[access-uk] Re: The Inaccessible Herts Society for the Blind Web Site
- From: "John Farley" <john_farley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 3 Dec 2005 13:44:28 -0000
That's very interesting.
I cannot use a magnifier and so had no view on how it would work with that
technology.
The senior people in HSB have told me that they have had the site tested
with magnifying software and that it works with that.
I guess I shouldn't have believed that either.
Regards, John
Contact on : (Home)
john_farley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
or : (work)
john.farley@xxxxxxxx
-----Original Message-----
From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Justin R
Sent: 03 December 2005 13:33
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [access-uk] Re: The Inaccessible Herts Society for the Blind Web
Site
This is weird. I've just had a brief look at the sight. As I use
magnification with screanreader (zoomtext) I've noticed that when the page
is red out, the titles in the blue background are skipped while the rest of
the content is red out. Then, after that, it reads out the highlighted
titles. At one point, zoomtext was reading out information that I didn't
see the text scroll passsed for, on screan. Just a blank part of the page
where zoomtext kept reading.
I'm a confused visitor I must say. I'll have a further look at the site,
see what else happens.
Justin R
----- Original Message -----
From: "Barry" <bbinc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, December 02, 2005 10:40 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: The Inaccessible Herts Society for the Blind Web
Site
> Surely it is down to the person who built the site to put it right at
> their cost as it obviously does not conform to the remit that I would
> expect the society to have given. It sounds like the society got an
> ammeter in to do the site. If this is the case, then I presume that
> they are loath to use the same person to fix it so, there will be a
> finance issue - Paying someone else to put it right.
>
> I hope it is sorted soon
>
> Regards
>
> Barry H
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "John Farley" <john_farley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <TNTALK@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; "info BCAB"
> <bcab@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Friday, December 02, 2005 8:23 PM
> Subject: [access-uk] The Inaccessible Herts Society for the Blind Web
> Site
>
>
> All, first I must apologise for the cross posting of this note. I feel
> very strongly abut it and wanted it to reach the widest possible
> audience.
>
> I am a member of the Hertfordshire Society for the Blind and attended
> it's A.G.M. on 17th November. One of the activities at this event was
> the launch of their new web site on www.hertsblind.com on that day..
>
> It was very difficult at this time to fully review the site, but I did
> so when I got back to a PC with full access to a screen reader, in my
> case Window-eyes.
>
> I found that the site was not properly accessible to people using a
> screen reader, in fact an issue which was known about and published on
> the site itself.
>
> That day I pointed out, in e-mail, the access problems with the site
> and requested that something be done abut it urgently.
>
> Despite protestations from the senior staff of HSB that they had taken
> the needs of visually impaired people into account and that they would
> fix the site the issue is not being dealt with in the manner which I would
expect.
> Today I was notified that it may be corrected by the end of January.
>
> I am sorry, but the message that this gives out is that the needs of
> visually impaired people who use the internet are very much secondary
> to some other greater need. I find this totally unacceptable from a
> body designed to help visually impaired people.
>
> I am told that the HSB does not have vast funds and so cannot do what
> larger charities do with their web sites; a very cursory inspection of
> the site would show that the access changes required are not great,
> but would then enable it to be useable. For a reason I do not
> understand HSB have been advised that the site builder requires a new
> piece of software in order to make it compatible with screen readers
> and that this will need to be learnt before it can be put in place. I
> don't buy this excuse!
>
> Some examples of the issues on the site (which I have informed HSB about):
>
> On many pages, if not all there are what I take to be links to other
> information which are not accessible. These are the usual navigation
> links.
> They have been set up with a graphical link rather than what I believe
> is the standard kind of link which screen readers can use. On the
> front page Window-Eyes reports 5 links, where I believe there are in
> excess of 22 on it.
>
> It is actually fairly difficult for a user with a screen reader to
> Comment on the site as the link to the Contact Us and Comments
> sections are not accessible.
>
> There are a number of documents which can be downloaded for subsequent
> use.
> They appear to be some sort of protected Word document. Once
> downloaded, due to the protection you cannot use the cursor to
> navigate around them. Some access is available with a virtual mouse,
> but that is far from properly accessible. A PDF document would have
> been much better.
>
> It would be nice if the site were to make a little more concession to
> Its VIP readers and accommodate changing of font size and colour to
> allow for easier reading for those with some sight.
>
> By means of this e-mail I would hope that the HSB would receive a
> greater deal of lobbying in order to make their site accessible in a
> more acceptable time frame.
>
>
>
>
> Regards, John.
>
> John Farley
>
> Personal Contact Work contact
> Phone : 01442 259243 01442 437731
> Mobile: 07815 056076 07785 928755
> Fax : 01442 437909
> E-Mail: john_farley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx john.farley@xxxxxxxx
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