The short answer of why some non-standard stuff is accessible but most isn't comes down to a gap between screen reader manufacturers and mainstream technology developers, as well as a gap between morality and business. Thomas has already described how a screen reader works in principal, so you know that if an API doesn't output anything in a standard that a screen reader can understand, you've got nothing. Well, most of the time, there's very little a screen reader developer can do to get better access to that program without changes and code additions being made to the program itself, which can only be performed by the original developer unless the program is open source. And this is where things get stuck. That developer needs to keep the lights on, pay their bills etc, so investing many hours, days, or in some cases weeks of work and having a potential rethink of their design just to support a tiny minority market isn't going to happen. Of course, the larger companies like adobe could assign a small team of developers to the task for months at a time without missing the pocket change, but in corporations that size, it's so important that the money-making machine is kept running 24/7 that even if you do manage to get through the red tape to someone who could influence such change, they'll have a hard job justifying it to their management because again, we don't translate into significant sales. Even at a more morally sound company, beyond a certain size, I'd bet accessibility would be put on the backburner purely from the point of view of risking product destabilization if their code base was currently ticking along nicely.
I realize this is a very negative reply, but so far as I understand it, it's how things work. I'm a screen reader user too man, in my ideal world everything would be accessible, but those are a few of the things that are currently standing in the way. Scott On 1/9/15, Michael Gauler <michael.gau...@gmx.de> wrote: > Hi Thomas, > I got what you mean and with an infinite number of custom controls it is > practically impossible to get them all. > But there are some controls or technologies which have been around for > years. > I obviously don't know how much changes they got over the years. > But I could give you a simple example of what I meant when I said that some > > controls should be made fully accessible. > > We both know that for example JAWS is capable to read some flash content > within a web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer or Firefox). > Not every Flash module is a player for videos or contains animated material > > itself. > If I download a site which uses one embedded .SWF file (HTML code), I can > have that SWF file. > If I download the Standalone Flash Player from Adobe and link my .SWF file > with it, I get a new self contained Flash file. > It is another .exe file with the SWF file included in it. > This .EXE file can be run on any computer even if the Flash Player is not > installed on that computer. > If I run this new file, JAWS will be unable to read the absolutely same > content you could have read on whatever website you took the file or files > from. > No one knows why you can't read the window of that application, allthough > the controls of the Flash file itself were not altered from the web > version. > Flash Player was there before or near the release of Internet Explorer 4.0. > JAWS was probably around for the same time. > And with more and more Windows computers being sold, more people got > internet and such more people used such technologies as Flash or Shockwave > or later Microsoft Silverlight. > I had to access a professional online banking service (within a place I > worked at) which was built with Silverlight. > At this time it was supposed to be a job requirement to connect with this > site. > This company specifically employed blind and visually impaired people. > We had blind workers and some were in training and some tutors and higher > ups were also blind or visually impaired. > At that time we only had JAWS 10 (there was no newer version at that time). > We blind people couldn't use the online banking feature. > Do you want to know why? > Because it was a Silverlight application on a web server embedded into HTML > > content. > We barely got the online database application to work and we needed access > to their data, so we had to use their software to connect to them. > This was at that point a real problem for us. > We could not solve this. > We asked the visually impaired people in the company to help us. > But without sighted assistance it was totally impossible. > > The point of this long story is that some technology is used really often in > > the sighted world. > And while you are right that we can't make our screen readers know > everything non standard, we should at least do with known interactive > content like Silverlight or Flash, when it is taken out of a web browser. > There must be a reason why JAWS can read PDF files (with Adobe Reader) like > > a web page. > But if it works for a browser or a mail client or a the mainstream PDF > reader, surely it should be made possible to do it with the main web > technologies which were there at the beginning of modern screen readers. > And since that the beginning I have never seen Flash Player (binary, not web > > object) support and no explanation why this is. > This were just examples of the often used and common technologies or > programs. > And at least they should be usable with screen readers. > > > --- > 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.
