Patrick H. Lauke wrote:
It's probably worth mentioning that unless you invest a considerable amount of time becoming familiar with a screen reader, and use it just as a *real* screen reader user uses it, any testing may lead you to the wrong type of conclusion, or worse tempt you to "optimise" your pages to please a specific reader (akin to coding to a specific browser).
Exactly. That's why I recommend to clients that they farm out this sort of testing to specialist houses who employ blind, deaf, palsied and otherwise 'not ordinary' users who are familiar with their assistive technologies. To be fair, I usually have a look with Fangs first to spot any egregious errors, but quality testing can only come from one familiar with the tools.
At a Web Standards Group meeting in Wellington last year, Jonathan Mosen used his screen reader to show developers what blind users were 'seeing' on their pages. It ripped through the pages almost too fast for most of the audience to hear but they were stunned when Jonathan said he'd slowed it down to about 1/3 normal speed for the demonstration!
cheers Mark ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
