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RE: Netscape and screen readers

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From: Jim Allan
Date: Apr 28, 2005 10:08AM

Screen readers for Windows work with IE. They use either the IE document object model (DOM) or Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA) to navigate a page. As Netscape has neither of these, screen readers cannot automatically navigate the page, nor get a list of headings, nor use a host of other tools provided by the screen reader. Screen reader users do not use Netscape, because screen readers don't work with it. There may be movement in the screen reader field to begin work on working with the mozilla family of browsers...though a quick check of the JAWS and GWMicro sites shows no evidence of this. One hopes and hears rumors.

Jim Allan, Webmaster & Statewide Technical Support Specialist
Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired
1100 W. 45th St., Austin, Texas 78756
voice 512.206.9315 fax: 512.206.9264 http://www.tsbvi.edu/
"I see the Earth. It is so beautiful."--first words spoken by human in space.
[Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin, from the Vostok 1, April 12, 1961.]