Kola, as I said earlier - the quickest short cut to this is to download Lynx
(text only flavour browser) (http://lynx.browser.org/) - as this will act as
a "text" reader (which is how voice browsers work in effect - they usaully
read out from top let across the page to top right, then down a line, etc) -
if you can navigate a website with Lynx (which is free) then a voice browser
*should* work too - if you can't navigate a site with Lynx then a voice
browser will DEFINATELY not work. Which is a starting point. Secondly, if
it "works" on Lynx then run bobby over it to generate a report that will
give you errors in order of preference. The WAI guidelines are just that -
in that they suggest a minimum methodology, but also suggest a tiered
approach to development.
If you are interested in this methodology also try doing some research on
the web about it - as a starter use something like Betsie (created back in
1998 in collaboartion between the BBC and the RNIB in the UK) which is a
free tool that creates "text" only versions of sites.
If you don't want the hassle of re-training youself or your staff into
creating hand code, etc. that is WAI compliant then use lynx - bobby -
betsie (all are free) as a road map in checking, testing, creating a text
only version of a site - then add a link to the text only version at the
top-left first code on every page of your site/s - it's a crude but working
methodology - when creating a site in CF that is template/dynamicly driven
you can also bear in mind these issues - we pull all our content in from
flat text/html formatted pages then depending on global variables set
display the text with a graphic or non-graphic wrapper.
James
-----Original Message-----
From: Kola Oyedeji [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: 04 June 2001 11:03
To: CF-Talk
Subject: RE: Your site's easy to navigate? You Think so?
Is there an industry standard tool used by people with disablities to browse
web sites, i've just brought this issue to the attention of my boss, and we
may want to purchase such a package to test our sites.
Thanks
Kola
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Kear [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: 04 June 2001 04:44
To: CF-Talk
Subject: Your site's easy to navigate? You Think so?
I have just come out of a most enlightening session with a blind user,
running though a client's web site with JAWS, a screen reading program
that turns the web page into synthesised voice.
I thought I was quite aware of accessibility issues before, and was
comfortable in thinking that my sites were better than the average in
providing access to the blind and people with other disabilities. This
session was educational to say the least.
I am still convinced my sites are better than average, but I am bound to
inform you that the average is pretty damn poor. I know some people are
really concerned about accessibility for the disabled and others have
decided that the disabled are such a small portion of their userbase, it's
not worth changing everything to allow for them.
I'm here to tell you that it's not difficult to design a good site to
allow for access, it just takes a little understanding of how programs
like JAWS works. To be truthful, I think that if I were blind, I'd go
stark raving mad at all the frustrations of life but trying to surf the
web wouldn't make life any easier that's for sure.
For example, he took us through a page of our bookshop. And we'd
arranged things to look nice on the page, but there were parts of the
catalogue page where he didn't know what the "add to basket" graphic was
referring to - this book or the previous one. And some nested tables
were simply awful and impossible to work round. We all think putting
navigation buttons on the top of every page makes for easy navigation, but
blind people have to wade through (in our case) 50 navigation links before
getting to the guts of the page. On a search of our site, the resulting
page has a nice header at the top with links to all our site's catgegories
and sub-categories and then a sidebar with links to other parts of the
site, and finally the search results itself. Visually it looks fine -
quick and simple to move around the site. But using the screen reading
software it took **AGES** to get to anything related to the search. By
just laying out the page differently, we could have made this page FAR
easier to navigate for him.
I'm not suggesting we should all go about redesigning our sites just for
the relatively few blind users, but just understanding how the software
works, has made me re-think many of the forms I build. The user also
said that Government sites tended to be the worst of all. I'm not sure if
that's because they're designed by developers with an eye on the
government money or because they are specified by bureaucrats. Certainly
of all the sites that ought to know about accessibility, Government sites
ought to be the leaders, and apparently they aren't.
I think as web developers, you'd all be doing A Good Thing if you arranged
for a meeting like we just had at Australian Consumers Association - have
a blind person come and work your site for you using their screen reading
software. At the risk of being accused of making an off-colour joke, it's
a real eye-opener.
Cheers,
Mike Kear
AFP Webworks,
Windsor, NSW, Australia.
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