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Re: Question about Screen Readers

for

From: Michael Goddard
Date: Aug 14, 2001 2:40PM

Joel,
Thank you for shedding some light to this. I believe I am getting an
understanding of how the screen is being read. Is it just the anchor tags
and image tags that are read or are there other tags that I should be aware
of?
I will be extremely honest with you on your question about multi-media
presentations that I have come across that has text transcripts or
captioning. The answer is zero! I have yet to come across any multi-media
oriented material that offers text transcription or captioning.
Thank you for the information
Michael
----- Original Message -----
From: "Joel Sanda" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
To: "'WebAIM forum'" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2001 4:29 PM
Subject: RE: Question about Screen Readers.

> Michael;
>
> Great question! I'm sighted and have hearing and have used JAWS quite a
bit
> to test the accessibility of our products ... so maybe I can shed some
light
> on this.
>
> Properly coded web pages will have their content, and some mark-up
necessary
> for meaning, read aloud by JAWS.
>
> Certain elements, like anchor tags, images, list items, and so on will
have
> a preface read before them. So the following code:
>
> <a href="http://www.home.com"><img src="home.gif" alt=""></a>
>
> Will be read aloud as "image, anchor tag: home.com". I may have the exact
> wording off a little, but that's the crux of it. On the other hand, coding
> the same feature this way:
>
> <a href="http://www.home.com" title="Go to Home.com's Home Page"><img
> src="home.gif" alt="Picture of a House"></a> can be read as:
>
> "link, Go to Home dot com's Home Page". Image: Picture of a House".
>
> As for Lynx - you're on the right track. I often use Lynx to test sites
with
> style sheets turned off and to "see" what the blind will "hear", since the
> alt attribute is displayed in Lynx.
>
> Let me ask you this, in turn: how often do you encounter multi-media
> presentations that have text transcripts or closed captioning?
>
> As for training, have you hit the resources at: www.w3.org/wai? That's
free
> and there are some really good (the best, IMHO) learning resources there.
>
> Joel
>
>