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From: Phil Teare
Date: Fri, Jan 19 2007 3:50AM
Subject: VIKI - text transcodeing, and beyond
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The text transcoding thread has tempted me to mention the following early
public beta:

http://viki.redirectme.net

This should enable many without useful sight (not all), to access most web
content (not all), from most machines (not all)...

Its in very early beta still, and should be for some time. While its in
beta, its free.

Cons:

- Won't work on all sites
- Forms and input elements are not dealt with well yet, but we're
working on it, and it shouldn't be long before they're dealt with as well as
with any other screen reader.
- If completely blind, the user must know the keyboard well in order
to launch the page unassisted.
- Poor connectivity won't help.
- Needs Flash and Javascript. But as there are MANY more machines out
there with Flash and Javascript, than there are with a good screen reader
installed, on ballance, this isn't so bad. Most functionality should be
available in IE (5.5+), FF, Safari and although Opera isn't officiall
supported, it tends to get a bit of attention a month or two after the rest
are dealt with. We've also successfully tested it on Linux. Making it more
cross compatibale than most.

Pros

- Low to no cost
- virtually ubiquitous. Go to a friends house, workplace, colledge,
etc... and you should be able to use the system.
- Excelent voice quality
- centralized system means pronunciation chances (additions to the
lexicon dictionary) are heard by all users instanly.
- Smart Story Finder - press 'S' and the system will attempt to
automatically find the main content/story on a page.
- Once you've learnt the keys, you can swap between platforms (Mac,
PC, Linux), without have to learn new keys.

Its not meant to be, nor is it 'marketed' as a silver bullet, nor a JAWS
killer. Because it isn't. Its meant to be what it is. A new type of tool.
One that helps to fill in another crack. That of the difficulty in useing
screen readers on machines that are not owned or adminstered by the user.
Offering a new freedom to roam.

Its server has limited capacity, and as there's a fair amount of press
fanfare happening and about to happen, please don't play with it longer than
you have to, until next week. We will of course try to meet the demand of
the traffic, but thats always difficult to judge at the initial stages.
Thanks in advance.

ALL feedback very greatfuly recieved.

Best regards,
Phil Teare,
Technical Director & Lead Developer,
http://www.talklets.com from Textic Ltd.
(44) [0] 77 68479904 = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =

From: John Foliot - Stanford Online Accessibility Program
Date: Fri, Jan 19 2007 10:10AM
Subject: Re: VIKI - text transcodeing, and beyond
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Phil Teare wrote:
> The text transcoding thread has tempted me to mention the following
> early public beta:
>
> http://viki.redirectme.net
>
> ALL feedback very greatfuly received.
>
> Best regards,
> Phil Teare,

Phil,

Very interesting. A few comments:

* Transfer rate is excruciatingly slow. Granted, we are almost half a globe
away (UK vs. California), but still, more than 2 minutes and I'm still
waiting for transfer to complete. In fact, after waiting for too long, I've
given up. It seems that the 'round-trip isn't happening.

I realize that you are in Beta still, but heads up.

* The VIKI/Talklets toolbar is not fully visible on my setup (Firefox
2.0.0.1 on Windows XP Pro - laptop @ 1280 X 800 / Full screen [yes, I
know...]) Half the tool bar is "below" the statusbar. I can send you a
screen capture off list if you wish - let me know.

* Interesting that you are wrapping image's alt text with [square brackets],
although the "i" I'm not sure about (it is not clearly defined). I have
taken to wrapping all my alt text with [square brackets] as well (presumably
for the same reason you have), but have also taken to "defining" what type
of graphic it is as part of the alt text: Photo, Logo, Icon, etc. The
little feedback I have received has not been negative, but now that I
mention it on this list, I would be curious for more feedback... It's a
little something I've been quietly trying. See:http://soap.stanford.edu

* the file that includes the loband.css file is not validating to the XHTML
Strict DTD. I won't go off on DTD tangent, but if you choose XHTML Strict,
then please do author to the spec, else choose a more forgiving DTD.
Webform.aspx1 has no DocType declaration at all. :( 'Nuff said.

All-in-all an interesting tool. Please do keep us informed on developments.

Cheers!

JF