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Re: mouseover/hover and keyboard accessible expandablemenu?

for

From: Al Sparber
Date: Nov 6, 2009 12:15PM

>> From: < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> Al,
>
> Imagine you are a web developer with a focus on accessibility.
> Imagine you set up a couple of artificial test pages and run
> focus groups and ask people which they find easiest to use in a
> hypothetical situation. Now imagine a Real Live Disabled Person
> comes to you and says "In my Real Live Web Browsing, I have a
> different preference. I browse the web all the time and this is
> what I've found to be the most useable."
>
> Do you say:
>
> 1. But try my hypothetical situation and see if your experience
> is the same.
>
> 2. Well, everyone's different. Our focus groups report something
> different.
>
> 3. Hmm, interesting data point. Maybe we should get more
> feedback from Real Live Disabled people about Real Live Web
> Browsing and see if their preferences differ from the test
> situation.
>
> One of the major roadblocks in accessibility is accessibility
> advocates who don't listen to people with disabilities when we
> speak up about our experiences. I understand you mean well, but
> I beg all accessibility-oriented folks to incorporate listening
> into their process.

I'm sorry we disagree, but it happens sometimes. I also want to assure you
that I take disability very seriously and when we run tests for our scripts
we do so with people that have real disabilities. I learned a long time ago
that I cannot test in JAWS because I'm not blind, so we have blind people
that help us test. I am also not a dependable keyboard/pointing device
tester because my hands are fully functional, so we have testers that cannot
use a mouse.

Again, please keep an open mind and understand that I value your opinion and
am not trying to argue. I just have a different opinion.