[access-uk] Re: Google is more accessible from today
- From: "Adrian Higginbotham" <adrian.higginbotham@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2006 16:43:53 -0000
Good to hear that it is more than just one product that support
navigation by heading, can anyone advance on JFW and W_E? of course if
more sites like Google implement structural mark-up then other assistive
technology venders may follow suit and this would be a positive thing.
What worries me about the Search results as Headings as implemented by
Google is not so much that they have done it, afterall so many people
have already said how helpful it is, and I am indeed finding it is
making my own life much easier, but rather that the Web development
community at large may latch on to the idea that in order to make your
Website accessible to screenreader users you should mark-up important
information in an #h' tag. of course I might be too sinical and
actually Google are leading the world in using structural mark-up
something which many of us have been campaigning for for a long long
time and not just on the Web. here's hoping that every document author
follows their example. Let us however stay on their case and make sure
that such a useful tag is used appropriately otherwise it will sease to
be effective. My concerns are in the main based on some work I did with
a consultant a year or so ago who had used a screenreader user to test
some of their work. He had watched the individual navigating the Web for
a while and concluded that in the main he did not use site navigation
but rather tended to read content and follow links from there in, often
following a very round about route to reach his destination. His
particular solution to this was to enhance the access support in the
content (good news) but to let loose with the role-over drop down menus
and other javascript dependant objects within navigation structures
purely because his experience was that this would have little impact.
Yes that was one developer and one insidence but it does demonstrate the
power behind messages such as "thanks for putting headers on every
paragraph". developers like the rest of us look for easy solutions to
difficult problems and I do feel that as a community we need to be
cautious about over simplifying what are lets be honest complex issues.
Similar examples are evident as far back as the early days of the WAI
guidance, particular ones which spring to mind are the RNIB advocating
the use of the star symbol (*) as an alt tag for esthetic images rather
than a null value. Viewing this on a scree in a training room the star
looked rather like a letter "x" and for a year or two there was a spat
of UK Websites with sporadic xs' here and there for no obvious reason.
So yes lets offer praise where praise is due but lets also temper it
with a reminder that there is more work still to be done - has anyone
for example had cause to use the Google audio capchure feature lately -
excellent that they found a work around for the visual only capchure but
I'm not sure that the numbers spoken over a garbled background noise is
satisfactory, has anyone with hearing loss tried to use this ?
Adrian Higginbotham
Project manager, Standards
British Educational Communications and Technology Agency - BECTA
Tel: Direct dial 024 7679 7333 - Becta switchboard 02476-416994.
Email: Adrian.Higginbotham@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Web: http://www.becta.org.uk/
BECTA, Millburn Hill Road, Science Park, Coventry, CV4 7JJ
________________________________
From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Tristram Llewellyn
Sent: 16 November 2006 11:15
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Google is more accessible from today
"is it an improvement to accessibility or just a confluence by design or
miss-fortune of one feature within one popular screenreading product and
the semantics of a single website."
In the spirit of discussion I would argue clearly not, as more than one
screen reader navigates by headings for the rather more academically
erudite and upright purpose that the WAI WCAG may aprove of. Rigorous
self contained interpretation of guidelines is one thing, and real life
is another, and there is a danger in thinking that committees that make
up WAI WCAG guidelines can do everything. There is, if you want to
think of things that rigorously no such thing as technology independant
accessibility, it is in fact a web of interconnected technologies and
standards. Even assuming such bodies can think of or decide upon some
other kind of structural mark up that would have this effect, a screen
reader or for that matter another type of accessibility aid would still
have to be coded for this if the guidelines are to remain as such rather
than a top down literal standard that all websites should follow.
Regards.
Tristram Llewellyn
Sight and Sound Technology
Technical Support
www.sightandsound.co.uk
Other related posts: