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Re: Screen reader accessibility to Uncertain Character Format

for

From: Mallory
Date: Jul 5, 2020 12:32PM

Hi,
> I'm assuming that those who use screen readers will find this
> difficult to use, and wonder how we can make this as accessible as
> possible for you.

Looking at that record, I would be confused as well. I expected to find a legend somewhere (perhaps as a link so the explanation is at a single canonical place) telling me what the symbols are representing.

Since screen readers can read by character, I would go so far as to say that, once the system has been sufficiently explained, it would be understood the same for users of a screen reader as users without.

cheers,
_mallory

On Sun, Jul 5, 2020, at 5:19 PM, Pat Reynolds wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I work for FreeUKGenealogy, a UK charity that is transcribing, and
> making freely available to all, historic documents of interest to
> family historians.
>
> One of the problems our volunteer transcribers have is that
> handwriting in the past can be a bit dodgy, and the documents can be
> affected by damp, rodents, etc, all making for some characters and
> words to become illegible.
>
> To give our users the best chance of understanding what the
> transcriber is seeing, we use something called 'uncertain character
> format' (UCF) - the following link will take you to the instructions
> for transcribers -
> https://www.freereg.org.uk/cms/information-for-transcribers/dealing-with-uncertainty#ucf
> The method uses square brackets, underscores, and asterisks to convey
> what might be there. And the following link will take you to the help
> page for users https://www.freereg.org.uk/cms/help#ucf.
>
> Here is an example of a search result where the record found which has
> the UCF displayed:
> https://www.freereg.org.uk/search_queries/5f01ef1cf493fdd3707c113e?locale=en
>
> I'm assuming that those who use screen readers will find this
> difficult to use, and wonder how we can make this as accessible as
> possible for you. Since these users are dependent on the
> transcriptions, which are sometimes less complete or of poorer quality
> on sites that allow the user to see the original, it is important to
> us that we get this right.
>
> With thanks for any help you can give, and best wishes,
>
> Pat
>
>
>
> --
> - -
> Dr Pat Reynolds
> Executive Director
>
>
> A Charitable Incorporated Organisation registered in England and
> Wales, number 1167484
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>
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