WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

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Re: Cross Screen Reader testing

for

From: Weston Thayer
Date: May 16, 2020 12:55PM

Hi everyone, Weston here. I've been enjoying the conversations on this list
for a while now, but haven't piped up. First, thank you for this resource,
and second, now is probably as good a time as any to introduce myself.

I'm a designer/developer, and I've been working on Assistiv Labs for just
over a year now, both to try and help solve pain points I've heard from
others about testing with assistive technologies, and some of my own. More
early access invitations are slowly going out, my timeline was
unfortunately set back quite a bit by current events this spring.

The project has evolved quite a bit since I first put up the website, so
I'll try to give a brief update here.

To your point Steve, I totally agree with your concerns about enabling
inexperienced testers to do harm. Right now, I think the tool is best
paired to accessibility professionals who are already trained in AT usage,
and are testing on their own physical or virtual machines today. Assistiv
Labs offers a few advantages, like repeatable, 100% isolated testing
environments, keyboard shortcut remapping, and access to past, present, and
future AT/browser versions. The latter is a feature I just got working, for
example you can quickly jump between Firefox 76.0, 77.0 (beta), or all the
way back to 62.0. Similarly, it supports NVDA 2020.1 through 2018.1. I find
this especially handy for narrowing down exactly what version an AT or
browser bug cropped up. The website is due for an update and the copy will
be changed to reflect this focus.

For JAWS usage, you'll need to bring your own license (which must
have Remote Desktop/Citrix® Support included). 40 minute mode will not
work. I care very much about complying with each ATs license, and am open
to feedback and ideas on how to make it even easier (for both vendors and
end users).

Overall, I'm really focused on delivering a pleasant, low-latency remote
testing experience that's as accessible as possible (i.e. test NVDA while
using VoiceOver). There are a few limitations (read more in the Accessibility
Statement <https://assistivlabs.com/accessibility>), but I'm hoping to
overcome them in time.

Nice to meet you all, and please feel free to ask more questions here or
email <EMAIL REMOVED> . I hope with your feedback, Assistiv Labs can
be a useful tool someday.

Best,
Weston

On Sat, May 16, 2020 at 8:42 AM glen walker < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> Since the website has minimal info, I did about 30 seconds of digging and
> the contact us page has <EMAIL REMOVED> as a contact person and if
> you google that email, you can find info on Weston Thayer, a designer. I'm
> sure you can contact him for more info.
>
> https://www.linkedin.com/in/weston-thayer-08aa5992/
> https://twitter.com/westonthayer5?lang=en
> http://westonthayer.com/
> > > > >