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Thread: seeking ideas for equivalent task
Number of posts in this thread: 9 (In chronological order)
From: Glenda
Date: Wed, Nov 17 2004 12:24AM
Subject: seeking ideas for equivalent task
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Hi all,
I'm putting the finishing touches on a mini-course "Web Accessibility: What
is This All About?" to be delivered via email. For Lesson One, I provide
several "awareness" tasks, ie surf with no mouse, turn images off, check
colour contrast, turn off speakers, and try Webaim screen reader simulator.
My first student is blind and uses JAWS -- kinda feel like I'll be preaching
to the converted, but oh well. Obviously the awareness tasks won't work for
him. I would like to give him a task that would make him aware of
accessibility issues facing other disability sets -- since Web accessibility
isn't only about blind issues. But I'm stumped! What other awareness tasks
are there that he might be able to do? The only disability set I haven't
covered is cognitive. Not sure how to test that.
Your ideas are definitely welcomed!
Cheers,
Glenda
Soaring Eagle Communications
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From: Redazione AriadneCMS
Date: Wed, Nov 17 2004 1:05AM
Subject: Re: seeking ideas for equivalent task
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glenda wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm putting the finishing touches on a mini-course "Web Accessibility: What
> is This All About?" to be delivered via email. For Lesson One, I provide
> several "awareness" tasks, ie surf with no mouse, turn images off, check
> colour contrast, turn off speakers, and try Webaim screen reader simulator.
>
Hi all,
my name is Dino and I'm from Italy. I subscribed this mailing list
because I'm really interested in accessibility. Moreover, as you maybe
know, Italian law now oblies public administration's websites to be
WCAG compliant. Me and some friends of mine run a website on content
management, in italian language:
http://www.ariadnecms.it/
If I can help you, Glenda, translating this mini-course in italian
language, then we'd like to put it on our website among the other
tutorials we are publishing.
Have a nice day,
Dino.
From: Mary Martinson Grossnickle
Date: Wed, Nov 17 2004 10:41AM
Subject: Re: seeking ideas for equivalent task
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The only disability set I haven't
> covered is cognitive. Not sure how to test that.
I have used some of the exercises here:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoodminds/attention.html This is a website
that is a companion to a PBS special called Misunderstood Minds. It helps
people to understand how distractions cause so much cognitive overload for
some people that they are not able to complete tasks. These are not
accessible exercises, but perhaps you can find a way to modify them so that
all participants can use them.
Mary Grossnickle
From: Patrick H. Lauke
Date: Wed, Nov 17 2004 12:58PM
Subject: Re: seeking ideas for equivalent task
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glenda wrote:
> My first student is blind and uses JAWS -- kinda feel like I'll be preaching
> to the converted, but oh well. Obviously the awareness tasks won't work for
> him. I would like to give him a task that would make him aware of
> accessibility issues facing other disability sets -- since Web accessibility
> isn't only about blind issues. But I'm stumped! What other awareness tasks
> are there that he might be able to do?
Although slightly contrived, you could have a page with lots of links to
audio files, but remove the files that the links point to, or disable
quicktime/media player plugins (easy in Firefox, but not sure how well
it plays ball with screenreaders, or how easy it would be to do the same
in IE), to highlight the need for audio transcripts for hearing
impaired users.
But yes, difficult one...
Patrick H. Lauke
_____________________________________________________
re
From: Sam Foster
Date: Wed, Nov 17 2004 1:31PM
Subject: Re: seeking ideas for equivalent task
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> Although slightly contrived, you could have a page with lots of links to
> audio files, but remove the files that the links point to, or disable
> quicktime/media player plugins (easy in Firefox, but not sure how well
> it plays ball with screenreaders, or how easy it would be to do the same
> in IE), to highlight the need for audio transcripts for hearing
> impaired users.
or simply ask the user to mute their sound - emulating hearing impaired
users or those without sound cards in their computer, or in an
environment where audio content is not practical (work place, wireless
access in busy street etc.)
An example might be radio station's websites, or conference websites -
where an audio stream is made available, but frequently, even if a
transcript has been made, the two are not explicitly linked together.
In applications, audio is often used to announce important events (e.g
errors) - alternative cues are necessary to inform the user that
something just happenned that might need their attention. Maybe there's
a web example of the same?
Sam
From: Patrick H. Lauke
Date: Wed, Nov 17 2004 1:38PM
Subject: Re: seeking ideas for equivalent task
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sam89 wrote:
> or simply ask the user to mute their sound - emulating hearing impaired
> users or those without sound cards in their computer, or in an
> environment where audio content is not practical (work place, wireless
> access in busy street etc.)
If you re-read the thread starter, the issue was concerning scenarios
for a visually impaired user with a screenreader...I'd posit that it
would be quite hard for this user to mute the sound ;-)
Patrick H. Lauke
_____________________________________________________
re
From: Glenda
Date: Wed, Nov 17 2004 2:21PM
Subject: Re: seeking ideas for equivalent task
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Thanks Patrick, and others for your suggestions. This one really has me
stumps. I'm now wondering if I could have the JAWS user turn off a feature
or change a setting in JAWS that might somewhat simulate another disability
set. I'm not overly familiar with the fine tunings of JAWS.
And, I know, I know the concept of "sensitivity exercises" has its flaws. I
simply want to show students another perspective of surfing -- its not as
simple as "point and click" for everyone.
Please keep the suggestions coming. Hopefully something will twig by
tomorrow, which is when I want to send out Lesson One to this student..
Cheers,
Glenda
-----Original Message-----
From: redux [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ]
Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 2004 12:36 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] seeking ideas for equivalent task
sam89 wrote:
> or simply ask the user to mute their sound - emulating hearing impaired
> users or those without sound cards in their computer, or in an
> environment where audio content is not practical (work place, wireless
> access in busy street etc.)
If you re-read the thread starter, the issue was concerning scenarios
for a visually impaired user with a screenreader...I'd posit that it
would be quite hard for this user to mute the sound ;-)
Patrick H. Lauke
_____________________________________________________
re
From: Mary Martinson Grossnickle
Date: Wed, Nov 17 2004 2:44PM
Subject: Re: seeking ideas for equivalent task
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>Glenda wrote:
>
> And, I know, I know the concept of "sensitivity exercises" has
> its flaws.
We often refer to these as "screening techniques." I'm glad to see that you
are careful not to call them "simulations," which is a term we want to
avoid. To read more about screening techniques, you might check out
http://www.ittatc.org/technical/access-ucd/screening.php.
> simply want to show students another perspective of surfing -- its not as
> simple as "point and click" for everyone.
You might make the point that users with mobility impairments, who cannot
use the mouse, must navigate with the keyboard in much the same way as a
person using a screenreader, e.g., using the tab key, page up, page down,
arrow keys to make selections from drop-down menus, etc. So some of your
exercises might resonate with a JAWS user just as they are.
Mary G.
From: Sam Foster
Date: Wed, Nov 17 2004 4:46PM
Subject: Re: seeking ideas for equivalent task
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> If you re-read the thread starter, the issue was concerning scenarios
> for a visually impaired user with a screenreader...I'd posit that it
> would be quite hard for this user to mute the sound ;-)
Hah! You know, that would be a little difficult. Sometimes the simple
ideas are the best... othertimes not :)
Sam