[CEUD-ICT] WebAIM Screen reader survey results

[Joshue O Connor]

Hi Dónal,

> Do screen readers, such as those in
>> popular usage today, actually provide the kind of access to pages that makes
>> their navigation and exploration either efficient or (to use another word)
>> enjoyable? 

Very interesting question. It seems to me that there are at least two
aspects to this.

1) The nature of the content
2) The tools used to view the content.

Note: You could also add other variables like user expectations, prior
knowledge and technical skill but I will stick with just two.

To look at the first. While there are very many great things that can be
done in general HTML offers a limited semantic toolkit to describe
content. So if the answer is tending to the no side of the equation then
this could be a part of the reason. When you go outside of the realm of
HTML, which for all of its faults is the lingua franca of accessibility,
you are then looking at rich media and other platforms such as Flash
etc. These have been not very well supported by screen readers and it is
very rare to find accessible Flash content etc in the wild not to
mention other platforms like Silverlight or AIR or whatever the API du
jour is.

This semantic gap is being currently filled by emerging standards like
WAI ARIA, which is very exciting. Waiting for HTML 5 will be like
waiting for Godot except not as action packed.

Regarding part 2. The tools themselves. For a start a screen reader is a
really, really, complex application that can take years to get to a
degree of fluency with. So I think the complexity of the tools
themselves plays a part in the equation. Support for how content will be
viewed on various platforms is an issue but this is improving. The
plethora of platforms and multitudes of offline content (PDF and Word
docs etc) can be made accessible and the same modes of access and
functionality can be called on. Like the user browsing by headings and
so on. So where am I going with this? I guess its a how longs a piece of
string kinda question? The answer is subjective and with the right kind
of people in the know helping things along, it will get better.

My 2 cents.

Josh




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