On Mon, Feb 8, 2016 at 07:51 am, Lisle, Ted (CHFS DMS) <[email protected]> wrote: Our vendor had the mistaken impression, based upon a superficial knowledge of accessibility, that its program met the requirements, it didn’t even come close.
Ted, I just said to someone else yesterday in a private e-mail that a blind entrepreneur could probably make a fortune by setting up a full-featured accessibility testing operation and marketing to government entities (which are legally bound by the ADA [yes, I know it gets ignored, but often not by intent, but by ignorance]) and businesses that are genuinely interested in accessibility. Let's face it, there are few entities among those who are genuinely interested in maximizing accessibility that actually have people with the skill sets to do the real world testing necessary to be sure that what they think they've created as accessible actually is accessible. When it comes to accessibility related code development one of my favorite quotations, which applies to many situations, definitely applies to it in particular: "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, in practice there is." I can practically guarantee you that some of what's put out there that is genuinely believed to be accessible by those who developed it, and using practices that are correct and appropriate, can be blown apart by just a teeeeeeny oversight (or a few of those) and the kind of testing that gets done by those who don't use screen readers in their daily life, using them for testing, is probably a bit more than cursory at best and perfunctory at worst. You have to have a skilled screen reader user to do accessibility testing and I will be the first person to say that most sighted people, including myself, are far from skilled screen reader users. No matter how much we know, no matter how many times we "play blind" and turn off our screens and use these for hours and hours to develop skills, that's still nothing like the depth of skill developed by people who actually have to use these for actual access. I do not kid myself into believing that I will ever come close to being a skilled screen reader user no matter how long I work with them because I will never be using them for real, constant, day-to-day computer access (barring some change in my visual status that would require it). I have tried to encourage one of my friends who's a triple screen reader user to re-enter the tutoring game just because I know, and repeatedly say, that there's nothing like another actual user to teach someone how to use something. They have skills, and perspectives "in their bones," that I never can have. For any skill set, depth is only acquired by long term practice. I've learned that with every career change and entry into new territory within a given sphere of practice. Brian
