M
Mike Koewler
Do you want to know or care how your web pages are served up to a blind
or visually impaired person who relies on a screen reader?
Last year, I inquired about this and the local Society for the Blind
told me about JAWS, from Freedom Scientific. It's a screen reader that
works with any program - it reads what is on your computer screen. Very,
very pricey - $1200 or so - way too much unless it is really needed.
However FS offered a demo version which I tried and was impressed with.
Unfortunately, it expired after a few months.
The new version seems to be different. It times out after 40 minutes,
but that's long enough to view a few pages. It can be set to another 40
minutes by rebooting your computer.
For any of you on the side of the pond that drink warm beer, use a loo,
and spell color colour, this is something you really ought to use,
especially if you maintain a business web site that has to comply with
your version of the Americans With Disabilities Act.
It's about a 58 meg download and the latest version runs under XP (not
sure about Vista). It is not a validator, it doesn't tell you what
errors you may have made (such as not including an alt tag with an image
or a meaningful page name) - it reads it like it is.
Mike
or visually impaired person who relies on a screen reader?
Last year, I inquired about this and the local Society for the Blind
told me about JAWS, from Freedom Scientific. It's a screen reader that
works with any program - it reads what is on your computer screen. Very,
very pricey - $1200 or so - way too much unless it is really needed.
However FS offered a demo version which I tried and was impressed with.
Unfortunately, it expired after a few months.
The new version seems to be different. It times out after 40 minutes,
but that's long enough to view a few pages. It can be set to another 40
minutes by rebooting your computer.
For any of you on the side of the pond that drink warm beer, use a loo,
and spell color colour, this is something you really ought to use,
especially if you maintain a business web site that has to comply with
your version of the Americans With Disabilities Act.
It's about a 58 meg download and the latest version runs under XP (not
sure about Vista). It is not a validator, it doesn't tell you what
errors you may have made (such as not including an alt tag with an image
or a meaningful page name) - it reads it like it is.
Mike