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Re: BrowseAloud

for

From: J. B-Vincent
Date: Mar 23, 2011 1:03PM


BrowseAloud (or, as it calls itself, "Browsyloud") is NOT a screen reader; it's a speech output utility for people who can see and use a mouse (e.g., people with learning disabilities). BrowseAloud is free to the end user, but very costly for the web designer to implement.

--- On Wed, 3/23/11, LSnider < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

From: LSnider < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] BrowseAloud
To: "WebAIM Discussion List" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Date: Wednesday, March 23, 2011, 11:59 AM

Hi Birkir,

That was my immediate thought too...Is it a way to circumvent a well put
together web site? Their site was pretty bad before, so this is at least an
improvement. I am working in the archives field in accessibility so what the
Library of Congress does is of great interest to me. I guess at least they
are trying, unlike my Canadian government that is appealing a lawsuit
brought against it for non accessible web sites.

They don't put price on their site for BrowseAloud, so that was another
yellow flag for me as well. I would love to hear from someone who has used
this method and why.

I can only speak as a sighted user, but I think software like NVDA has
changed the web. It seems like a huge step forward, as it seems to be easy
to use and free (I found it took me seconds to work it, but again I am a
sighted user :). I would be curious to know what you and others think about
that too.

Cheers

Lisa




On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 11:48 AM, Birkir R. Gunnarsson <
<EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> Hi
>
> I fail to see the point of such a feature, honestly, and I think they
> should be putting more effort into good page design, rather than
> custom start speech on their web page )by "they", I mean designers in
> general, I know nothing good or bad about the accessibility of this
> particular webpage).
> For one thing, users who need Browse Aloud (at least totally blind
> users) cannot know it is there when they log onto a page, so it would
> have to autostart when they log on, but that would annoy general
> users.
> At least I hope they put an AccessKey to start it (at least for
> returning users they would know to press that key combination). I
> wonder if Browse Aloud offers navigation by html elements like
> headings, lists, check boxes, if it enables user to interact with a
> form using edit fiels and buttons, works with Javascript and does all
> those things people have come to expect from screen readers.
>
> I think in the modern days of free and open source screen readers,
> like NVDA, this effort is misguided.
> Of course there may be user scenarios I am not aware of that are
> beneficial, I take the blind perspective first, being a blind user,
> and I happy bow to people with superior knowledge on ths subject, and
> would be happy to learn that this has a purpose.
> Cheers
> -Birkir
>
>
> On 3/23/11, LSnider < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> > Hi All,
> >
> > Someone just sent this to me...The Library of Congress finally updated
> their
> > web site. They now have a speech enabled feature using BrowseAloud. The
> info
> > is at the bottom of this page:
> > http://www.loc.gov/access/web.html
>
>