RE: Style Detection?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: www-style-request@w3.org 
> [mailto:www-style-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Christian Ottosson
> Sent: September 19, 2002 2:10 AM
> To: www-style@w3.org
> Subject: RE: Style Detection?
> 
> 
> 
> Adam van den Hoven <list@adamvandenhoven.com> wrote:
> 
> > The first is that you should NOT assume that assistive 
> technology (AT) 
> > users will turn off style sheets. Jaws (and other screen 
> readers) will 
> > read styled HTML just fine so many keep CSS enabled. Nor do 
> they read 
> > your unstyled HTML, they read what the browser has rendered.
> 
> <snip>
>  
> > The problem (and one that I haven't been able to resolve 
> yet) is that 
> > your left column will be read inline with the main content.
> 
> This just sounds like a big bug in that program. As I 
> understand it, for 
> instance '@media screen' or 'media="screen"' should hide that 
> stylesheet for 
> audio browsers. That's what 'media' is all for. So report the 
> bug instead of 
> blaming the specification. :)

I'm not blaming anyone. All I'm doing is pointing out some gotchas you
would not expect from reading any of the recommendations (HTML/CSS or
WAI). 

The problem is NOT there area bugs in the program. Many AT users simply
do not use audio browsers. From what I understand they don't really
exist (there is apparently one from Japan or something but I can't track
it down). What they normally use is IE with JAWS. All JAWS seems to do
(forgive me but I've never actually used it) is read what IE has
rendered. Its media type is screen. 

> > For instance, one would
> > reasonably expect that providing style sheets for "audio" or "tty" 
> > media types would be useful to AT users.
> 
> Absolutely!

Unfortunately, the assistive technology hasn't caught up to the
recommendations. Yet. I know there are a lot of people who are trying to
get it out there but it is going to take time. I think it is very
important to build a robust, visually appealing site that is very useful
and appealing to AT users. Even though we need to jump through hoops and
make certain compromises in our designs ("What do you mean I can't use
#545454 for the background and #5A5A5A for the text? It looks good that
way!") in order to make our sites accessible, it will be worth it in the
long run. 

Adam

Received on Thursday, 19 September 2002 18:33:38 UTC