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Re: Monitoring JAWS adoption trends for testing/support

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From: Robinson, Norman B - Washington, DC
Date: Feb 26, 2007 11:50AM

Costa,

Yes. We have had discussed such issues, specifically with JAWS
7.X and when upgrading from versions to versions. Screen readers are
software. The vendor produces new versions and break things, as well as
they try to adapt to the changing environment of the operating system
itself. I have seen newer versions of the software that didn't provide
the same degree of access, but consider those defects in the screen
reader. That still required the vendor to issue a patch or upgrade their
screen reader or self-contained scripts.

As to users versus testing: if you don't control your users
selection of technologies then you will encounter incompatibilities. The
only approach you can take is somewhat hostile to the end-users; declare
an officially supported version and thus encourage them to use that
version, else they don't get the same level of support. This gets
particularly awkward when users have the expectation that the software
is required for basic access. This is usually true, but in the same way
that organizations standardize on one word processor, you can have more
quality controls if you have consistency by either establishing one
version or establishing standards all versions must comply with to be
supported.

That isn't to say I don't side with the user! The user needs
access and generally speaking the newer versions are 'better'. However,
if you trust the vendor's newest version is better based on the vendor's
recommendation alone, then you better ensure the vendor is going to
support you. As far as I know, they'll never do that without a formal
contractual arrangement and no matter how much you love your vendor,
you'll be better off building the expertise in-house.

Regards,


Norman B. Robinson
Section 508 Coordinator
IT Governance, US Postal Service
phone: 202.268.8246