[Athen] Slightly OT: A concern for the future of Windows-based
AT
Dan Comden
danc at uw.edu
Wed Jul 25 22:49:05 PDT 2018
That article puts the onus on browsers. AT still has it handled for the
most part.
I'm not trolling, really. We have HTML standards and ARIA -- and AT can
know that stuff if it's coded properly. It's the OS and app builders who
are falling short, in my opinion.
Discuss :)
-*- Dan
On Tue, Jul 24, 2018 at 7:31 AM, Deborah Armstrong <
armstrongdeborah at fhda.edu> wrote:
> I respectfully disagree. Screen readers still largely have a use case of a
> static web page. They don’t cope well when a page changes constantly. All
> geographic relationships between pieces of data are lost as it’s displayed
> in a flat representation – see this blog post for clarification:
>
> https://www.marcozehe.de/2017/09/29/rethinking-web-
> accessibility-on-windows/
>
>
>
> They ignore some clickable elements. They tell the user that he’s focused
> on an edit box when he isn’t. Various browser and screen reader
> combinations give different results.
>
> The very fact that there are three different modes of JAWS to access a web
> page, forms mode, virtual cursor and application mode and the idea that the
> user needs to understand the concepts of HTML (navigate to the third list
> to find your homework assignment!) makes the web more confusing for the
> screen reader user than working say with something simple like Wordpad.
>
>
>
> Now take a magnification user. I was just helping someone last week with
> this completely accessible page:
>
> http://www.accessibleworld.org
>
>
>
> and she didn’t see one of the columns at all. She was reading only half
> the page, because she didn’t know there was a column to the right. The
> screen reader user doesn’t know there are columns at all.
>
>
>
> And if we’re talking about users with learning differences, consider how
> each web interface – online learning is a great example – is completely
> different. Do you go to tasks, preferences, settings, options or profile to
> set up for your online class? With a busy page, where do you tell the
> speech to start reading? If you use a keyboard, is it alt-O, ctrl-O,
> shift-O, ctrl-alt-f then O or is it Alt1, then O to open a file? I’ve seen
> different online apps that use these keystrokes, whereas a mouse user just
> clicks “Open”.
>
>
>
> Back in the early 1990s when Alan Cooper wrote “The Inmates are running
> the asylum” we learned how the presence of modes and the absence of
> consistency in an interface made it problematic.
>
>
>
> OK, so this has nothing to do with AT. But AT isn’t coping with it
> gracefully either; it’s giving access, but the ramp is pretty darn steep
> for a manual chair!
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu] *On
> Behalf Of *Dan Comden
> *Sent:* Monday, July 23, 2018 10:53 PM
> *To:* Access Technology Higher Education Network <
> athen-list at u.washington.edu>
> *Subject:* Re: [Athen] Slightly OT: A concern for the future of
> Windows-based AT
>
>
>
> Hi Deborah,
>
> Thanks for linking the article. The following is not directed at you. And
> your article is not Off Topic at all.
>
>
>
> How about a different position -- AT has things handled. For the most
> part, screenreaders, TTS, STS, magnifiers -- they all understand basic
> underlying html.
>
>
>
> So who is getting it wrong? The companies putting out shoddy interfaces
> and non-standard apps? Or the browsers? Assistive tech for the most part
> has it handled.
>
>
>
> Discuss.
>
>
>
> -*- Dan
>
>
>
> On Mon, Jul 23, 2018 at 1:46 PM, Deborah Armstrong <
> armstrongdeborah at fhda.edu> wrote:
>
> Bloomberg has an interesting story about Amy Hood, Microsoft’s CFO.
>
>
>
> One business trend for this past decade is that a CFO is no longer a
> glorified accountant/budget analyst. They are now part of the senior
> management team – determiners of strategy rather than implementers.
> Microsoft’ Q4 earnings report came out Thursday and according to Bloomberg,
> investors are saying Ms. Hood is the best CFO Microsoft has ever had.
>
>
>
> One thing she’s done is take money away from legacy divisions and put it
> in to the cloud. Since 2002 when she was hired her goal is to move
> Microsoft more towards cloud-based subscription models for their products –
> I’m paraphrasing Bloomberg here—previously most divisions could ask for
> what they wanted budget-wise and could expect to get it – that’s no longer
> true. Bloomberg also comments that Ms. Hood timed her start date back in
> 2002 to get maximum access to the employee stock purchase plan.
>
>
>
> So despite what we see at conferences with Microsoft’s waving of the
> accessibility banner, I don’t think it’s going to be smooth sailing ahead.
> If it doesn’t improve growth it’s going to be ignored.
>
>
>
> The earnings reports no longer say anything about Windows, so we can
> assume it is gradually going to just be a framework for a browser; already
> most new apps are PWAS (progressive web apps) which means no installation,
> no data on your own PC, but you need to be online to access any of it.
>
>
>
> This means that AT is going to need to get much better at dealing with
> progressive web apps and other online offerings. For keyboard users, there
> is no longer a consistent, reliable set of keystrokes for operating
> web-based applications. For screen reader users, just to take one example,
> pressing Tab can take you out of the application and in to the address bar
> which is very confusing; imagine if a single and frequently used keystroke
> could dump you out of the operating system! For magnification users, the
> lack of standards in a web-based interface means that you can miss
> important information because you weren’t looking in the right place.
>
>
>
> The full Bloomberg story is here:
>
> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-16/how-
> amy-hood-won-back-wall-street-and-helped-reboot-microsoft
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.bloomberg.com_news_articles_2018-2D07-2D16_how-2Damy-2Dhood-2Dwon-2Dback-2Dwall-2Dstreet-2Dand-2Dhelped-2Dreboot-2Dmicrosoft&d=DwMFaQ&c=xoYdONxMEGxjdvKj5bOdEOV28uakaJ20R4TjadGGZBc&r=gcvya4Pqy0A2EsMRyTgo_3n3PIn53GqWAnSNzbIFuBs&m=CcimSMQ4xO57bauN-QFhIWxzoCQCJz9__fybuJ6oxQE&s=wqlaq2O3tzSI4ZWKS_M2IOpRhyt1HJAQC3w8PzmD-4o&e=>
>
>
>
> --Debee
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> athen-list mailing list
> athen-list at mailman12.u.washington.edu
> http://mailman12.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/athen-list
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__mailman12.u.washington.edu_mailman_listinfo_athen-2Dlist&d=DwMFaQ&c=xoYdONxMEGxjdvKj5bOdEOV28uakaJ20R4TjadGGZBc&r=gcvya4Pqy0A2EsMRyTgo_3n3PIn53GqWAnSNzbIFuBs&m=CcimSMQ4xO57bauN-QFhIWxzoCQCJz9__fybuJ6oxQE&s=3PMF9EpgAszRseQNuQxVfOH-xB55xsyfOBJTRTQehLs&e=>
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> -*- Dan Comden danc at uw.edu <danc at washington.edu>
>
> Access Technology Center www.uw.edu/itconnect/accessibility/atl/
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.uw.edu_itconnect_accessibility_atl_&d=DwMFaQ&c=xoYdONxMEGxjdvKj5bOdEOV28uakaJ20R4TjadGGZBc&r=gcvya4Pqy0A2EsMRyTgo_3n3PIn53GqWAnSNzbIFuBs&m=CcimSMQ4xO57bauN-QFhIWxzoCQCJz9__fybuJ6oxQE&s=ACdqLB_jiUKN0bD2hQIeLaS3m_fSPqsQqk-Iu6t-g1o&e=>
>
> University of Washington UW Information Technology
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> athen-list mailing list
> athen-list at mailman12.u.washington.edu
> http://mailman12.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/athen-list
>
>
--
-*- Dan Comden danc at uw.edu <danc at washington.edu>
Access Technology Center www.uw.edu/itconnect/accessibility/atl/
University of Washington UW Information Technology
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman12.u.washington.edu/pipermail/athen-list/attachments/20180725/2bfaefdd/attachment.html>
More information about the athen-list
mailing list