From: "Karl Swedberg" <k...@englishrules.com>
On Jan 22, 2010, at 12:54 PM, Octavian Rasnita wrote:
With the web-based forum, while on the thread you want to email or
link to
1. Click 'Permalink'
I can't click because I can't use a mouse. I need to press probably
tens of tab keys until I find that link, and if I type too fast I
might skip it and need to tab over the same links for more times.
And after I press enter on that link I would need to jump over more
other page parts until I reach to the real body of the message.
While most of the other complaints in this thread seem to be based on
personal preference, this one is a serious issue. We have raised the
issue of keyboard accessibility with the Zoho team, and they're
working to ameliorate it.
Not only some, but all I said are based on personal preferences, because if
I wouldn't prefer that way, I wouldn't tell you about it. :-)
I didn't even tested too much the new forum, because no matter how
accessible would be a web page, it would be always less accessible and
usable than a good desktop app, so the usability is the one that matters,
not only accessibility.
As an example, for moving to the next unread message in Outlook Express, I
just need to press a single hotkey (Ctrl+U). If I want to delete that
message (or thread, because it can cover a whole discussion), I just need to
press a single Del key.
If the same things can be done at least as easy as this, I would instantly
start to like the forums.
Oh yes it is, because a web page doesn't offer the same
accessibility features for a screen reader as a desktop app does.
And unfortunately most RSS readers also use a web format, so they
are not better accessible at all.
There are plenty of desktop RSS readers available for PC and Mac.
I know, but most of them use an internal window that uses HTML, because most
RSS content includes HTML code, so it is the same thing, or even worse,
because at least Internet Explorer and Firefox have some scripts for the
screen reader that make them more accessible, but those RSS reader don't
have such a thing.
I haven't tested all RSS readers ever made, but not all the desktop apps are
accessible for screen readers. For example the TK/GTK interfaces are not
accessible at all (under Windows), The Java SWING-based interfaces are very
hard accessible and slow responsive with JAWS (the screen reader I use),
the QT interfaces are also not accessible at all... even the DotNet (Windows
Forms) have accessibility issues.
If it would be easier to use a forum, I would gladly start using one.
Octavian
