And here we have some of the problems. Advertisers are constantly seeking visual methods to draw the eye of people away from the main content of the page over to their advertisements. Web authors are trying to keep the person's eyes on the page material, yet allowing the ads to help cover the costs of the page and maybe make a profit. Designs and techniques are constantly changing, so it is impossible for automatic systems to keep up with the ever-changing variability.
The standard screen reader response is to somehow script specific complex webpages (Jaws) or flag and otherwise mark-up aspects of webpages. Aria is a system that web developers can use which has been accepted by the screen readers. However, most web developers will probably never use it any more than they have ever used accessibility techniques in the past. We are a tiny minority, so most never think our accessibility needs. Though I would love to see it be otherwise, I am a realist. We are way beneath the average web-developer's notice, so it will most likely always be an uphill battle. Consider it this way. How many of you who make podcasts create written transcriptions of your podcast for the deaf? I have seen very few. You probably never thought of the fact that you are discriminating against the deaf exactly the same way with your podcast that sighted people are discriminating against you with inaccessible web pages. Oh, and if your podcast were for certain governmental information websites, you would be required to make the podcast information accessible to everyone, including those who are deaf. In other words, you would need to sit down and transcribe everything that is said in the podcast, and place it alongside the podcast so the deaf can have equal access. For me, at least, it takes several hours to transcribe a half hour interview. I am a slow typist. David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA Email: [email protected] Mobile: +64 21 2288 288 Sent from my iPhone On 26/04/2013, at 13:04, Christopher Chaltain <[email protected]> wrote: > The results of these studies on how the blind work with web sites surprise me > a bit, but I wonder how much of this goes back to how JAWS presents web > content to the JAWS user. Even so, I distinctly recall using the JAWS cursor > with web pages to explore how they're laid out and how they appear to sighted > users. I did this even more frequently when JAWS allowed for alternate web > page presentations, and I started using a screen reader like Orca which > doesn't change the lay out of the page much at all. I don't recall how much > NVDA manipulates the presentation of the web. It would be interesting to know > the results of these studies with blind people who predominantly use Orca > instead of JAWS. > > I do think it'll always take the blind a bit longer to digest information on > a web page than it will for sighted users. Just as I can't take in a list of > email messages at a glance, focusing in on the unread messages based on > colors, or automatically jump to the interesting part of a spread sheet, I'm > not going to be able to follow the visual queues on a web page directing the > sighted user to the pertinent portion of the web page. Ironically, I think > screen reader technology is going to have to help fill in the gap here, which > may focus more on the type of content on a web page and less on the visual > layout. > > > On 04/25/2013 07:26 PM, David Chittenden wrote: >> Like I said, I can reliably reproduce the problem by briefly hesitating >> before performing the gesture. Otherwise, I never experience the problem, >> even on webpages. >> >> Specific to webpages, when the webpage is large and in multiple columns, >> headings very easily jump when what I describe happens. This is because the >> multi-columns are not linear like we blind people perceive them. Your first >> heading may be near the top on the left side of the display. Your next >> heading may be near the bottom of the left side. Your third heading may be >> one-third the way down in the middle of the display. Your next heading may >> be half way down the middle of the display. Your next heading may be at the >> bottom of the middle of the display. Your final four headings may be spaced >> along the column on the right-hand side of the display. So, using a vertical >> flick set to headings, with just a little hesitation before the flick, can >> cause your headings to jump seemingly unpredictably, whilst attempting to >> navigate the display. Consider that you hesitate between headings whilst >> deciding whether to move to the next heading, and your finger is closer to >> the display than you thin > k. >> >> From various studies, we know that, based on how windows screen readers have >> always presented information in a serial manner, blind people perceive web >> pages as being long columns of text on the left side of the web page. >> >> One study set a tactile button in the middle of the computer screen a little >> below the centre. Using a tactile mouse, blind people, and sighted people >> under blindfold, tried to locate and click on the button. The sighted people >> took a fair amount of time to locate the tactile button. Over half the blind >> people were unable to locate the tactile button. Whilst the sighted people >> explored the web page from side to side, top to bottom, the blind people >> stayed on the left edge of the display and kept searching up and down in the >> left side only. This is very significant as it shows how blind people >> mentally visualise and comprehend webpages. >> >> Another study used eye-tracking equipment to assess exactly how sighted >> people determine relevance of webpages, and compared this with blind people. >> The vast majority of websites display link bars / tool bars down the left >> side, across the top, and down the right side of the page. the main text of >> the page is in the middle, surrounded by these bars. The sighted person >> first looks at the two or three links in the upper left corner of the page. >> They then look at the main text of the page. Only after that do they go back >> and look at the other link bars. Because the screen reader goes from left to >> right, top to bottom, in a serial, linear manner, and because all the link >> bars start above the main text area, the blind person must go through all >> the bars first. This creates the mental impression that everything is on the >> left side above the text. This visualisation is subconscious, and it is what >> we do automatically. >> >> Since I've learned all of this from my research, I have been using my iPhone >> to retrain my mental visualisation of webpages to make it similar to what >> sighted people perceive. I no longer start at the beginning of the webpage. >> I touch the display and find where the actual text starts. I also slowly >> explore the page to find multiple columns of text. When I am ready to start >> reading, I use a two-finger flick down to read from my current location. >> This is, in fact one of the biggest reasons I want an iPad. I want to better >> train myself on fully understanding the visual lay-out of webpages so I can >> better and more quickly find information the way sighted people do >> (considering that websites are designed for the sighted, and relatively few >> will ever be designed for the blind given that we are one of the smallest >> minorities of people around). Besides, it will greatly improve my research >> skills. >> >> Oh, I almost forgot, sighted people were found to assess a webpage for >> relevance usually within 5 seconds. It took blind people 10 seconds to three >> minutes just to find the information on familiar webpages. >> >> Finally, title and author information for these studies is available upon >> request. Unfortunately, I cannot provide the actual text as it is >> copyrighted. >> >> David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA >> Email: [email protected] >> Mobile: +64 21 2288 288 >> Sent from my iPhone >> >> On 26/04/2013, at 11:34, "Raul A. Gallegos" <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> It is very odd for sure. I have never seen this problem on my 4S. I have >>> over 300 contacts in my phone of the same model and have never experienced >>> this problem. So Innoway I am glad to know that others are having this >>> issue even though it is annoying. >>> >>> --- >>> Sent from Raul's iPhone - (832) 554-7285. Please excuse any dictation or >>> auto complete errors. >>> >>> On Apr 25, 2013, at 5:57 PM, "Neal Ewers" <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> I have actually had my wife who has vision look at my contacts because I at >>>> first thought there was something wrong with them because the letter >>>> headings did not match up with the names of the contacts. They looked fine >>>> to her, so I assumed it was a voiceover problem. Nice to have more >>>> clarification on this. >>>> >>>> Neal >>>> >>>> -----Original Message----- >>>> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf >>>> Of Cristóbal >>>> Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2013 5:42 PM >>>> To: [email protected] >>>> Subject: RE: An oddity with contacts >>>> >>>> This has to do with the headings bug mentioned in earlier messages. It's >>>> annoying as all get out. >>>> >>>> You'll find it in other apps such as Safari when visiting webpages with >>>> lots >>>> of headings. VO gets placed all over the place when trying to swipe >>>> through. >>>> Oddly enough though, the NFB Newsline app seems to work fine. >>>> >>>> I wrote Apple about this the other day and I actually got a response >>>> particular to my message and not just the standard "We appreciate your >>>> message and will forward it to the proper department." Or some such. >>>> >>>> They said that they were aware of the problem and were investigating it, >>>> but >>>> could not say more beyond that. So basically we have to wait for a fix if >>>> at >>>> all in the next iOS release. >>>> >>>> >>>> -----Original Message----- >>>> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf >>>> Of Raul A. Gallegos >>>> Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2013 3:31 PM >>>> To: ViPhone List >>>> Subject: An oddity with contacts >>>> >>>> Hello all. The following is a weird problem that one of my clients is >>>> experiencing and I am not sure how to help them. This is all in the >>>> contacts >>>> list. From what I can tell the contacts are in alphabetical order the way >>>> the client wants them to be. They are set up to sort by last name, first >>>> name. And display by first name, last name. This is all good. The problem >>>> is >>>> if you are flicking to the right and you come across the letter C the next >>>> contacts which are displayed all start with D. Then as you keep flicking to >>>> the right and you eventually get to the letter E, the contacts after that >>>> start with D. I set the rotor to headings and am experiencing weirdness >>>> there as well. As I flaked down I would hear things like a, B, H, E, F, P, >>>> H. So it is as if things are being misread. However if I hear a letter out >>>> of turn, I touch the screen to see what is there and the correct contact >>>> for >>>> the letter it is supposed to be is actually displayed. This is telling me >>>> that voiceover is actually speaking different letters in the headings for >>>> the categories but those letters are not correct. So in my example above >>>> the >>>> G is missing. Yet if I stop on that missplaced the letter the contacts for >>>> G >>>> are actually spoken. I have never seen this happen before and I am not sure >>>> what to do to fix it. At first I thought the client might have been left >>>> flicking instead of right flicking, but that's not the case. >>>> >>>> --- >>>> Sent from Raul's iPhone - (832) 554-7285. Please excuse any dictation or >>>> auto complete errors. >>>> >>>> -- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" >>>> Google >>>> Group. >>>> To search the VIPhone public archive, visit >>>> http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. >>>> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>>> [email protected]. >>>> For more options, visit this group at >>>> http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. >>>> --- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>>> "VIPhone" group. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >>>> email to [email protected]. >>>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> -- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" >>>> Google >>>> Group. >>>> To search the VIPhone public archive, visit >>>> http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. >>>> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>>> [email protected]. >>>> For more options, visit this group at >>>> http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. >>>> --- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>>> "VIPhone" group. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >>>> email to [email protected]. >>>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. >>>> >>>> >>>> -- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" >>>> Google Group. >>>> To search the VIPhone public archive, visit >>>> http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. >>>> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>>> [email protected]. >>>> For more options, visit this group at >>>> http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. >>>> --- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>>> "VIPhone" group. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >>>> email to [email protected]. >>>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" >>> Google Group. >>> To search the VIPhone public archive, visit >>> http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. >>> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>> [email protected]. >>> For more options, visit this group at >>> http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. >>> --- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>> "VIPhone" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >>> email to [email protected]. >>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > -- > Christopher (CJ) > chaltain at Gmail > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google > Group. > To search the VIPhone public archive, visit > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. > --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "VIPhone" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group. To search the VIPhone public archive, visit http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
