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

I know people who rely solely on headings to navigate, but ignore the
heading levels because they are less reliable. Some people hate when
landmarks and regions are added to pages because they add audio graffiti to
navigate through. In addition, there is more than one way to teach and
learn Orientation & Mobility, including multiple cane travel techniques,
guide dog handlers, and those who rely on sighted guide or mobility aids.
All that to say, the useful parallels will vary from person to person.

There are overarching principles that can be discussed or applied
metaphorically, but you would dealing with generalities rather than
specific one-to-one relationships. For example, "it's like walking down the
street and all of a sudden your cane hits a barrier that's never been
there before" as a metaphor for hitting an accessibility issue in a
software upgrade - to me that is general but understandable. Comparing the
options in the links list to a 4-way actuated intersection with turn lanes
is specific and people (I for one) would miss the comparison to each other
because I would be focused on making the metaphor fit rather than accepting
it and understanding the next bit of information.

On Thu, Mar 26, 2020 at 9:22 AM <kerscher@montana.com> wrote:

> Hello,
>
>
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> When I am in physical space, people would say on your right or left, or
> ahead 20 feet.
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> 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.
>
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> This is why things like navigation through headings and landmarks are so
> important.
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> Best
>
> George
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>
> *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
>
>
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> I find more parallels with O&M and extended reality.   Spatial audio,
> tactile feedback, etc.
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>
> Jonathan
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> Sent from my iPhone
>
>
>
> On Mar 25, 2020, at 9:50 PM, Mark Weiler <mweiler@alumni.sfu.ca> wrote:
>
> 
>
> *CAUTION:* This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not
> click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know
> the content is safe.
>
>
>
> 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.
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>