WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Screen Reader tests after code validation

for

From: Karlen Communications
Date: Mar 8, 2010 9:18AM

The risk you run is that documents become one adaptive technology dependent.
It also does not take into consideration the skill of the end-user, the
version of AT or browser/Adobe Reader. So if you are at any time indicating
that a document will "work with an adaptive technology" you are risking a
refocus on the AT not the creation of a compliant document.

I use JAWS - am a JAWS user - as part of a QA in that I can check links,
headings, form controls using the keyboard commands JawsKey + F5, F6 and F7
respectively and will look at potentially problem areas such as complex
tables but the bulk of my working with web sites and PDF documents as with
Office documents is focusing on the standards and guidelines for an
accessible document not that it will 'work with JAWS" or ZoomText or
Window-Eyes, or ....

What I check for is that I haven't missed something or that the headings are
in hierarchical order...so a synopsis of what I've done rather than a test
to see if it will work with the AT.

Just a cautionary note when bringing a specific AT into the process.

Cheers, Karen