I have stated this before, and am willing to repeat it:
Long as WE keeps its browser mode hidden deep inside the core, we will end
up in things like now. And, yes, it has been overdue for a long time, to
have an upgrade to the browser mode. OK, I know, they tell it will be around
in the next major version, and that there has been other stuff that has
needed the attention. But, sorry, that is what will be the case yesterday,
today and tomorrow. The day after tomorrow. The day after that one again.
Well, always. GW proud themselves of being a 'rock solid' screen reader, and
earlier this year one of their representants proud them of being first out
with support for the new office, Vista and so forth. Yet, pretty soon, they
will be last out with support for many a website. True, it is important for
us to use our local system, meaning support for Office and the like. It is
great, that you can go and buy a Win7 machine, and know that your screen
reader will work on that one as well. But, honestly, how will you get that
computer, when your screen reader does not support you on your bank's
webpage - that you could pay the bill? And, the scenario the initial person
wrote about, where things that are meant to be clickable, only shows up as
text in WE (well, at the best), is happening to that many websites now, I
really start to wonder if this is the 'standard' for today.
At least one screen reader - the German Blindows - took the consequences of
this, way back in the very early 2000's. What they did, was to keep the
whole browse mode, seperate fromn their main screen reader. Well, for the
user, in the daily life, this meant little or know difference. Whenever you
open a website, the browser software kicked in, and tied up with the screen
reader to the extent you wouldn't notice it. Still, the real benefit hereof,
was that they could update the browser function, and did so, quite
frequently; without having to bother waiting for the next version of the
screen reader to come out - two, three or four years down the stream. Am I
exergerating? Really? How long is it since, GW promised there would be an
upgrade to the browser mode? Two years? Well, don't let me complain. I know,
they have to make priorities; and there will always have to be something
that is left behind. Yet, how much more easily would it have been, if they
could have let out an update every so often, of the browser mode, to keep up
with such an ever changing area. After all, how often is it, that a new
version of Office or Windows is coming out? And yet, they do keep up with
that kind of releases and changes. The browser mode has not really been
updated for far more time than so. OK, we got some extra features when WE7
came out two years ago, but a real face lift of the browsermode, that would
keep up with modernday websites? And, have a look at their scripts. Several
times a year, GWToolkit is updated - just to mention one. Nice, yes, by all
means! But why not have a similar way of being able to quickly release and
keep up-to-date their browser mode. After all, THAT is where - by far - the
biggest, and most frequent changes in the computer world is going on.
To burry the browser mode so deep inside the software code, that you have to
wait for years to have it updated, whilst you are releasing scripts for all
kinds of gadgets several times a year... Well, to me, that seems like the
people who like to stuff themselves with ice cream, and then - when the
container is empty - decide it is time to have dinner. :)
So, GW, once again:
Make that browser mode a seperate feature - be a seperate software, or be it
a script - and let it be a thing of frequent updating. That way, you
programming guys, will also more easily be able to focus right on the part
of WE, that needs the most attention.
Personally, I have found several things, that I used to do on the net, which
now is close to useless, due to the fact of WE not speaking the webpages
correctly. Oh, yes, they tell us we can use the mouse. Hmm, funny! :) Try
sit on a webpage, looking for your new hard drive, and click on 100
different words, with your mouse; hoping that at least ONE of them will be
the word that was meant to be a link, button or whatever, but which WE only
reads as text. Guess who does decide to go to another store, hoping for
their webpage to be more 'old fascioned' so that his 'rock solid' MODERN
screen reader has the capability of reading out the links and buttons. :)
Does rock solid mean, this was the way it was ten years ago, so this is the
way we will keep it; till the day everyone else have passed by us? :)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, December 09, 2010 10:50 PM
Subject: Re: WE and web pages
I agree with your comment. I think one of the problems is
that web designers don't have the knowledge to make sites
accessible and many of them have just barely enough knowledge
to design a site. The objective is to get the site up as
quickly as possible no matter how poorly it is designed.
Tom
At 03:10 PM 12/9/10 -0600, Don H wrote:
As web sites update their web sites it would seem that WE is
coming more and more unable to work with them. Links do
nothing, buttons don't work and info on the screen that can
be read by sight can't be read with WE. This holds true for
IE 8 and Firefox.
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