I love Greg Kearney's VoiceOver compatibility list database, but some
of the stuff about it drives me nuts. I thought that I would post
about that stuff and see if anybody else has the same requests -
perhaps if it's not just me being weird then Greg might consider
implementing some of these (or letting somebody else implement them?
What's the DB written in?).
1. It's not too clear what the "Program Notes" field is for, is it a
program *description* or notes *about* the program? Some of the
entries have just a blurb about what the program does (eg
RapidoSerial entry) while others have notes about broader things and
don't really explain what the program does at all (eg Q entry) . Same
problem a little with the "tips" field because some entries have tips
in the "Program Notes" field (eg Switch entry). I think perhaps
clearer field names, such as "Program description" and "Program Tips"
would help people put the same information in the same places.
2. It's hard to find programs already entered because the programs
don't always fit clearly into one category so searching by category
isn't very useful and there's no other way except going through all
of the entire list. I have a few suggestions:
a) A full text search through the name and description fields, eg
find any program with "virtual" in the description.
b) Possibly in the future add a "keywords" or "tags" field or
similar and search with this too.
c) Be able to generate some type of index in alphabetical order with
just program names and Notes/Descriptions, perhaps the program name
could link to a display of a single page with all the information for
that program on it. This solves the problem of having to page through
umpteen pages of full entries just to find the program you need.
3. Some validation on the new entries - if program name and URL both
match then point the person at the old entry to check a new entry is
really necessary? If name but not URL matches perhaps suggest that
they check it's not a dupe? Some programs WILL need >1 entry eg for
different versions that have wildly different VO accessibility, but
most won't. (Sorry Greg, but there's a new version of "Switch" in
the "Audio" category with nothing but the name entered. I didn't
think it'd go through). Also validation that at least some basic
fields have content perhaps?
I realise Greg, that you're doing this in your free time and without
pay and I 100000% appreciate the effort and time it must have taken.
I don't mean to criticise in a nasty way, I hope this is
constructive. I would also offer my services to help with the site
coding now, as my brain seems to be letting me do more of it - if
there's something specific that I can do, please let me know offlist.
Thanks again for the continuing hard work on behalf of all of us with
disabilities who use OS X.
r
--
ATMac - Assistive Technology for Mac Users - http://atmac.org/
