RE: Sight loss, orientation and mobility and metaphors for web navigation

Hello,

 

When I am in physical space, people would say on your right or left, or ahead 20 feet.

 

However, if somebody says it is on the left near the top of the screen, this does not relate to me, because the screen reader essentially makes everything linear, i.e. I don’t know where things are on the screen.

 

 

This is why things like navigation through headings and landmarks are so important.

 

Best

George

 

 

From: Jonathan Avila <jon.avila@levelaccess.com> 
Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2020 7:53 PM
To: Mark Weiler <mweiler@alumni.sfu.ca>
Cc: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: Re: Sight loss, orientation and mobility and metaphors for web navigation

 

I find more parallels with O&M and extended reality.   Spatial audio, tactile feedback, etc.  

 

Jonathan

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On Mar 25, 2020, at 9:50 PM, Mark Weiler <mweiler@alumni.sfu.ca <mailto:mweiler@alumni.sfu.ca> > wrote:

 

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I have a question for folks with sight loss or who work with people with sight loss regularly.  To what extent do you think orientation and mobility techniques for navigating physical space provides fruitful metaphors for thinking about interacting with web content?  Aria landmarks echos of landmarks in O & M.  On the other hand, a blind friend says when he enters a physical space, he listens for the sound of a space. For example, he'll listen for sounds reflecting off of surfaces. This doesn't seem to have a parallel in web content orientation, as far as I know.