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Re: arrow key navigation in accessible menu

for

From: Michael.Moore@dars.state.tx.us
Date: Dec 16, 2010 8:15AM

Chuck wrote " Jaws 9.0 probably shouldn't be used as a basis for testing as it is an
obsolete version."

It really depends upon your intended audience. For example JFW 9 is still the standard AT for our 150+ staff who depend upon a screen reader to access our systems. It will likely remain the standard until the agency upgrades the OS which is unlikely to happen for another two years. Thus our screen reader compatibility testing includes JFW 9. JFW 11 and 12 have been optimized for Win 7 and we are still running XP as are many government and corporate enterprises.

If you are developing public interfaces for people to access basic or essential public services you should be conservative in the requirements. Applications that require ARIA support are not in my opinion not appropriate for deployment for those types of applications at this time. If on the other hand you are developing applications meant to provide a rich, immersive experiences that demonstrate cutting edge capabilities with a target audience of tech savvy folks then by all means design and test for the latest AT browsers and operating systems.

Mike Moore