Submitted by aDesigner is “a disability simulator that helps designers ensure that their content and applications are accessible and usable by the visually impaired. The new version adds support for OpenDocument Format (ODF) and Flash content; presentation simulation function for ODF documents.” Ever since the first graphic designers started to try to bend HTML to their will, people have complained that many web sites subvert the standards that early web architects designed to make navigating easier for the visually impaired. Read more for more discussion…A recent Computerworld Article laments the state of web browsing for the blind, explaining how the nifty software and hardware that the blind use to navigate the web is constantly thwarted by fancy design and the reliance on text-as-graphics, Flash, and CAPTCHAs.
A discussion of the article at Slashdot highlighted one of the comments made on the original article: “one reader said the disabled should ‘get a grip’ and maintained they ‘have no more right to demand that others provide for their needs than I, as a diabetic, have a right to demand that sugar no longer be used.’ Should Web sites and software makers do more, or does the reality of today’s economics dictate that the blind/disabled will continue to struggle and learn to live with it?” This led to a predictably lively discussion.
Hopefully tools like aDesigner will help those web developers who care about accessibility to design thoughtfully, but with the desktop software tide turning toward more web-based apps, and the web browsing moving relentlessly away from its text-based roots, where does this leave the visually impaired? Will technology come to the rescue, perhaps with specialized browsers that organize the information more effectively for screen readers and braille hardware? Or should the blind “get a grip” and be content to classify the internet’s content into the same category as Van Gogh’s painitings: something they know other people can behold and enjoy, but is out of their reach?
I don’t understand IBM…they primarily write applications in java, push linux desktops, ODF and other cross platform technologies and this useful tool only comes in a Windows executable.
Well, it is a “disability simulator”….
Well, I think the topic “make it usable for disabled users” (e. g. blind ones) is very important. You cannot exclude those users from the geowing market and the increasing requirements of IT.
I may add a simple example: While designing web pages, you’re welcome to use HTML well. It provides many means that allows the designer to create appealing weg pages and presenting the content in an attractive manner, while it’s still possible for a blind person to read the content – transferred onto a Braille output panel or a voice synthesizer. Simple check: Load your web page into lynx or w3m. With many “script kiddies” relying on “Flash”, different kinds of active content (I may count Java here, too) and non-standard designer tools (those that output .html files that do contain anything but valid HTML), the situation is more complicated. Under certain circumstances (that you find nearly everywhere today), a blind person won’t know if he or she is on the right web page, because nothing is Braille-readable at all, not even a “You need ‘Flash’ to see this” is provided. Sad, very sad.
More complicated things are web applications or applications in general that utilize the graphical screen. Their transfer to a Braille output is much more complicated than putting 80×25 terminal content onto it (this is, in fact, very easy).
In oder to make the web more accessible, the importance of standard conformity (HTML, XHTML) should be emphasized first. These basics are most important to know and to use. Yes, it is that easy. Afterwards, further checking programs are very welcome, for example those that can check color reliability with deuteranopia or tritanopia. This is of special importance for GUI design. Things that should not look the same should not look the same to anyone. But remember: The best application cannot help the web designer if he does not know enough about the stuff he’s doing.
Having said this, I really welcome any program that helps web designers who are interested in a barrier-free presentation of the content they want to provide.
I won’t go in detail regarding the mentioned application so I don’t tend to be impolite. See comments above. 🙂