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Re: Visual location

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From: Chris Moore
Date: Aug 16, 2012 10:12AM

I am just wondering when we will see a change in attitude regarding this. Speaking as someone who used to have vision, I find it helpful to know where things are on a page. It helps me build a mental picture of the layout. Plus this information is of benefit to users of low vision and screen mag users. It gives them a visual clue of where to look, which can be very useful when you are only seeing a small piece of the web page at a time (the size of that piece all depends on what magnification level you use).

Granted being told a link or information is on the left is of very little use to a desktop screen reader and I am certainly not offended by this. I would like to put it to the group that screen readers are changing too. For example, let's say I am using a iPad or Windows Surface or even a Google Nexus 7. With these devices I can feel where elements are placed on the page. So being told something is on the left suddenly becomes very useful to the user who is exploring the screen with their finger.

So maybe W3C need to acknowledge that.

Thoughts anyone?

Chris

On 16 Aug 2012, at 15:27, Birkir R. Gunnarsson < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> Well, one of the problems I have always had with screen readers, and
> something I feel is somewhat their responsibility, is to not offer the
> user some sort of page description or exploration mode consistent with
> the visual layout.
> I have not done much programming in this area, but I would imagine the
> SR could interpret this information and present it to the user, the
> layout, number of columns etc. Many blind users I meet say they're not
> interested, and they don't care, but I feel this is important info,
> because we often have to use the pages with sighted colleagues, or the
> sighted world in general (customer service etc).
>
>
> On 8/16/12, Ramya Sethuraman < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>> Do just the words 'left' and 'right' mean non-conformance? Even for a
>> screen reader user, they understand left and right...isn't the problem when
>> instructions are like 'Select the button next to the 3rd heading' etc ?
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Aug 16, 2012 at 5:35 AM, Barry Hill < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>>
>>> I thought it failed, but wasn't sure if I was just being pedantic. There
>>> are
>>> several things wrong with the new local government website that I feel I
>>> should point out to them. Another example of the visual location came on
>>> their 'Accessibility' page:
>>>
>>> "In the right-hand columnn of each page of this site are two toggle
>>> buttons
>>> which allow the re-sizing of the text on that page. Click on the "A+"
>>> button
>>> to increase the text size and the "A-" button to decrease the size."
>>>
>>> Instead of such visual location descriptions, what should be used?
>>> Perhaps
>>> a
>>> same page link?
>>>
>>> I do think that the reason why it fails is that it used three automated
>>> accessibility checkers to validate tripple A with W3C 1.0. They don't
>>> appear to have done any user testing. I also think they should have gone
>>> for 2.0 being a new site.
>>>
>>> Cheers
>>>
>>> Barry
>>>
>>>
>>> >>> >>> >>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> *I also exist @: http://www.ramyasethuraman.com*
>> >> >> >>
> > >