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RE: need help = accessilbity and flash

for

From: Jamie
Date: Apr 10, 2006 12:00AM

Great feedback!
I work for blind services and I agree 100 percent with
you about a sighted person working with a speech
person to check accessiblity. At blind services I
have access to Hi-soft accessiblity tools but usually
use Bobby as I can get two reports. For several years
one of my co-workers who now is in charge of our
information management section and I worked hand in
hand. I worry about code, I use him for usability.
For this site I could not use him because my boss told
me I was NOT suppose to worry about accessiblity. I
may be getting myself in hot water, I didn't want to
get my co-worker in the same pot.

The site in question is a contracting agency of blind
services and I was shocked that our agency didn't
think it was an issue for them to use an url that
makes it appear that they are florida blind services.
I work hard in trying to keep our search engine
results good for our customers. (But that is another
issue.)

The button button issue we have found on sites using
asp dot net. It is annoying.

To me useablity and accessiblity go hand in hand.
What good is an accessible page that no one can use.
<grinning>

I hope you will all forgive me, but I have a morbid
sense of humor. I had never looked at the content
itself. Our agency is contracting with them to make
donations. Their text for donation says" click here
(here is the link) to go to the online donation page.
My co-worker and I provide training to other Florida
state agencies and we cover the "click here" sydrome
in the training. Having seen my co-worker use jaws I
also realize how annoying click here or many read more
links are also very annoying.

You definately gave me more to think about. Thank you
for taking the time to do this.

This is quite a helpful groups. I'm learning from
these posts but also from the achives.


--- Will Miller < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
wrote:

> Hi Jamie, I briefly checked the website out with
> Internet Explorer 6 and
> JAWS 7 (I am a blind screenreader user). I mention
> the specific browser,
> assistive technology, and versions that I am using
> because the user
> experience is likely to vary greatly dependant upon
> these variables.
>
> All of the buttons on the homepage and most of the
> buttons on secondary
> pages have been labelled, but a few are not (they
> read "button"). The labels
> seem to include the text "button", so that when I
> tab to the About button,
> JAWS 7 reads "About Button button" (annoying, but
> not a barrier to access).
> The buttons can be selected by pressing the return
> key. There is no
> indication that the page content has changed when
> buttons are selected,
> which is potentially confusing (a useability rather
> than accessibility
> issue). However, the content does appear in the
> browser. For example, if I
> slect the services button, I can arrow down the page
> and read about programs
> offered by the Division of Blind Services. Two
> unlabelled buttons appear at
> the bottom of the page. If I select the donate
> button, there also seems to
> be a link that is not selectable by keyboard:
>
> "You may use our secure on-line giving page to make
> credit card donations.
> Click here for the online donation page."
>
> Is there a button here that I am not detecting with
> JAWS?
>
> The pages seem mostly accessible to me, but it is
> hard to tell without
> comparing my experience with that of a sighted
> person (I might be missing
> information without knowing it). I have found that
> when performaing
> accessibility testing with a screenreader, it is
> important to have an
> experienced screenreader user and a sighted person
> working together so that
> you can compare the visual and auditory interfaces.
> Do you know if the Blind
> Services webpages go through user testing? Seems
> important, considering the
> agency's function is to provide services to the
> blind.
>
> My personal feeling is that, although some Flash
> pages may be made
> technically accessible, they are not appropriate for
> all websites. The Blind
> Services site seems like a clear example of this.
> Many clients who access
> the pages are likely to be inexperienced
> screenreader users. The unfamiliar
> Flash interface is likely to confuse assistive
> technology novices -- the
> very individuals that Blind Services seeks to serve.
>
>
> On April 4, Jamie wrote:
> block quote begin
> I'm a web administrator for Fl blind services. We
> now have an contract
> group that just made a new web site that i was told
> to link to. I feel that
> site is not accessible it uses flash. Within the
> flash it would be
> accessible if it did stuff like alt text. But I
> feel that using flash as
> the only medium to access a site is not a good
> practice. I told my boss
> this but she said I was wrong. We at the division
> should not care about the
> accessiblity of a site that we contract for.
> block quote end
>
> If your boss feels this way and she works at a blind
> rehabilitation agency,
> she should lose the only thing she seems to care
> about: her paycheck.
>
> On April 9, Jamie wrote:
> block quote begin
> My boss is sighted (Deputy director), but her boss
> our director is blind.
> But did a mention that POLITICS were at play in our
> state. I can't say
> anything polictically correct, so I best not say
> anything about my situation
> unless it is private.
> block quote end
>
> It's a bit late for that, is it not?
>
> ~William Miller
>
>