[access-uk] Re: Google is more accessible from today
- From: "Christopher Hallsworth" <chrishallsworth@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2006 17:13:19 +0000
In terms of the Google audio capture, I found it difficult to complete
the verification due to my hearing loss, however with persistance I got
there and signed up for a google account. I since has closed it down
since I didn't feel the need for a Google account.
On Thu, 16 Nov 2006 16:43:53 -0000, "Adrian Higginbotham"
<adrian.higginbotham@xxxxxxxxxxxx> said:
> 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
>
>
>
>
Christopher Hallsworth
Skype name chrishallsworth7266
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