[uf-discuss] Request for help from screen reader users from the BBC

[Frances Berriman]

On 22/05/2008, Alasdair King <alasdairking at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> I cant see why we cant accept the hAccessibility[2] solution and be done
>  >> with it and just use a <span>, I believe most screen readers are not set
>  >> up to read out loud the @title on a span by default.
>  >
>  > Has anyone tested this in various screen readers?  If not, on what basis
>  > would we accept it?
>
>
> >From the BBC page linked:
>  "We've looked at quite a few screen readers out of the box and by
>  default they don't expand abbreviation elements so the user still
>  hears 19:30 not 2008-05-15T19:30:00+01:00."
>
>  I infer that they've tested the screenreaders, they're just worried
>  there are lots of blind people who have turned on ABBR, and the BBC is
>  a big, sensitive target. I know blind people are more annoyed about
>  the lack of audio descriptions in iPlayer, but there'll be some
>  uber-geek screenreader user in a well-off advocacy group who'll
>  complain.

There has been some testing, that will hopefully be published soon,
but it's not definitive (since there's not much data on how most SR
users have their setups).  That's all :)

>  People who have problems will be the subset of users who (use a
>  screenreader) AND (have a screenreader that supports ABBR) AND (have
>  turned on abbreviation elements) AND (come across hCalendar ABBR
>  elements) AND (find this one thing the biggest headache in using the
>  site.) Why not just offer to buy both those people a beer to make up?

Beer solves a lot, but unfortunately, it's not that viable this time.

>  I'll mail my screenreader-using friends and ask them to respond anyway.

Fantastic :)


-- 
Frances Berriman
http://fberriman.com