Steve et al: Their "best practices" design is also assuming one navigates using their "best method" for navigating Web sites.
Let's not be so defensive however. We all know that Window-Eyes is currently lagging when it comes to Web support. I've never been one to do things the way I was told. And, a site that is truely accessible should be accessible no-mater how one navigates the page. On a hunch I went back to the survey page and tried navigating the survey using what I believe to be the latest version of NVDA (the messiah of screen readers.) It turns out, if I navigate the survey by form fields using the "f" key, NVDA also fails to read the fieldset legend associated with the "have you updated your screen reader in the last year" radio buttons. I should say, this was with IE 8. I don't have JAWS on my home computer so I can't test it using this method of navigation. I am neither defending Window-Eyes nor trashing NVDA; I'm simply making the point that if you want the best results, you have to navigate the survey using the method of navigation the survey was optimized for. In this case it appears to be tabbing from field to field as moving from line to line with the cursor keys would not skip the fieldset legend. -----Original Message----- From: Steve Jacobson [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2012 5:53 PM To: [email protected]; Jared Smith Subject: Re: WebAIM Survey on Screen Readers Jared, This seems not to be completely black or white as the results one gets appears to vary with the version of Internet Explorer one uses and apparently may even work if one uses FireFox. If I understand what you are saying, though, you designed a survey knowing that its design would put users of one of the screen readers about which you were collecting information at a disadvantage. In addition to being accessible, any survey design takes into account the population it surveys to be certain its responses don't contain any biases. Unless I have misunderstood what you have written, it appears that in addition to gathering information, this survey was intentionally designed to sort of whip GW Micro into line regarding this particular accessibility issue. I hope GW Micro addresses this and believe they likely will, but to see a survey designed to highlight a weakness of one of its response sets of that same survey damages credibility in my mind. I base this on your statement in a previous note that this has been known for five years. Something like this could sort of be understood if Window-Eyes' handling of this construct was not known, but that appears to me to not have been the case. I apologize if I have understood what you have said, though. Best regards, Steve Jacobson On Thu, 3 May 2012 13:18:00 -0600, Jared Smith wrote: >Thank you for the feedback Jim. Some very good functionality described >here. However, the real benefit of fieldsets and legends are that they >can provide the description of a grouping of form controls when those >form controls are accessed directly. When you tab to a radio button in >a fieldset, the fieldset legend should be read. Window-Eyes does not >support this. All other screen readers do. >You are correct that Window-Eyes users can navigate by fieldsets. They >can navigate by forms. And they can manually enter Browse mode and >find the fieldset legend themselves. But the fact that this vital >information is not presented in context with the grouped form controls >while navigating the form poses a distinct barrier to Window-Eyes >users. >I have now received 5 e-mails and several other survey comments from >Window-Eyes users who have had less-than-optimal experiences with our >fully standards compliant survey form. Users of other screen readers >have described it as "the most accessible survey I've ever taken." I'm >not trying to pick a fight, I'm simply suggesting that Window-Eyes >would provide a much more accessibility experience for its users if it >supported fieldset accessibility while navigating a form. >Jared Smith >WebAIM.org >If you reply to this message it will be delivered to the original sender only. If your reply would benefit others on the list and your message is related to GW Micro, then please consider sending your message to [email protected] so the entire list will receive it. >GW-Info messages are archived at http://www.gwmicro.com/gwinfo. You can manage your list subscription at http://www.gwmicro.com/listserv. If you reply to this message it will be delivered to the original sender only. If your reply would benefit others on the list and your message is related to GW Micro, then please consider sending your message to [email protected] so the entire list will receive it. GW-Info messages are archived at http://www.gwmicro.com/gwinfo. You can manage your list subscription at http://www.gwmicro.com/listserv. If you reply to this message it will be delivered to the original sender only. If your reply would benefit others on the list and your message is related to GW Micro, then please consider sending your message to [email protected] so the entire list will receive it. GW-Info messages are archived at http://www.gwmicro.com/gwinfo. You can manage your list subscription at http://www.gwmicro.com/listserv.
