WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: BrowseAloud

for

From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Mar 23, 2011 1:30PM

In general, and you can call me idealistic, I am extremely weary of
solutions where the developer of a web page has to write a lot of
special code to make the page accessible to a group of people.
The ideal solution should always be to put the information in place
that is necessary, and then leave it up to Assistive Technology
developers to grab this information and convert it into a user
interface that works for the target audience.
I do not know exactly how a visually impaired user experiences the
web, but I know what I need to do in order to allow a screen
magnification software to get the info it needs. As new technology,
new fonts and other improvements that benefit visually impaired users,
becomes available I do not have to do anything to update my page, but
if I implement the technology for a specific software for them I have
to change the implementation and worry about these things. I think we
put developers in a hopeless position if they have to understand all
the disabilities there are and allow for special solutions for all of
them on their web page.


On 3/23/11, LSnider < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> I guess I wonder why a sighted user (like me) wouldn't just use NVDA instead
> of this kind of utility (thank you for correcting me there)? That is what I
> meant by my comment, as it is still important to try and make your site
> accessible (I see it as an all encompassing issue not just for one set of
> users). I think I will contact them to ask about more details on what code
> has to be there...that may answer my questions about it.
>
> Cheers
>
> L
>
> On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 12:02 PM, J. B-Vincent < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
>> 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 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
>> >
>> >
>>