WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

RE: lynx viewer

for

From: Paul Bohman
Date: Jan 29, 2002 10:53AM

One tool that I use to simulate linearization is the Opera browser
(www.opera.com). There is a setting (File > Preferences) called "Page Style"
which lets you choose how pages will be displayed. There is "Author Mode"
and "User Mode", both of which are customizable. Under user mode, you can
uncheck the "Tables" option, which will cause the page to render without
tables when it is in user mode. You will get an idea of how a page will
sound when read by a screen reader this way.

Another tool that is useful is The WAVE validator
(http://www.temple.edu/inst_disabilities/piat/wave/). It shows you the
reading order of the cells within tables. When linearized, content will be
read in that order.

It is also useful to listen to an actual screen reader such as JAWS or Home
Page Reader. I'm not sure that there is any real substitute for this
experience. Still, the other two tools do help.

Paul Bohman
Technology Coordinator
WebAIM (Web Accessibility in Mind)
www.webaim.org
Utah State University
www.usu.edu




-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]On Behalf Of
<EMAIL REMOVED>
Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2002 7:31 AM
To: WebAIM forum
Subject: Re: lynx viewer



Leo Smith asked:

> Can anyone tell me if the lynx viewer service at:
> http://www.delorie.com/web/lynxview.html
> is the same as viewing one's page linearized?

It is _a_ way of viewing pages as linearized. A very useful tool, but you
could alternatively install Lynx on your system and use it; available from
http://lynx.browser.org/

Linearization can be performed in somewhat different ways. Lynx (and Lynx
emulators) present a document in linearized format on screen, which is
different from a purely sequential presentation (e.g., as speech), since
line breaks matter. Lynx also has some elementary table support.

--
Jukka K. Korpela, erityisasiantuntija / senior adviser
TIEKE Tietoyhteiskunnan kehitt