Hi Jody, Honestly, the answer to both of your questions is simple ignorance on the part of the developer. One thing you may not realize is that when a student enrolls in a college class on programming or goes to a tech school that there isn't any time spent on accessibility. College courses and tech schools have a lot of information to pack into 12 week courses so often times the basics of programming and software design are covered, but a lot of things like accessibility are never mentioned in class. It is up to the perspective developer to research on his or her own time.
Since accessibility isn't given much consideration at the education level chances are a developer will enter the work force ignorant of accessibility issues and develop a web site, a piece of software, whatever and make many unintentional mistakes regarding accessibility. It is only when someone with a visual disability like you or I brings it to their attention they are aware of any accessibility issues. By that time they may be reluctant to correct those accessibility issues because it may require both time and energy to fix. If they had known in advance they might have done things completely differently to start with, but the situation being what it is most developers don't know they are making a mistake until they make it and are informed about it. Which directly brings me to your question. Its not that developers are scared of screen readers its that they just do not know anything about them. They are out of their element when we discuss them, and a lot of times a blind computer user expects this computer programmer to know all about it when they don't. As I stated above they may have already invested lots of time and effort developing a site, a piece of software, an application not intentionally creating accessibility issues, but by the time they are informed about those access issues it may require a lot more time and effort to fix than they are personally willing to invest in making it accessible. As far as Flash there are a lot of advantages to using Flash which makes sense why web developers use it. Unfortunately, this is sort of related to your first question. It looks cool, offers a lot of functionality for the developer, but ignorance about accessibility issues means it will be used incorrectly or in a way that isn't screen reader friendly. Not intentionally, but until more mainstream programmers are aware of the accessibility issues with Flash and other technologies we are going to get more of the same. On 9/9/14, Jody McKinniss <jlove42...@gmail.com> wrote: > I have a question related to what you wrote, Tom. My complaint isn't with > changes in software in the sense of ribbons, that sort of thing. My > complaint is that so many mainstream developers refuse to even attempt to > make their applications or websites really accessible. I don't understand > why they are so scared off by a screen reader. Is it really that hard to > label buttons, or add alt text to HTML so that Jaws can at least have some > idea as to what is going on? Question 2: Why is it that so many > developers > are in love with flash content? Almost every website I visit now has some > sort of flash player on it. And almost every single time, accessibility is > abysmal. What I usually get is something like, "unlabeled 0 button. > Unlabeled 3 button." Or, even worse, I get text of some sort of ad, but > there are also buttons mixed in. The most accessible site I have seen to > date with respect to flash content is Youtube. Their player is labeled > fairly well. It's not perfect, but to their credit at least they tried, > and > I can access the major functions if need be. I can mute, pause, and play. > I can even see the bar that controls the playback of the video if I turn > off > virtual PC. So I guess my question is twofold: First, why are developers > so in love with flash, and second, if they are going to use it, why don't > they at least attempt to make it more accessible to those of us who use > screen readers? > > Jody > > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. > --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
