Vaughan, you're missing the point.
Surely a screen reader should read what is on the web page with its default
settings.
If Window Eyes is going to skip lines of text then sooner or later someone
will make a big mistake.
Granted this was just an online survey, but what if it was a question
relating to your online bank account.
You see a Yes/No set of radio buttons but no question relating to what is
being asked.
Selecting the wrong radio button could cost you dearly, especially if the
question was, Would you like to contribute 100 dollars to the bank managers
xmas fund.
Ok, i'm making fun of it, but what if Window Eyes users are really missing
important lines of text on more than just this one website.
Surely if this is the case then it should be looked into.
Advanced users can go into the settings and make changes but all the Window
Eyes users who run in basic mode either don't know how to change options or
are too afraid to try, so it's these people who rely on Window Eyes seeing
and reading what is on the screen.
Scot.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Vaughan Dodd" <[email protected]>
To: "'Jared Smith'" <[email protected]>; <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2012 11:38 PM
Subject: RE: WebAIM Survey on Screen Readers
Hjared.
I think that there are several ways to skin the proverbial cat, without
deliberately identifying a survey, designed for statistical purposes, to
record one of the surveyed products failings - very real though that
failing might be.
With apologies now for identifying myself as a cynic with respect to what
you are doing, other blog posts have been very clear about the issue you
are seeking to resolve
All of this assumes a perfect world when it comes to web design - no such
world exists. So could you have completed a survey form in a different
way, so that this bias against Window-eyes does not affect the validity of
the data you are seeking to collect?
Vaughan.
-----Original Message-----
From: Jared Smith [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, 4 May 2012 10:23 a.m.
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: WebAIM Survey on Screen Readers
On Thu, May 3, 2012 at 3:53 PM, Steve Jacobson <[email protected]>
wrote:
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.
The problem is that there is really no other standards compliant method
for providing a description/question for a grouping of checkboxes or radio
buttons. Fieldsets and legends have been in HTML and web accessibility
guidelines and best practices documents since the 90s. They are used on
probably millions of web forms. To not build the survey using standard
accessibility best practices to somehow account for lack of support in
Window-Eyes would render the survey less accessible for *ALL* screen
reader users.
Surely you would not expect us to make something inaccessible in order for
everyone to have the same experience as Window-Eyes users.
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.
No, the survey was written using accessibility best practices. I pointed
out this issue on this very list in 2009 in hopes that it would be fixed -
http://www.gwmicro.com/Support/Email_Lists/Archives/GW-Info/index.php?message_id=129517
Here's an article from 2007 detailing fieldset/legend and how Window-Eyes
behavior was inadequate then -
http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2007/11/fieldsets-legends-and-screen-readers/
As I have done on previous surveys, I have added a note at the beginning
of the survey documenting this issue for Window-Eyes users.
I am frustrated because Window-Eyes users keep blaming us for
inaccessibility of the survey when it is Window-Eyes that is causing that
inaccessibility. I simply hope that my recommendations for making the user
experience better will be considered.
Jared
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