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Re: Question regarding accessible badgesor widgetsforFacebook and Twitter

for

From: Randi
Date: Feb 26, 2009 12:05PM

Hi there wow I am so overwhelmed haha. I only got the macbook 2 months
ago and have been serching furiously for help. I've been to the Apple
site quite a number of times, and the info is good, but before I knew
how to get to the back button I had a hard time navigating LOL.
Somewhere in my reading I discovered the tutorial already on my
computer. That taught me more, but I was dying to actually talk to
people. Someone here recommended a google group and I joined it
yesterday and have been flooded with other blind mac users. WOW. I
have Alex. He's awesome. I thought I was going nuts because I sore I
heard him breathe......I ended up reading a review of voicover and it
said they made him breathe to sound more real. He reads super fast and
is actually more understandable that way. My sited friends are
shocked. My talking ipod has a female voice and she sounds like she's
on valium compaired to Alex hahaha. I starred your email with the blog
links. I'm getting so many links it'll take an evening to go and
bookmark them all.

I've heard that the PC readers are better, but for someone like me who
doesn't want to wait to be taught, I knew apple would be great as far
as self teaching. I'll learn the pc stuff down the road too. I like to
be well rounded. I think I have Leopard....not sure? Sometime I hear
Alex say "software update" or something, but I never know if I'm
supposed to so eomething hahaha. Sorry to ramble, I know this isn't
the board for that, I'm just so thrilled at all the resource I'm
getting since joining this group. Woot!

Randi

On 2/25/09, John E. Brandt < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> Randi,
>
> I also send my welcome to you.
>
> I blogged about VoiceOver a few months ago, but that blog program died and I
> switched to WordPress. I have all of the old content, but have not put it
> back up yet.
>
> In any case, we had Mike Shebanek from Apple come to Maine last fall and do
> a workshop on the accessibility features of the Mac OS X. I entitled my blog
> "I have drunk the Kool-Aid" as I found myself very impressed with the things
> that Apple had accomplished. It's still not perfect, but I think Apple does
> get the idea of Universal Design which assures that usability is important
> in the design process. I will go find the original post and report it. In
> the meantime, check out this website
> http://www.apple.com/accessibility/voiceover/ (if you haven't already)
> which describes VoiceOver in greater detail. Make sure to go to the
> Downloads page where they have "the manual." You obviously have Mac OS X but
> make sure you have the latest version Leopard as it has the "Alex" voice
> which my blind friends tells me is the best. I can also put you in contact
> with some other Mac people who are blind.
>
> Welcome again and I will send you the link to my blog when it gets updated.
>
> ~j
>
> John E. Brandt
> Web Design, Development, Consultation
> Augusta, Maine USA
> www.jebswebs.com
> <EMAIL REMOVED>
> 207-622-7937
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Randi
> Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 7:40 PM
> To: WebAIM Discussion List
> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Question regarding accessible badgesor
> widgetsforFacebook and Twitter
>
> Oh thank you both. I'll be sure to have my friend check out both
> links. I'm sorry, was it Haimish? I couldn't make out your name and
> haven't figured out how to make voiceover spell stuff for me. I'm glad
> to find another blind user here. Do you know of any good forums where
> people talk about their screenreaders? I'm teaching myself this stuff
> and am not finding much about voiceover and safari.
>
> Thanks again,
> Randi
>
> On 2/25/09, Mackenzie, Hamish < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>> Hi Randi
>>
>> I am totally blind as well but am a Jaws user on windows and whilst the
>> Facebook site can be a bit daunting to start with it is far easier to
>> use the mobile Facebook site as it is much more simplified, and then in
>> stages if you wish you can move onto the much more complex full site.
>> The url for the mobile site is
>>
>> Http://m.facebook.com
>>
>> I have only tinkered with the Mac so am not sure how it will all work in
>> Safari but good luck.
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> Hamish
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
>> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Debra Cerda
>> Sent: Thursday, 26 February 2009 10:23 AM
>> To: WebAIM Discussion List
>> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Question regarding accessible badgesor
>> widgetsforFacebook and Twitter
>>
>> Hi, Randi!
>> I would recommend that you read Desiree's post about her experience with
>> Facebook at this blogpost
>> http://universallydesigned.net/uncategorized/facebook-the-good-bad-and-t
>> he-ugly/
>>
>> As a sighted user who's also had some usability issues with Facebook, I
>> would recommend your friend set it up and show you how to ignore
>> applications requests that are difficult to manage.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>> Debra
>>
>>>>> Randi < <EMAIL REMOVED> > 2/25/2009 4:11 PM >>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I just joined this list and the forum at webaim after stumbling across
>> webaim and emailing the webmaster. I'm in no way a web develper
>> yet...I've been blind for ten months now; it was hugely unexpected. I
>> was an avid web user before and am teaching myself VoiceOver and Apple,
>> having been a PC user before. I've just been lurking here, not
>> understanding much LOL.
>>
>> The Facebook thing caught my attention however. I didn't use Facebook
>> before and actually have a friend coming over Monday to set me up there.
>> Am I hearing correctly that Facebook is not accessible? Or is it simply
>> the widgets and the so called follow me thing? I'm going to be
>> disappointed if I can't use it since I'm hoping to get back in touch
>> with friends.
>>
>> I don't know if a newly blind chic is welcome to post and ask questions
>> here. I'm very interested in web advocacy since I have experience in the
>> web both sited and blind. I also am interested in starting a forum for
>> the blind and visually impaired since I haven't found any cool ones.
>>
>> If this list is just for experienced web developers, let me know and
>> I'll go back to lurking until I start my own site.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>>
>> Randi O.
>>
>> On 2/25/09, Debra Cerda < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>> Thank you everyone for your responses, my apologies for not being more
>>
>>> clear. I appreciate the additional information on the accessible
>>> twitter and FB. However, I'm on the content side of it, wanting to
>>> include a "Follow me on twitter" badge or link. Or a "Tweet the Facts"
>>
>>> much like on the bottom of
>>> Charity: Water's http://www.charitywater.org/twestival/index.html ,
>>> which appears to fail accessibility testing. Friend Feed was also
>>> recommended if we wanted to aggregate the non-profits FB and Twitter
>>> to their front page, but I also don't know how well that would meet
>> accessibility requirements.
>>> Again, we want to help the non profit use social media tools to
>>> promote their mission, but need the content on their website to be
>> accessible.
>>>
>>> Sincerely,
>>> Debra
>>>
>>>>>> "John E. Brandt" < <EMAIL REMOVED> > 2/19/2009 1:26 PM >>>
>>> I see someone already beat me to the answer regarding Accessible
>>> Twitter and Accessible Facebook. I've put the info on my blog
>>> http://www.jebswebs.net/blog/ - the Accessible Facebook appears to be
>>> a work in progress and I still can't find an actual application that
>> can be used.
>>> The Twitter link is: http://www.accessibletwitter.com/ and though
>>> usable now is still being developed. BTW, one comment on Twitter from
>>> an screen reader user questioned why the need as apparently the plain
>>> ole Twitter site was pretty accessible.
>>>
>>> All that said, this is still a great question. We might broaden it to
>>> include all social networking systems including ones that you "build"
>>> yourself like NING and KickApps. My testing of both of these leaves me
>>
>>> wondering if there are any out there that are accessible.
>>>
>>> BTW, I am experimenting with NING right now and it's accessibility
>>> problems do not seem as severe as KickApps. So, I will work with NING
>> for now.
>>>
>>> I also have to mention at this point the caveat that you can create
>>> the most accessible web application in the world and it only takes one
>>
>>> user to add inaccessible content to create an accessibility problem.
>>>
>>> Lastly, it is my understanding that JavaScript and Flash and even AIR
>>> can be made accessible, but that needs to be done early in the
>> development cycle.
>>> We need to get our message to the developer community.
>>>
>>> ~j
>>>
>>> John E. Brandt
>>> Web Design, Development, Consultation
>>> Augusta, Maine USA
>>> www.jebswebs.com
>>> <EMAIL REMOVED>
>>> 207-622-7937
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
>>> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Debra Cerda
>>> Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 11:14 AM
>>> To: Discussion list for web and software accessibilityissues; WebAIM
>>> Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED>
>>> Subject: [WebAIM] Question regarding accessible badges or widgets for
>>> Facebook and Twitter
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>> Several of our agency staff are volunteering their time with the 2009
>>> Accessible Internet Rally (AIR) Interactive. Our team ("Ctrl Alt
>> Delete or
>>> C.A.D.") is working with a wonderful local non-profit Anthropos Arts
>> to
>>> improve the usability and accessibility of their web site. We've
>> identified
>>> the goals of their web site are simply awareness, advocacy, and
>> support. The
>>> objective of their web site is to share information about their
>> organization
>>> and its programs with the community, and get people excited enough
>> about
>>> their work support through donations. The challenge is that currently
>> it's
>>> the executive director and founder who are the primary workhorses
>> within
>>> this organization. We are encouraging them to use social media
>> strategies to
>>> help them meet these goals.
>>>
>>> It would be greatly appreciated if we could get some input and
>>> recommendations from members of the accessibility community on
>> Facebook
>>> widgets, Twitter badges (follow me on...), and ease/difficulty of
>> Paypal
>>> donate button, regarding their placement on a web page. Please email
>> me
>>> directly at dcerda I am aware of the inherent accessibility issues
>> with
>>> Facebook and Twitter themselves, especially after reading posts on
>> these
>>> topics on Knowbility blogs at http://universallydesigned.net/
>>>
>>> Anthropos Arts http://www.anthropos.org provides opportunities for
>>> educational, social, and personal growth to East Austin's under-served
>>> middle and high school students through free music education programs
>> taught
>>> by professional musician-mentors from diverse genres.
>>>
>>> Thank you for your time and support!
>>>
>>> Sincerely,
>>>
>>>
>>> Debra Cerda
>>> Drinking Water Quality
>>> Public Drinking Water Section
>>> Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
>>>
>>> (512) 239-6045
>>>
>>> PPlease consider whether it is necessary to print this e-mail
>>>
>>>
>>>