WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

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Re: Talking websites

for

From: J. B-Vincent
Date: Mar 31, 2010 9:45AM

BrowseAloud (or as it calls itself, Browsyloud) is relevant for people with learning disabilities; it does require mouse use and therefore is not a substitute for a true screen reader. Like all speech output programs, it will not handle bitmapped text or other inaccessible features.

I'm much more heartened by the free open source screen readers such as SATG and NVDA and by anything that educates developers about _why_ certain design features impede accessibility.

--Jane Vincent, Center for Accessible Technology

--- On Wed, 3/31/10, Patrick H. Lauke < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

From: Patrick H. Lauke < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Talking websites
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Date: Wednesday, March 31, 2010, 6:41 AM

On 31/03/2010 13:57, Moore,Michael (DARS) wrote:
> Geof asked about the pros and cons of talking websites.
>
> There is a service called Browse Aloud which I evaluated, that will speech enable websites using a browser plug-in that the user installs. They have some good information on their website about the service and links to places where it has been implemented. The service is not meant to be a substitute for a screen reader or a magnifier but does provide many advantages to people who may use it.

> The only cons that I can think of are that it requires a user to install a third party plug-in to use the service and that you have to pay to have your site enabled for the service. Of course the funding for the service needs to come from somewhere.

And the lovely thing is: technically their plugin works on any site,
it's just that by paying them you get added to a plain text whitelist of
sites. Personally, I think this approach is deeply flawed and
extortionware, but hey...

--
Patrick H. Lauke