Woolley'; w3c-wai-ig@w3.org Subject: RE: a question of scripts (this time completed) Thanks for this info David. I will discuss further with our programmers and we will investigate some of the tools you have mentioned. Some of the requests we have received appear to be very specific and we will probably end up resorting back to JAVA. The real challenge though is how to translate what is happening on screen into textual information. Steven - thanks for your suggestion to refer to the NBA Tape Recording Manual for some general principles about providing text alternatives to visual material. Some useful leads for me to now follow through on. Much obliged to everyone who responded to my plea for guidance :-) Denise Dr Denise L Wood Lecturer: Professional Development (online teaching and learning) University of South Australia CE Campus, North Terrace, Adelaide SA 5000 Ph: (61 8) 8302 2172 / (61 8) 8302 4472 (Tuesdays & Thursdays) Fax: (61 8) 8302 2363 / (61 8) 8302 4390 Mob: (0413 648 260) Email: Denise.Wood@unisa.edu.au WWW: http://www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/staff/homepage.asp?Name=Denise.Wood <http://www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/staff/homepage.asp?Name=Denise.Wood> -----Original Message----- From: David Woolley [ mailto:david@djwhome.demon.co.uk <mailto:david@djwhome.demon.co.uk> ] Sent: Wednesday, 24 October 2001 4:36 AM To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org Subject: Re: a question of scripts (this time completed) > JAVA or other scripting (could be Flash etc) that are designed to either test > students' understanding of the impact that changes in variables have on what is > essentially graphic information, or that allow them to explore these concepts > by changing variables themselves and viewing the results. We have many requests > like these - particularly in the engineering, satellite communications and If the models can be expressed as closed form equations, I'd suggest that a general equation plotting tool, like gnuplot, rather than any web based approach, would be best. That way the students learn some of the maths and general principles, and can solve their own problems without having general programming skills. If you cannot get simple closed form equations, you need a general programming language, and I'd say that Java was the most portable current choice. In my view, it introduces less security problems than the common scripting languages. (There are tools that may be able to graph non-closed form equations.) SVG might be a better way of providing the visual interface in the near future, but, for cases that aren't suitable for gnuplot, I think you should wait for Java language bindings to be implemented. (You can probably do it now using plugins for the SVG and JavaScript. To maximise browser coverage, you should have an alternative of generating a bitmapped image on the server side. There are certainly specialised tools, like SPICE, for dealing with specialised modelling areas, and I think you should consider using the established tools, rather than trying to create your own subsets, unless you can greatly enhance the accessibility, which seems unlikely. I'd also note that "data visualisation" is a highly commercial area and lots of companies would claim that their high priced products significantly aid people in understanding complex mathematical models. All of these require that it is possible to learn the same information from a textual equivalent that is provided, if you are going to comply with the various accessibilty guidelines; the animations should be considered comprehension aids for those with good eyesight and easy interaction with the computer. I don't know how you cater for those with "learning difficulties".
Received on Wednesday, 24 October 2001 12:26:28 UTC