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Thread: Screen readers or testing
Number of posts in this thread: 8 (In chronological order)
From: Jeff Rhodes
Date: Tue, Jul 30 2002 6:10AM
Subject: Screen readers or testing
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I am currently trying to convert my web pages over to section 508
compliance and have run into some problems (like everyone else - I
assume). Is there a source of a "good" and "low cost" screen
reader? Or, is there a source that I can use to have someone
actually test my pages to make sure that they are accessible?
Jeff Rhodes, Developer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Internet Association Corporation
www.iaccorp.com
voice: (330) 376-6006 x255
fax: (330) 376-3355
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thought for the day:
-no guts, no glory, no brain, same story.
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From: John Foliot - bytown internet
Date: Tue, Jul 30 2002 6:25AM
Subject: RE: Screen readers or testing
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For a free (but basic) screen reader see Simply Web 2000:
http://www.econointl.com/sw/ (and I do mean basic). For Windows, requires
IE 4.01 or higher. However for an entery level tool (especially for
testing) the price is certainly right.
There are also other text to speech alternatives listed at the W3C site:
http://www.w3.org/WAI/References/Browsing
JF
>
From: tedge
Date: Tue, Jul 30 2002 6:57AM
Subject: RE: Screen readers or testing
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Premier Programming Solutions has a good screen reader at low cost.
Steve Timmer
517-668-8188
www.tecaccess.net
We also do testing so if you would like to find out more about that you
can email me and we could work something out.
TecAccess
Tracy Edge
Testing and Assessment Manager
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
www.tecaccess.net
From: tedge
Date: Tue, Jul 30 2002 7:22AM
Subject: RE: Screen readers or testing
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Someone pointed out to me that the price was not included on the page I
sent out.
Sorry about that, here is a link with more information plus the price:
http://premier-programming.com/content/screen%20reader.html
From: Beth Archibald
Date: Tue, Jul 30 2002 8:14AM
Subject: Re: Screen readers or testing
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Yes, and yes.
You can get demo versions of Window-Eyes (accessible to Flash), JAWS, and Home Page reader. A Google search will give you the links to the software publishers.
As far as having users of assistive technology access your sites to demo, suggest posting a request for testers on this list, or any number of ones dedicated to Section 508 and/or visual impairments. Check out TRACE http://trace.wisc.edu for good discussion groups to consider. I've also cc'd a friend who can provide more leads to testers for you.
Regards,
Beth Archibald
Jeff Rhodes wrote:I am currently trying to convert my web pages over to section 508
compliance and have run into some problems (like everyone else - I
assume). Is there a source of a "good" and "low cost" screen
reader? Or, is there a source that I can use to have someone
actually test my pages to make sure that they are accessible?
Jeff Rhodes, Developer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Internet Association Corporation
www.iaccorp.com
voice: (330) 376-6006 x255
fax: (330) 376-3355
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thought for the day:
-no guts, no glory, no brain, same story.
----
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or view list archives,
visit http://www.webaim.org/discussion/
-------------
From: Mark Magennis
Date: Tue, Jul 30 2002 10:08AM
Subject: RE: Screen readers or testing
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Jeff,
There is no substitute or testing with real people. Not only will you get
the best feedback, but by sitting with them, watching what they are doing
and talking to them about it, you will get many important insights that you
simply didn't expect and that will raise your awareness of issues to another
level.
To recruit volunteer testers, you might try approaching whatever disability
organisations exist in your area. Members or clients of these organisations
are often only too pleased to help with testing. I recently compiled a
database of available volunteers in Ireland by emailing or phoning as many
organisations as I could think of. Here's a few examples. Although they are
Irish, it will give you an idea of who you might aim at:
Age Action Ireland
Central Remedial Clinic
Dyslexia Association of Ireland
Forum for People with Disabilities
Irish Deaf Society
National Council for the Blind of Ireland
Trinity College Disability Services
Visually Impaired Computer Society of Ireland
Some of these are charities set up to help specific kinds of people. Others
focus more on disability rights. Some are just groupings of interested
people. Notice that they are not all specifically to do with visual
impairment since accessibility is wider than that. Older people in
particular can be good to test with since they often have multiple
impairments.
Cheers and good luck,
Mark
___________________________________________________
Dr. Mark Magennis EU Projects Officer
National Council for the Blind of Ireland
Whitworth Road, Dublin 9, Republic of Ireland
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = tel: +353 1 830 7033 x323
___________________________________________________
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From: Paul Bohman
Date: Tue, Jul 30 2002 1:53PM
Subject: RE: Screen readers or testing
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If you want to have a copy of the JAWS, which is probably the most
popular screen reader, you can get a trial version from
www.freedomscientific.com that never expires. The only caveat is that
you can only use it for half an hour at a time, then you have to reboot
your computer to use it again. JAWS is not as easy to learn as you might
like it to be. You can see a list of JAWS keyboard shortcuts at
http://www.webaim.org/howto/jaws_keyboard, but it will take some time to
learn.
A program that is easier to learn is Home Page Reader, by IBM. It's much
more intuitive to visual users and is a high quality screen reader on
par with JAWS. The functionality is not identical, but pretty close.
Mostly it does things differently than JAWS, rather than better or
worse. Home Page Reader costs about $125 (though it's been a while since
I last checked the price).
Paul Bohman
From: Raleigh Way
Date: Tue, Jul 30 2002 5:28PM
Subject: RE: Screen readers or testing
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I've been following the discussion about the screen readers like Jaws
and IBM. How do Tablin and Lynx render a page?
Tablin:
http://www.w3.org/WAI/Resources/Tablin/form
Lynx:
http://www.delorie.com/web/lynxview.html
Do they read the page in a manner similar to how Jaws or IBM would
"speak" a page? If they render a page much like a text-to-speech
reader does, would this be a viable option? I guess nothing would
replace "speaking" a page, but it might be a good starting point.
Raleigh
>If you want to have a copy of the JAWS, which is probably the most
>popular screen reader, you can get a trial version from
>www.freedomscientific.com that never expires. The only caveat is that
>you can only use it for half an hour at a time, then you have to reboot
>your computer to use it again. JAWS is not as easy to learn as you might
>like it to be. You can see a list of JAWS keyboard shortcuts at
>http://www.webaim.org/howto/jaws_keyboard, but it will take some time to
>learn.
>
>A program that is easier to learn is Home Page Reader, by IBM. It's much
>more intuitive to visual users and is a high quality screen reader on
>par with JAWS. The functionality is not identical, but pretty close.
>Mostly it does things differently than JAWS, rather than better or
>worse. Home Page Reader costs about $125 (though it's been a while since
>I last checked the price).
>
>Paul Bohman
>
>
>