Video of Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan

The following is a repost from BoingBoing for those who might not have already read it:

Wow! From Coilhouse:
Helen Keller — inspiration to generations and inspiration for an entire genre of schoolyard humor — and her teacher and friend Anne Sullivan in a clip from 1930 in which they describe the way in which Helen learned how to speak … It’s a fascinating little clip which pays homage to a woman who, even beyond her amazing circumstances, was a radical socialist, suffragist, and supporter of birth control, who was friends with the likes of Mark Twain and who worked tirelessly to champion the rights of both the downtrodden and the physically disabled.
(Via Richard Metzger)

The Problem With Invisible Links

While I’m talking so much about things related to web development, I thought I’d post a little rant about a subject that’s been bothering me for a while now.

Can developers please, please, please JUST STOP IT ALREADY WITH THE INVISIBLE LINKS! I often work with people who are looking at the screen. When I encounter links that they don’t see, this does absolutely nothing but ad confusion for both of us. If a link is not displayed on the screen, it should, at the absolute minimum, be labelled “invisible” by my screen reader. This will stop me from asking sighted counterparts to, say, click the “skip to main content link, then look two or three lines down,” when the skip to main content link only exists for screen readers. This results in exchanges like this:

them: “What skip to main content link?”

me: “the one at the top of the page.”

them: “I don’t see it.”

me: “It’s, like, the first link.”

them: “No, it isn’t.”

me: “Oh, never mind. Just skip down to the main article. Did I spell all those street names right in the second paragraph?”

them: “Nope. You’ve got an extra d in Dundas. Third line. Fourth word.”

me: “Hold on. I think my screen reader splits lines completely different from the browser.”

Congratulations, everyone! We have now reached the point, in accessible technology, where it is almost completely impossible for a blind person and a sighted person to communicate with one another about a web page. If anyone needs me, I’ll be over here in the corner, banging my head against the wall. It’s more productive than trying to work with my sighted classmates, some days.

The ARIA Saga Continues

This post is all prompted by Google’s recent addition of ARIA technology to Google news, that I blogged about Yesterday.

My post generated a lot of (unexpected, to me) discussion in the web accessibility community. I feel that I’m much too hard on ARIA in my original posting, because user-facing information about what ARIA does is thin and scattered. I’ve been asked how information about ARIA can be better communicated. Honestly, I don’t feel that the problem, in this case, lies with the developer community. As I said in a comment on my blog entry, the fault is Google’s. Google created a link on Google News and Google Reader to websites enhanced with ARIA. However, it failed to explain what ARIA can do for the user, what software the user must have to take advantage of ARIA, or give any introduction of what changes ARIA brought to Google News. Most users, who have older and out-dated software, will find that the ARIA link does nothing, and leave baffled. Those of us who try and investigate will find information about ARIA directed at developers, that provides little to no information about what ARIA does for us, and how to make it work. When, in my case, I finally found out what ARIA enhanced Google News did, I assumed that was the limit of the technology, and left unimpressed. I think that, at this point, the best thing the Web Accessibility Initiative can do is stress the importance to developers using ARIA of ensuring that the user has software that can support ARIA, and explaining how exactly the ARIA page is different from the non-ARIA page. Perhaps some of this effort should also fall on the shoulders of screen reader programmers; most screen readers have anounced to developers that they support ARIA, but they haven’t explained this feature to their users. Perhaps the WAI could create some sort of user-facing documentation for ARIA that developers could link to whenever they create an ARIA enhanced page; but I’m not really sure that that’s the job of a standards body. As things stand right now, blind users are starting to see ARIA links popping up on accessible websites, trying to find out what ARIA means for them, and coming up confused or empty handed.

My original comment follows:

@Shawn Henry: This seems clear enough, but it’s a document for web developers. To me, the user, this is all just theory. What should probably exist somewhere (and maybe does? Google doesn’t index
everything.) is a page describing websites using the technology, discussing what differences it makes for users (like interaction with google chat, the pop-up menus in gmail, etc),
and what screen reading and browser combos support this technology (the only one I’ve got working
thus far is firefox 3+NVDA; Freedom Scientific says they support it, but something must be broken
on all three of my windows boxes because I just can’t make it work). The people who should probably
write this kind of user document, in fact, are Google. They’ve suddenly presented all screen-reader
users of Google News and Google Reader with a mystery link about “ARIA,” (a link that our sighted
counterparts apparently can’t even see, so we get strange looks when we ask about it) and failed
completely to explain anything at all. When people search for information about ARIA on google
itself, it seems they wind up at either web developer resources, year old discussions of google
reader, or my blog, depending on what keywords they use. IMHO, the way to do this would be to
present a kind of “ARIA information page” the first time the user clicks the ARIA enhanced link,
explaining what software they need to be using, and what extra functionality ARIA ads to the page. Pressing questionmark for help, while an interesting interface enhancement, is just so far removed from anything I would ever think of doing on any normal page, that I won’t try it unless prompted with a “press questionmark for help” message. Otherwise, I’ll go hunting for a help link. Because that’s what you do with web pages: you click links on them.

What Is Google News ARIA?

I’ve gotten a somewhat surprising number of hits to my blog over the last few days, coming from lost googlers searching for strings like “google news aria” and “what is google news aria.” Unfortunately, it seems that Google itself doesn’t have any information posted about the subject (or if they do, it’s not ranked highly in Google). Thus everyone is winding up at my rather short entry on accessibility improvements to google news, where I don’t really explain what ARIA is for, because I don’t really know. In an effort to satisfy the internets curiosity, I thought I’d take a minute to do some research on the subject.

According to wikipedia, Aria is really called WAI-ARIA, and:

WAI-ARIA is a set of documents that specify how to increase the accessibility of dynamic content
and user interface components developed with Ajax, HTML, JavaScript and related technologies.

That kind of rings some bells, for me. I vaguely remember reading something about it, somewhere. At the time, I think I just ignored it as yet another of the vague, academic, and impossible to follow pronouncements from The World Wide Web Consortium. The wikipedia article doesn’t help; it’s an awful text block of doomb with hardly any links to other wikipedia articles, and no headings or paragraphs. Before anyone says anything: no, I will not fix it. Wikipedia has a CAPTCHA, and I refuse to give any of my time or money to the organization until the wikipedia CAPTCHA has been completely removed. This particularly poor example of a Wikipedia article also fails to answer the all-important question: what does Aria do for *me*, the user?

An article from 2008 on the Google Reader Blog gives us a hint. Apparently, Google Reader also has ARIA support. The article says that it works with firefox3 and firevox or jaws 8. When using that software, after clicking the ARIA link, pressing questionmark will read out a list of hotkeys. I couldn’t get it to work at all with any version of jaws or firefox. However, it works as advertised in NVDA and firefox 3. It makes working with the extremely ajaxy google reader much easier; hotkeys can mark an article as read, jump from article to article, visit an article, subscribe and unsubscribe from feeds, and more.

But none of that has anything to do with Google News. However, after going to Google News, and selecting the ARIA enhanced link, pressing questionmark will read out a similar, if shorter, list of hotkeys. Unfortunately, when it comes to Google News, I just don’t see the point. I can already jump from story to story by pressing h, as each story now has a heading. I don’t need the special hotkeys that ARIA provides to do this. The other hotkeys in Google News are similarly unimpressive. But don’t take my word for it! Go to the ARIA enhanced google news with Firefox and NVDA, and see for yourself. All the functionality offered by ARIA can be done easier, and faster, with NVDA itself. While ARIA is useful for ajax websites like Google Reader, it’s of no use on Google News. And even in Google Reader, I’m still not sure why we need ARIA. Can’t we already assign hotkeys to things with the accesskey atribute? Many, many websites already do this. Perhaps, though, I’m missing something important. But on first blush, it doesn’t look all that revolutionary. The other advantage of using accesskey is that it doesn’t need a special version of the page, like ARIA seems to. Accesskey atributes can just be added into the original page, rather than building something entirely new.

The best way to conclude my thoughts on the matter is as follows: “meh.”

Accessibility Improvements To Google News

I just noticed this yesterday. I usually read Google News on my Nokia N82. It’s sort of like a morning paper. So it wasn’t until recently that I noticed the regular version of google news had gotten some recent accessibility enhancements. The most important is that each news story is now, finally, a heading. This means that screen reader users can jump from story to story with a single command, instead of cursoring down through all the story content. This makes things much, much quicker! The second is that an ARIA enhanced version of google news is now available. I’m not sure exactly what features this adds, as most screen readers don’t fully support ARIA, but it’s a good sign to see google continuing to adopt new and cutting edge accessibility technology.

Another Source For Described Movies Online

I’m a little late posting this, as I just looked into it today. The National Film Board of Canada has recently posted several described films online for free. They’re mostly nonfiction war films. But if that’s you’re thing, you’ll get a kick out of the collection. You can find the list of described films at this page on the national film board website.

Jaws 10 Beta 2 Now Available

The jaws 10 beta 2 is now available. The email announcement follows. Still, no new features that can compete with Window Eyes, in my opinion. Not that I use Window Eyes or anything.

JAWS public beta 2 is now live!

There is a seriously cool and exciting feature called JAWS Tandem in
this
new release that will certainly change the way people use JAWS! I
certainly
find this feature a huge benefit!

Go to the website to read all about the new features and download the
public
beta.
http://www.freedomscientific.com/downloads/jaws/JAWS-public-beta.asp

Free Accessible Linux Distro

The following information comes from an email announcement in my inbox, this morning. I’m not exactly sure why we need another distro when we’ve already got Ubuntu, but it might help someone, and choice is never a bad thing. Post thanks to access-l.

Free Software Version of the Amazability, Inc. Adept1 Assistive
Technology Product

Amazability, Inc. seeks to provide persons with visual impairment and
other disabilities products which have the lowest cost possible and
which meet people’s access needs.  We have been developing the Adept1
assistive technology product since 2002.  Part of the work has been
done with support from the United States Department of Education, as
outlined at http://www.amazability.com/about.htm, and has included
the design and implementation of a series of applications and
activities intended to work with speech.  Command interaction may be
done with a mix of voice recognition and keyboard input with all
activities designed to work in a similar manner with a minimum of
voice or keyboard commands needed to carry out complex actions.  A
word processor, email with address book, a web browser, and an online
library of books, reference works, and other items are
available.  The Adept1 may be used for all types of programming where
software can be developed, debugged, and run by those!
 who wish to use the Adept1 as a talking workstation.  See the
Amazability, Inc. homepage http://www.amazability.com where there is
a link to a Google Tech Talk that includes, in the latter half, a
demonstration of the Adept1.

Amazability, Inc. is preparing to offer a free software version of
the Adept1 under the terms of the GNU General Public License – GPLv3
- as described at http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl.html

Amazability, Inc. plans to provide the free software version with
publicly available speech engines while at the same time making its
proprietary version, described in the Company’s website, available
under dual licensing.

As the free software version is prepared for publication, we are
soliciting volunteers who would help in building a core group of
developers whose task would be to complete and add to the free
software version.  Additional documentation to insure the successful
transfer of technology and the future implementation of new features
are near term goals.  Longer term goals are to implement portable
versions of the Adept1 and to provide a port of the technology from
Linux to the Windows and Mac OS X environments.

Feasibility studies, focus group activities, and considerable beta
testing have been carried out.  This has led to the design of a
product that our testers find highly useful.  The Adept1 is readily
learned and can serve the wider population of persons, whether with
disabilities or not, who have little or no technical experience.  We
hope that, by making the Adept1 freely available, persons with
disabilities may be able to obtain an assistive technology product
that works for them.

Those interested in participating in the preparation of the free
software version and in forming a support group or who simply have
questions should contact us through email at: ken@amazability.com.

Accessible Second Life

Wonderful: just what I need. Another virtual world to suck up hours and hours of my time. Apparently, a group of folks has created scripts to make second life accessible to blind users. Interestingly, this happened in august, yet it completely failed to draw the attention of audio games, blind access journal, or anyone else. Information thanks to a poster on Audyssey.

Blind Gamers Chess Challenge

Another new game for the blind gamers of the world. Finally, a self voicing chess game to replace the now extremely old Winboard for JFW. This is Windows software; if you’re on OS X, you already have a perfectly accessible chess game.

You can read all about the new game by visiting the blind gamers page at:

www.spoonbillsoftware.com.au/blindgamers.htm

BG Chess Challenge runs in three different modes: Blind accessible, Vision impaired and Sighted, so it is suitable for all levels of visual acuity. It is also suitable for beginners as well as experienced chess players. A separate Word document explains how to play chess, if you have never played before or need to brush up on the rules and you can set the computer player’s skill level anywhere between Novice and Expert, so that you can be ensured of a challenging game regardless of your own skill level. In blind mode, graphics are still provided so that sighted spouses can play along with their blind partners. As with all Spoonbill Software’s accessible games, it is completely self voicing. You will only need your screen reader to read the on-line help, or the separate How To Play Chess document.

BG Chess Challenge is the fourteenth game in the Blind Gamers series of accessible games and is free for the asking.

Window Eyes 7.0 has been Released

Window /Eyes 7.0 is out, finally with scripting support. I’m not a huge Window Eyes fan, but I think comparing the number of features in the latest Window Eyes, the latest NVDA, and the latest System Access, with what we’re getting in Jaws 10 is instructive. Jaws 10 has hardly anything, other than auto forms mode, something other screen readers have had for a while now. Is jaws really so good they have nothing new to offer us? Or is it just that Freedom Scientific is stagnating? The official GWMicro release announcement follows:

GW Micro is proud to announce the official release of Window-Eyes 7.0.  The maturity of Window-Eyes has reached unprecedented levels in this latest version.
The addition of scripting support provides users with the tools to enhance the accessibility and usability of third party applications, the operating system, and even Window-Eyes itself. GW Micro has always stood by the statement that Window-Eyes does not include complicated and proprietary scripting support, and that statement remains true with Window-Eyes 7.0. Instead, the addition of an industry standard scripting interface using tools that already exist in the Windows operating system allows users new to scripting, seasoned programmers, and everyone in between to take full advantage of this powerful new feature without getting bogged down in a complex and rigid programming environment. Users not interested in creating scripts can still take advantage of scripts written by other users through an intuitive script management system.
GW Micro is also proud to offer a centralized script repository where both script users and script developers can gather to distribute and discuss Window-Eyes scripts. More information can be found at http://www.gwmicro.com/sc.
Window-Eyes 7.0 contains several other features, including many Browse Mode enhancements, the inclusion of a new Eloquence synthesizer, support for both Firefox 3 and Internet Explorer 8, and overall increased speed and stability. Window-Eyes 7.0 is fully Unicode compliant, allowing for more localization options for virtually any language. In addition, Window-Eyes 7.0 is the first screen reader to provide support for iTunes 8, including access to the Apple iTunes store.
Thank you to everyone involved in the public beta cycle. Window-Eyes continues to lead the way in adaptive technology because of the dedication of our customers.
Window-Eyes 7.0 is a paid upgrade for existing Window-Eyes users. If you own Window-Eyes 6.1, you may purchase an upgrade to Window-Eyes 7.0 for $175, plus shipping. If you already own Window-Eyes 6.1, and have an active SMA, you will be receiving your Window-Eyes 7.0 CD in the mail soon. Please be patient; all Window-Eyes SMA CDs are our first priority. You may also choose to download your Window-Eyes 7.0 upgrade for immediate installation. To download the Window-Eyes 7.0 upgrade, to check the status of your SMA account, or to determine your upgrade eligibility, go to the Window-Eyes Help menu, and choose the Window-Eyes Upgrade option. Alternatively, you can visit http://www.gwmicro.com/upgrade, and follow the instructions.
If you own a version of Window-Eyes older than 6.1, refer to the GW Micro Window-Eyes Upgrade Catalog page (https://www.gwmicro.com/Catalog/Upgrades/) for applicable upgrade costs.
Window-Eyes 7.0 supports Windows 2000, Windows XP (32-bit versions of Home, Professional, and Media Center), Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista (all 32-bit versions), and Windows Server 2008 (all 32-bit versions).
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at 260-489-3671, or support@gwmicro.com.

Humanware VRStream Birthday Party

The following email comes from HumanWare, makers of the Victor Stream. I’m passing it on for those who own one and might be interested. My Victor is, along with my mac, one of the best devices I’ve ever purchased. I wouldn’t be without it for the world.

Dear Victor Reader Stream Friends:

The Stream began shipping in September 2007 so Stream is now officially 1 year old! Since all of you represent the most important part of the Stream’s success, we want to celebrate with you by having a Stream birthday party. The party will be online in HumanWare’s Talking Communities room. It will begin at 5pm (10pm UTC) on Saturday September 27 and last for 2 to 3 hours.

Like any birthday party there will be birthday cake in the form of prizes. But also like any party, you must be in attendance to win! You can meet and ask questions to behind the scenes people at HumanWare including the Stream product manager, the Stream software development  team leader, tech support team members and others. . We will also have guests you can meet from HumanWare partner companies. And our partners will bring prizes as well! All you need to participate is your computer. If you have a microphone then you can also ask questions and make comments online. It’s a party where we want you to have fun, get to know us and our partners better, and exchange comments with each other.

If you wish to be eligible for party prizes we need you to rsvp to us no later than end of day Thursday September 25. It is from this list of confirmed attendees that we will draw for prize winners. To add your name to the list please complete the simple form at:
http://www.humanware.com/streambirthday

Once you rsvp don’t forget to mark your calendar. You need to join us online during the party to win!

On September 27 at 5pm Eastern in North America or 10pm UTC please join the party by going to:
http://www.tcconference.com/humanware

There you will see a download button and a link to enter the conference room. If you have never used the Talking Communities conferencing system, you will first need to select the download button to install a small, safe Talking Communities client program on your computer. Then you can select the link to enter the room. Upon entry to the room you will be prompted to enter a username and password. Just type your first and last name in the username box and leave the password field empty. Then select the login button. You will hear a small sound confirming you have entered the room. The status line at the bottom of the screen will tell you how many people are in the room and you can press F7 to read the list of names.

So, please use the first link in this email now to rsvp and then mark your calendar for September 27. We look forward to celebrating Stream’s first birthday with all of you!

The HumanWare Team

Jaws 9: Jaws 8 With Bugfixes

Instead of updating the blog last night, I downloaded and installed Jaws 9.0 Public Beta 1. The good news: they finally fixed the blank pages problem! Now, whenever you load something in the browser, it never comes up blank. The bad news: other than some surface features, Jaws 9 is really just Jaws 8 with all the major bugs squeezed out. Shouldn’t this be jaws 8.5? At least it’s faster than jaws 8, and doesn’t give blank pages. If you haven’t yet, you should upgrade for those fixes alone.

Blind Crawler

For those of us still using Jaws for Windows, Blind Crawler may come in useful: it’s a site with the specific purpose of searching jaws scripts. Just type in the application you need, and it’ll pull up the page with scripts for it. It’s…Google for Jaws 1.0!

Change The World! Help Someone…Win A Van?

Yeah, that’s right. Apparently a group called Blind Ambitions is really, really desperate for a Dodge Caravan, of all things. So desperate, in fact, that the president of the group is emailing blind people all over the world to vote in a contest so they can win this van from a Texas radio station. Apparently these guys have no problem at all looking like shameful losers, and don’t give a damn what impression this highly publicized begging gives of blind people all over the world. I’ve included part of this email below to prove my point, but I’ve stripped out the vote link; I hope the group loses the contest, goes bankrupt, and disbands. This kind of behavior is not appropriate.

We really need this van to continue to grow and expand our work. So many people who are blind will benefit from this Dodge Caravan. We really think we will win but we are going to need a lot of help along the way with your votes. Every vote helps. Forward this message to all of your friends, neighbors, and any company that you think might help so you can tell them what they would need to do. Tell them they can vote anytime but just once per day. I can’t tell you how appreciative all of us at Blind Ambitions Groups are about your willingness to help. Please keep voting and telling all of your friends. For more information you can call us at Toll Free (888) 760-9252. Call us and let us know how we can help you help us. Keep voting and vote everyday. We love you guys for all of your support.

IBM Works On Virtual World’s Accessibility

Some estimates predict that 80% of active internet users will be using a virtual world in four years’ time.

The company said that it is keen to ensure that blind people are not excluded from an environment that sighted people will take for granted.

Read more.

80%? I think that’s a case of huge overhyping. Sure, Second Life is touted as the all new thing, but honestly, I don’t know even one person who uses it. The IBM project isn’t even in Second life; instead, it’s in Active Worlds, a website that nobody has even heard of until now.

Story via Audyssey.

SJAMS Beta Download

As the official website seems to be under construction, and a lot of people have asked me for it, you can download SJAMS (the leading talking IRC solution for mIRC with Jaws for Windows, Window Eyes, and SAPI) from this link. Atmospheric rumblings have been heard about an update to the SJAMS codebase going under the name Bexirc, but I will neither confirm or deny anything at this point.

CSUN: presentation deadline tomorrow

For those of you who might be interested in this kind of thing, the deadline to submit for the 23rd Annual International Technology & Persons with
Disabilities Conference at California State University is tomorrow. You can find more information at this website.

Story from Blind Programming.