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Re: JAWS Accordion test

for

From: Steve Green
Date: Mar 23, 2009 9:50AM

In my experience they read one line at a time, although they may use other
strategies in addition, such as using the links list, heading list or
jumping to headings.

'SayAll' mode, which is the mode where JAWS reads continuously, is not
particularly useful for most tasks because the semantic structure is not
read out in this mode and it is impossible to build a mental model of the
page. It is really only useful for reading large blocks of text, but even
then I have not seen anyone use it.

To a large extent I expect it depends how the user was trained, and maybe
someone who has not received any training may tend to use it more because
JAWS switches to SayAll mode each time a new page loads.

Steve



-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Al Sparber
Sent: 23 March 2009 15:38
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] JAWS Accordion test

If it were a widget that could only be used as a menu, I'd agree
unequivocally. However, the dominant use for an accordion widget is as a
means to visually compress content. So the objective was to uncompress
things for assistive reader users to a normal page-state. If deployed as a
menu, or as a hybrid with content and link lists, then a designer could
introduce skip and skip-to links in appropriate spots.

I have another question (perhaps Randi can weigh in, too). As a professional
in the field, how do most JAWS users prefer to listen to a page? On the
first pass, for instance, do they simply let JAWS recite what it can
contiguously--or, do they tend to stop JAWS and use their navigation keys to
read one line at a time?

--
Al Sparber - PVII
http://www.projectseven.com




----- Original Message -----
From: "Priti Rohra" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >

> Hi Al,
>
> Well I have a totally different idea, why not let it work the same way for
> screen reader users as it does for sighted individuals.
> JAWS does identify it as "same page link", let users click on the link and
> read the information thus displayed rather then making it available as
> expanded menu in the first place.
>
> This will avoid the confusion and the content will function uniformly for
> all users. Currently it is making the information available to screen
> reader
> users irrespective of the user's decision to click on the link.
>
> I don't agree with the opinion of setting the href value to empty.
> Consider a situation, where in accordion menus are used to present
> drop-down
> menus for a website navigation, and all the sub-menus are read out for
> screen reader users. How usable will it for screen reader users? They will
> have no option to skip pass to the current menu and access the next one...