Re: Assistive Technology Detection

Detecting AT is certainly a privacy concern, but your intentions are smart, Patti. Using something like feature detection to progressively enhance user experience is a good thing to think about. Perhaps there will be some settings which folks can opt-in to share which might allow designers and developers to further tailor experiences, but that would require some widespread adoption of the standard(s) and also incorporation into design+development workflows.

The questions beyond the privacy ones are: What assumptions are you and the team making about people when you’re trying to make their experience more accessible? Would any of those enhancements based on assumptions make things worse, and not better, for some users?

Opting-in to customized accessibility features (beyond what is done to make things universally accessible) might be an approach which would allow someone to elect to have the site customized to their specific needs. I have a colleague working in the WebVR space that is incorporating very specific user-provided details to allow experiences to be customized—all voluntary and not required. There are some intersection points with accessibility in that approach which is similar to the prefers-reduced-motion media query.

At any rate, I like your thinking. It is good to want to use technology to enhance experiences wherever possible. The feedback from Leonie and others is also very important to keep in mind.

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Robert Jolly
Technology Director
Phone: 215-806-4110
knowbility.org | @knowbility

On Jan 25, 2018, 11:00 AM -0700, Ash Ta <duc.ta.740@gmail.com>, wrote:
> I would rather go to general concept in developing universal accessible  website than tailoring to certain specific. It is certain that it is not impossible to detect AT (JAWS or NVDA) in the website. I think I read something called detecting something running using host via IE and X-content or something. It is a really long time I read that. I used to have the same thought like you until we tried to develop universal accessible content
>
>
>
> Best,
> Duc Ta
>
> > On Thu, Jan 25, 2018 at 9:41 AM, Léonie Watson <tink@tink.uk> wrote:
> > >
> > > On 25/01/2018 17:04, Patti Burke Lund wrote:
> > > > Question:
> > > > "I understand accessibility needs to be integrated into every aspect of your website. I was wondering if there is any way to detect whether a user is using support for their disability and then adjust your website to support them even more? Kind of similar to the way Responsive Web Design detects browser window size then adjusts accordingly?"
> > >
> > > It's possible to do this with native apps on mobile platforms, but not with websites and webapps.
> > >
> > > It's also an extremely controversial idea because it has implications for privacy, quality, maintenance, and a few other things besides. Here's my take on it as a screen reader user:
> > > https://tink.uk/thoughts-on-screen-reader-detection/
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > >
> > > > Thank you!
> > > >
> > > > Best,
> > > > Patti
> > > >
> > > > Patti Burke Lund
> > > > Colorado State University | Journalism & Media Communication
> > > > patricia.burke-lund@colostate.edu | pburkelund@yahoo.com | www.colostate.edu
> > > > LinkedIn <https://www.linkedin.com/in/pburkelund/>
> > > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > @LeonieWatson @tink@toot.cafe Carpe diem
> > >
>
>
>
> --
> ----------------------------
> Duc Ta
> IT Consultant
> Tel:   (323) 412-4894
> www.dtaconsulting.org