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Number of posts in this thread: 7 (In chronological order)

From: Despain, Dallas
Date: Thu, Mar 18 2010 3:57PM
Subject: accessible chat clients
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Does anyone have any updated resources on accessible chat clients be they Web, desktop or mobile? I found http://www.webaim.org/articles/archives/chats/ which is apparently slightly out of date.

It doesn't seem like any of the big chat clients such as Yahoo messenger, live person etc are doing much with it.

The best client I've used so far i is the desktop version of MSN messenger which notifies the screen reader with a typing sound when a person starts typing and notifies the person when a message comes in.

I'm mostly interested in web because we want to do in accessible chat client both for Web and mobile web.

Thanks,
Dallas

From: Moore,Michael (DARS)
Date: Thu, Mar 18 2010 4:21PM
Subject: Re: accessible chat clients
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We tested AIM last fall and found it to work well with screen readers and magnifiers. We did not do full compliance testing and concentrated on the most common functionality that our users would need to send and receive messages.

Mike Moore

From: Despain, Dallas
Date: Thu, Mar 18 2010 5:18PM
Subject: Re: accessible chat clients
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Thank you very much Mike. Do you know of any resources out there that talk about what's desirable in an accessible chat client and techniques for making chat accessible?

From: Rakesh.Paladugula
Date: Thu, Mar 18 2010 10:27PM
Subject: Re: accessible chat clients
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Hi Despain,

Skype is the instant chat messenger so far I found very accessible on
web. Both for normal chat and voice chat. As I myself is a jaws user I
tried with JAWS and NVDA and found it useful than any other provider. I
am not sure how far it is accessible on mobile.
I can make more clear to you why I found it more accessible if it is the
information you are looking for.

From: Birkir Gunnarsson
Date: Fri, Mar 19 2010 10:48AM
Subject: Re: accessible chat clients
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I know various versions of MSN and Windows messengers are accessible to one
degree or another, the problem is the latest versions generally requires the
most up-to-date screen readers to work with them.
Users are also playing with the Miranda software, which has the advantage
that you can integrate msn, aim and yahoo (I think) messengers into one.
It is pretty useless for you to have AIM if all your friends have msn
messenger, and aim has been on the losing side of the popular messengers
lately.
It is just something to keep in mind.
I wish messengers in general were more accessible, and I take that to mean
chat is accessible, one should be able to click on a link sent in an instant
message, one needs to be able to open an attachment or file sent through a
messenger, a video or voice chat should be accessible, the users details as
well as adding and removing contacts need to be accessible, all via simple
keyboard shortcuts.
These are what I consider requirements, but this is just speaking as a blind
messenger user, not based on any scientific formulation or systematic
thinking.
I may add I have yet to see messenger software that I feel fulfils all of
these things.
Cheers and be well
-Birkir

From: C.Colwell
Date: Mon, Mar 22 2010 6:24AM
Subject: Re: accessible chat clients
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Hi Dallas,
A good starting point may be the list of features built into A-Chat by the Adaptive Technology Resource Centre of University of Toronto. See http://www.atutor.ca/achat/.

Regards,
Chetz


Dr Chetz Colwell
Learning & Teaching Development Team
Institute of Educational Technology
The Open University
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes
MK7 6AA
01908 655772

See my accessibility bookmarks at: http://delicious.com/tags/ChetzColwell
The Open University is incorporated by Royal Charter (RC 000391), an exempt charity in England & Wales and a charity registered in Scotland (SC 038302).

From: Moore,Michael (DARS)
Date: Mon, Mar 22 2010 8:54AM
Subject: Re: accessible chat clients
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Dallas asked,

"Do you know of any resources out there that talk about what's desirable in an accessible chat client and techniques for making chat accessible?"

Other than the usual accessibility standards - WCAG or 508 and perhaps the University of Illinois Functional Accessibility Guidelines I would recommend looking at how you indent to use and deploy the service.

In our case we were looking for an accessible means for staff to communicate with deaf and hard of hearing consumers and also with fellow staff members who are deaf and hard of hearing. We wanted to look at AIM specifically because it is the service that is used with the SideKick texting device which is very popular in the Deaf community in Texas. Our requirements were simple, we only needed the chat functionality to work since we were not planning to use links, voice, or attachments.

Mike Moore
(512) 424-4159