Hi, great information, but I would rather use regular Google, its what everybody else does so it is what I prefer to do. Just my opinion though, a lot of people use this so it obveously works for them, but for me it detracts focus from the main aspects of web browsing.
-------------------------------------------------- From: "Paul Shallbetter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 4:06 PM To: <[email protected]> Subject: [JAWS-Users] [JAWS] New Google accessible search for blind/visuallyimpaired > First I will past the link then under the link I will post the > information. > > Read the information before using the link. > > http://labs.google.com/accessible/ > > Accessible Search FAQ > > What is Google Accessible Search? > Accessible Search is an early Google Labs product designed to identify and > prioritize search results that are more easily usable by blind and > visually > impaired users. Regular Google search helps you find a set of documents > that is most relevant to your tasks. Accessible Search goes one step > further by helping you find the most accessible pages in that result set. > > How does Accessible Search work? > In its current version, Google Accessible Search looks at a number of > signals by examining the HTML markup found on a web page. It tends to > favor > pages that degrade gracefully --- pages with few visual distractions and > pages that are likely to render well with images turned off. Google > Accessible Search is built on Google Co-op's technology, which improves > search results based on specialized interests. > > Why is Google offering this? > Accessible Search is a natural and important extension of Google's overall > mission to better organize the world's information and make it universally > accessible. Google Accessible Search is designed to help the visually > impaired find the most relevant, useful and comprehensive information, as > quickly as possible. > > In the past, visually impaired Google users have often waded through a lot > of inaccessible websites and pages to find the required information. Our > goal is to provide a more useful and accessible web search experience for > the blind and visually impaired. > > How do you decide which sites are "accessible" and which are not? > Broadly, Google defines accessible websites and pages as content that the > blind and visually impaired can use and consume using standard online > technology, and we've worked with a number of organizations to determine > which websites and pages meet those criteria. Our methods for identifying > accessible pages and content are always evolving; Currently we take into > account several factors, including a given page's simplicity, how much > visual imagery it carries and whether or not its primary purpose is > immediately viable with keyboard navigation. > > How can sites make their content more accessible to the blind? > Some of the basic recommendations on how to make a website more usable and > accessible include keeping Web pages easy to read, avoiding visual clutter > -- especially extraneous content -- and ensuring that the primary purpose > of the Web page is immediately accessible with full keyboard navigation. > There are many organizations and online resources that offer Website > owners > and authors guidance on how to make websites and pages more accessible for > the blind and visually impaired. The W3C publishes numerous guidelines > including Web Content Access Guidelines that are helpful for Website > owners > and authors. Broad adherence to these guidelines is one way of ensuring > that sites are universally accessible. > > Does Accessible Search Filter Out Inaccessible Content? > No. First of all accessible is a very subjective measure --- what's more, > queries can vary widely with respect to how accessible the results are. As > an example, if you are looking for information such as weather forecasts > or > reference material such as the definition of an unfamiliar term, the > result > set often consists of both accessible and inaccessible content. In these > cases, Google Accessible Search promotes those results that have been > measured to be more accessible. On the other hand, if the particular query > is about video games, the chances are fairly high that a majority of the > best results for that query will be visually busy pages. So in the final > analysis, we never filter content in Google Accessible Search; we pick the > best results exactly as we do with regular Google search, and then > re-order > the top results by their level of accessibility. > > The Result Set Looks Identical To Regular Search? > The operational word in the above question is looks. Google Accessible > Search does not in any way change the look and feel of Google search > results. What it does (see earlier question) is to re-order results based > on how accessible they are. > > Navigating Search Results > After Google Accessible Search was launched, many of our users sent us > feedback about the results page (both Google Accessible and regular > search) > being difficult to navigate with screenreaders. In response, we have > updated the results page in both cases to have section headers that can be > used in conjunction with screenreader hotkeys to quickly skim through the > page. Thus, once Google has responded to your search query, use your > access > technology's "move by section" keys to move between the section that > displays sponsored ads and the individual results. > > How Can I Perform More Complex Searches? > Notice that > http://labs.google.com/accessible > has a link to Advanced Search > in addition to the simple text box. Use this link to access Google > Advanced > Search --- this provides you the ability to focus your search on documents > in a specific language. The resulting search will continue to use Google > Accessible Search for ordering the results. > > How Can I Compare Regular Search With Google Accessible? > Google Accessible Search is an experiment, and to be an effective > experiment, end-users need to be able to easily compare the results > obtained by using regular Google search vs Google Accessible. Notice that > the top of the results page contains a pair of radio buttons labeled Web > Search and Accessible Search you can easily repeat your search by pressing > the appropriate radio button and clicking on the submit button. > > How Can I Make My Site Rank Higher? > And finally, for the ever popular question that everyone likes to ask. As > with regular search, the best thing you can do with respect to making your > site rank highly is to create good content. In fact you can think of > GoogleBot as the world's most influential blind user --- the content that > matters most to our indexing technology --- good quality text --- is what > blind users hear when using spoken output. I highly recommend Google's > Guidelines for Webmasters as a starting point. Once you've ensured you've > fully addressed these, I'd suggest reviewing your content to see how well > it degrades gracefully with respect to end-user abilities. As a simple > example, try the following additional checks (in addition to viewing the > page in text-only mode as suggested by the Google Webmaster Guidelines): > > Try browsing your site on a monochrome display > Try using your site without a mouse > How Can I Make Accessible Search My Default Home Page > Here is the short answer for IE and Firefox. Assuming that you are on the > Accessible Search page, the following key sequence: Alt+t, o, Alt+c, Enter > should make that your default home page. This sequence is the same for > both > IE and Firefox. > > Here is a more detailed explanation of what the above achieves. > > On IE, go to Tools, Internet Options, and under the General tab in the > Home > Page area, click the "Use Current" button. Note that the General tab is > the > default tab when Internet Options first comes up. > > On Firefox, go to Tools, Options, and under the Main tab in the Startup > area, click the "Use Current Pages" button. Note that the Main tab is the > default tab when Options first comes up. > > Google Home - Accessible Search - Feedback - Terms of Use > > ©2007 Google Inc. > > > Visit the JAWS Users List home page at: > http://www.jaws-users.com > Address for the list archives: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] > To post to this group, send email to > [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For help from Mailman with your account Put the word help in the subject > or body of a blank message to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Use the following form in order to contact the management team > http://www.jaws-users.com/managers.php > If you wish to join the Blind Computing list send a blank email to the > following address: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Visit the JAWS Users List home page at: http://www.jaws-users.com Address for the list archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help from Mailman with your account Put the word help in the subject or body of a blank message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Use the following form in order to contact the management team http://www.jaws-users.com/managers.php If you wish to join the Blind Computing list send a blank email to the following address: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
