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Re: IBM Home Page Reader

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From: Kynn Bartlett
Date: Oct 16, 2001 2:32PM

At 12:53 PM -0700 2001/10/16, Glenda Watson Hyatt wrote:
>I've downloaded the demo version of IBM Home Page Reader to gain a better
>understand of how screen readers actually sound. Quite an eye opener.
>I am wondering if IBM HPR is a fair representation of screen readers.
HPR isn't a screenreader, though. A screenreader is software that
typically sits just above the operating system level, and can read out
any text that appears on the screen. It can also read text equivalents
if those are encoded into the GUI API -- such as Microsoft's
Active Accessibility, or Sun's Java accessibilty API.
HPR is a browser that talks -- it doesn't sit directly above the
operating system, but is rather a single application that runs, and
when it runs, it talks.
This isn't saying HPR is bad or isn't a great tool for web authors.
In fact, I highly recommend it in my online course. However, it's not
a screenreader like JAWS (for example). On the other hand, JAWS is
likely overkill for a sighted web developer, and there is a high
learning curve which frankly most people will not undertake unless
they _have_ to. HPR is easier to learn, but it does less, since it
is just a browser that talks.
By the way, when using it, please make SURE that you turn off your
monitor or else you will get a _very_ distorted picture of how HPR
really works. Vision is a crutch, and a deceptive one, for web
authors who want to test with a screenreader or a talking browser.
>PS Can anyone explain why IBM HPR needs Microsoft IE to operate? Is IBM in
>bed with Microsoft??
Nah, there's not really a "bedding" phenomenon here. The real reasons
are technical -- Microsoft has distributed their core "parser" for
IE in such a way that anyone who wants to can write their own front
end, and access the information in the web pages programmatically
via API. This makes it amazingly easy (well, comparatively) to write
special purpose browsers with IE's parser as a base.
Why not use Netscape? Early versions of HPR did -- but the problem
was that Netscape simply does not have the API, either in the parser
or at the OS level, to allow it to be used in such a manner easily.
This is why IE is the "parser of choice" and Netscape is not. Mozilla
hasn't been much better than Netscape.
Say what you will about Microsoft, but their commitment to accessibility
while far from perfect, is better than nearly anything out there. Which
is less of praise for Microsoft's efforts than an overall lament on
the state of assistive technology. Microsoft is "the" platform from
a technical sense just because they're the only ones who bothered to
do anything -- it's worse if you look at Apple, Linux, Netscape, AOL,
etc.
IBM, of course, deserves a lot of praise themselves for HPR and other
excellent efforts at promoting accessibility through software products,
and Sun for Java accessibility. I hope nobody feels left out. :)
--Kynn
--
Kynn Bartlett < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
http://www.kynn.com/

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