Re: Can User Agents adopt the lists that screen readers so eleqently do?

There is a beta version available of a free IE extension 
that will provide lists of the following information in 
dialog boxes:

1. Links (Alt-F12)
2. Headers (Alt-F11)
3. Accesskeys (Alt-F9)
4. Links in MAP elements (links defined with either AREA or 
A elements) (Alt-F10)
5. Configuration (Alt-F8)

More information and download at:
http://cita.rehab.uiuc.edu/software/ieaccessible/


Jon

---- Original message ----
>Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 00:36:29 -0500 (EST)
>From: "Steven Dale" <sdale@stevendale.com>  
>Subject: Can User Agents adopt the lists that screen 
readers so eleqently do?  
>To: <sdale@stevendale.com>
>Cc: <andrew_kirkpatrick@wgbh.org>, <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
>
>
>Steven Dale said:
>> Andrew Kirkpatrick said:
>>> Ideally, users or people who are in a position to help 
should try
>>> different solutions.
>> VERY TRUE!
>>
>> Hopefully they will work -- a good user agent
>>> would be a lot easier than dealing with sites with no 
skip links. If
>>> you
>>>  consider the number of designers that are not willing 
to put in a
>>> single  visible skip link, let alone several, I have a 
difficult time
>>> believing  that skip links are the solution you hope 
they are.
>>>
>>> AWK
>>
>> Possibly... But designers dont use Headings and continue 
to use styles
>> to change the heading text which makes user agents unable 
know what is
>> symantically a heading and what is just styled text.
>>
>> I would hope that, through effective website designing 
(including
>> skipping of and to certain areas of content) AND user 
agents that can
>> truly handle multiple modes of input/output, web 
accessiblity would be
>> taken for granted.  I am not arguing against better UAs,  
I am arguing
>> for better website design to complement better UAs.
>>
>> -Steve
>
>Actually, I wonder if User Agents could offer a list of 
links/headings
>with the capability of setting the focus to a selected 
link/header in the
>list? Similar to screen readers but in a side window? This 
would aleviate
>the need for designers to code skip links or even some 
menus and just (or
>almost) mark up the page with content, headings, and links 
to other pages.
> Images would be under content in this scenerio ( I am not 
mentioning
>about changing this part ) But, what about adding a 
capability to list
>images/figures too?  As in a printed document with a table 
of figures.
>
>-Steve
>
>
>
>
Jon Gunderson, Ph.D., ATP
Coordinator of Assistive Communication and Information Technology
Division of Rehabilitation - Education Services
MC-574
College of Applied Life Studies
University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign
1207 S. Oak Street, Champaign, IL  61820

Voice: (217) 244-5870
Fax: (217) 333-0248

E-mail: jongund@uiuc.edu

WWW: http://cita.rehab.uiuc.edu/
WWW: http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~jongund

Received on Monday, 29 March 2004 12:14:12 UTC