Comments on: Calling all Assistive Technology vendors http://www.webstandards.org/2006/08/25/calling-all-assistive-technology-vendors/ Working together for standards Wed, 27 Mar 2013 12:19:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: feather http://www.webstandards.org/2006/08/25/calling-all-assistive-technology-vendors/comment-page-1/#comment-10239 feather Fri, 03 Nov 2006 20:09:09 +0000 http://www.webstandards.org/2006/08/25/calling-all-assistive-technology-vendors/#comment-10239 <blockquote cite="#comment-9704"><p>It would be quite nice if they (the assistive technologies) could utilise the accessibility features that are coded in, as defined by the w3c. I was shocked the other day on testing in jaws 6 just how many semantic tags were ignored.</p></blockquote> Hi nickh - I'm curious - what are the specific semantic tags that were ignored in Jaws 6? While Freedom Scientific is currently working on newer releases of Jaws, it might be helpful to know if there was something specific that was unsupported in older versions. Thanks! Derek.

It would be quite nice if they (the assistive technologies) could utilise the accessibility features that are coded in, as defined by the w3c. I was shocked the other day on testing in jaws 6 just how many semantic tags were ignored.

Hi nickh – I’m curious – what are the specific semantic tags that were ignored in Jaws 6? While Freedom Scientific is currently working on newer releases of Jaws, it might be helpful to know if there was something specific that was unsupported in older versions.

Thanks! Derek.

]]> By: nickh http://www.webstandards.org/2006/08/25/calling-all-assistive-technology-vendors/comment-page-1/#comment-9704 nickh Mon, 30 Oct 2006 19:43:15 +0000 http://www.webstandards.org/2006/08/25/calling-all-assistive-technology-vendors/#comment-9704 It would be quite nice if they (the assistive technologies) could utilise the accessibility features that are coded in, as defined by the w3c. I was shocked the other day on testing in jaws 6 just how many semantic tags were ignored. Title attributes, unless you know how to turn them on, are ignored by default. It makes it more difficult to argue for fuller semantic mark-up if even the systems we are trying to support don't recognise our efforts. It would be quite nice if they (the assistive technologies) could utilise the accessibility features that are coded in, as defined by the w3c. I was shocked the other day on testing in jaws 6 just how many semantic tags were ignored.

Title attributes, unless you know how to turn them on, are ignored by default. It makes it more difficult to argue for fuller semantic mark-up if even the systems we are trying to support don’t recognise our efforts.

]]> By: isaac http://www.webstandards.org/2006/08/25/calling-all-assistive-technology-vendors/comment-page-1/#comment-4438 isaac Tue, 05 Sep 2006 15:06:04 +0000 http://www.webstandards.org/2006/08/25/calling-all-assistive-technology-vendors/#comment-4438 I hope the collaboration will include plans to make Ajax applications accessible. Basically there should be a consistent way to let the user know something has been updated, and what has changed. I hope the collaboration will include plans to make Ajax applications accessible. Basically there should be a consistent way to let the user know something has been updated, and what has changed.

]]> By: Britney Simpsons Blog » Calling all Assistive Technology vendors http://www.webstandards.org/2006/08/25/calling-all-assistive-technology-vendors/comment-page-1/#comment-4398 Britney Simpsons Blog » Calling all Assistive Technology vendors Mon, 04 Sep 2006 14:22:49 +0000 http://www.webstandards.org/2006/08/25/calling-all-assistive-technology-vendors/#comment-4398 [...] Calling all Assistive Technology vendors [...] [...] Calling all Assistive Technology vendors [...]

]]> By: Accessibility: standards versus testing — lucid plot http://www.webstandards.org/2006/08/25/calling-all-assistive-technology-vendors/comment-page-1/#comment-4122 Accessibility: standards versus testing — lucid plot Tue, 29 Aug 2006 21:23:50 +0000 http://www.webstandards.org/2006/08/25/calling-all-assistive-technology-vendors/#comment-4122 [...] The recent launch of WaSP’s Assistive Technology Initiative is a positive step, but it needs to be accompanied by pressure. A good way to exert this pressure would be to continue the use of innovative techniques like image replacement and Ajax, making sure that we follow standards, but not insisting on 100% interoperability with assistive technology, if we can show that a lack of standards-compliance is the cause. The WCAG 2 debacle demonstrates that vendors don’t always act in the interests of the web and its users. If we want to stand up for accessibility, we need to show that we can still sting. [...] [...] The recent launch of WaSP’s Assistive Technology Initiative is a positive step, but it needs to be accompanied by pressure. A good way to exert this pressure would be to continue the use of innovative techniques like image replacement and Ajax, making sure that we follow standards, but not insisting on 100% interoperability with assistive technology, if we can show that a lack of standards-compliance is the cause. The WCAG 2 debacle demonstrates that vendors don’t always act in the interests of the web and its users. If we want to stand up for accessibility, we need to show that we can still sting. [...]

]]> By: Jan Brašna http://www.webstandards.org/2006/08/25/calling-all-assistive-technology-vendors/comment-page-1/#comment-4030 Jan Brašna Sun, 27 Aug 2006 21:41:51 +0000 http://www.webstandards.org/2006/08/25/calling-all-assistive-technology-vendors/#comment-4030 It is great to see a movement like this. Finally. After various talks at this year's @media in London I found out that I was right with the idea that AT is pretty way behind today's needs. Good luck with the effort! BTW as Tomas Caspers told me Solaris has a similar potential as OS X here - a great screen reader built in the system. I'm currently working from my ILG position on providing better communication between Sun and WaSP ATF with the hope we can eventually have better results. It is great to see a movement like this. Finally. After various talks at this year’s @media in London I found out that I was right with the idea that AT is pretty way behind today’s needs. Good luck with the effort!

BTW as Tomas Caspers told me Solaris has a similar potential as OS X here – a great screen reader built in the system. I’m currently working from my ILG position on providing better communication between Sun and WaSP ATF with the hope we can eventually have better results.

]]> By: Accessify: latest news / Web Standards Project Accessibility Task Force: Calling all Assistive Technology vendors http://www.webstandards.org/2006/08/25/calling-all-assistive-technology-vendors/comment-page-1/#comment-3999 Accessify: latest news / Web Standards Project Accessibility Task Force: Calling all Assistive Technology vendors Sat, 26 Aug 2006 22:41:35 +0000 http://www.webstandards.org/2006/08/25/calling-all-assistive-technology-vendors/#comment-3999 [...] Web Standards Project Accessibility Task Force: Calling all Assistive Technology vendors WaSP ATF issues an invitation to AT vendors: When the Accessibility Task Force (ATF) was formed, we received feedback from designers and developers about their desire for better standards support in assistive technology. Today, we announce the launch of the ATF’s Assistive Technology Initiative. We are issuing an open offer to assistive technology vendors to work with WaSP (and other groups where appropriate) to help ensure that assistive technology can benefit from a web standards-based approach to web development, design and programming. By working together: [...] [...] Web Standards Project Accessibility Task Force: Calling all Assistive Technology vendors WaSP ATF issues an invitation to AT vendors: When the Accessibility Task Force (ATF) was formed, we received feedback from designers and developers about their desire for better standards support in assistive technology. Today, we announce the launch of the ATF’s Assistive Technology Initiative. We are issuing an open offer to assistive technology vendors to work with WaSP (and other groups where appropriate) to help ensure that assistive technology can benefit from a web standards-based approach to web development, design and programming. By working together: [...]

]]> By: hmkoltz http://www.webstandards.org/2006/08/25/calling-all-assistive-technology-vendors/comment-page-1/#comment-3983 hmkoltz Sat, 26 Aug 2006 13:44:37 +0000 http://www.webstandards.org/2006/08/25/calling-all-assistive-technology-vendors/#comment-3983 Nice work on the launch, ATF. Looking forward to the progress and improvements. Nice work on the launch, ATF. Looking forward to the progress and improvements.

]]> By: hmkoltz http://www.webstandards.org/2006/08/25/calling-all-assistive-technology-vendors/comment-page-1/#comment-3982 hmkoltz Sat, 26 Aug 2006 13:39:56 +0000 http://www.webstandards.org/2006/08/25/calling-all-assistive-technology-vendors/#comment-3982 <blockquote><p>Dont forget to include Apple in your testing. </p></blockquote><p>It would be nice to see an updated report targeting a variety of users for the three operating systems: Apple, Linux, and Windows.</p><p>Linux, for many years, has had available extra support for speech technologies, via <a href="http://emacspeak.sourceforge.net/" rel="nofollow">Emacspeak</a> with full support for <a href="http://www.w3.org/Press/1998/CSS2-REC" rel="nofollow">Aural stylesheets</a>. More recently available is <a href="http://emacspeak.sourceforge.net/releases/release-EmapSpeak.html" rel="nofollow">Emapspeak</a>, a Google Map screen reading application which uses Google's embedded XML metadata to deliver the map content. These technologies are open source and could be useful for more than one accessibility user group. Microsoft offers some accessibility features and there are many other accessibility options available to use with the Microsoft Windows operating system. Apple offers some improved accessibility features, and seems more may be coming.</p><p>A few related links:</p><ul><li><a href="http://www.washington.edu/accessit/articles?15" rel="nofollow">How does accessibility differ across operating systems?</a> -- article from National Center on Accessible Information Technology in Education, University of Washington.</li><li><a href="http://trace.wisc.edu/world/computer_access/compare.html" rel="nofollow"> Operating Systems with built-in Accessibility Features</a> -- an older compassion via Trace Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison</li><li><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/enable/" rel="nofollow">Accessibility at Microsoft</a></li><li><a href="http://www.apple.com/accessibility/" rel="nofollow">Apple Accessibility</a></li><li><a href="http://www.washington.edu/accessit/articles?13" rel="nofollow">Is Linux Accessible</a> -- article from National Center on Accessible Information Technology in Education, University of Washington.</li><li><a href="http://larswiki.atrc.utoronto.ca/wiki" rel="nofollow">LarsWiki: Linux Accessibility Resource Site</a></li></ul>

Dont forget to include Apple in your testing.

It would be nice to see an updated report targeting a variety of users for the three operating systems: Apple, Linux, and Windows.

Linux, for many years, has had available extra support for speech technologies, via Emacspeak with full support for Aural stylesheets. More recently available is Emapspeak, a Google Map screen reading application which uses Google’s embedded XML metadata to deliver the map content. These technologies are open source and could be useful for more than one accessibility user group. Microsoft offers some accessibility features and there are many other accessibility options available to use with the Microsoft Windows operating system. Apple offers some improved accessibility features, and seems more may be coming.

A few related links:

]]> By: David Joseph http://www.webstandards.org/2006/08/25/calling-all-assistive-technology-vendors/comment-page-1/#comment-3954 David Joseph Fri, 25 Aug 2006 20:41:22 +0000 http://www.webstandards.org/2006/08/25/calling-all-assistive-technology-vendors/#comment-3954 Excellent, I'm so glad this is happening for all we all (justifiably or not) complain about IE, Screen readers (and other assistive technology) fall so short of any standards or standardisation its really difficult to judge how to help them (when trying to do something complex or potentially usefull to most such as dare I say it Ajax) it means that its just not possible to do certain things (if you care to cater for everyone) at times. This can (I hope) help tremendously Excellent, I’m so glad this is happening for all we all (justifiably or not) complain about IE, Screen readers (and other assistive technology) fall so short of any standards or standardisation its really difficult to judge how to help them (when trying to do something complex or potentially usefull to most such as dare I say it Ajax) it means that its just not possible to do certain things (if you care to cater for everyone) at times. This can (I hope) help tremendously

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