[bcab] Re: Accurate Reporting

Hi everyone

What I find is that every site is different, and the best thing to do is
just read through everything to begin with and get used to the site layout.
We don't know what screenreader the person reported by the BBC was using,
and it may be that they just haven't had the training or length of
experience needed to get really confident.

Using JAWS I find Amazon is ok.  Go to the "search our shops" combo box
using the letter C and you can choose a category, say books.  If you know
what you want, just press F and you will get to the search box.  Press enter
for forms field and then type in your query, followed by tab to the go
button and press enter.  Then you press N, which will take you straight to
the search results.  Below this is a narrow your search section where you
can choose which category your product might be in.  For example, I have
just searched for Harry Potter, and of course, there is a lot to choose
from, but I can narrow it to  books, toys and games, etc, etc.  The site is
very cluttered, and you have to get past a lot of junk sometimes, but with
the JAWS alphabet keys you can usually get to what you want quite quickly.
The thing about shopping online is that, although it might take a long time,
you would probably spend the same amount of time pounding the pavements and
searching in the shops for what you want, so at least you are browsing in
the comfort of your own home.

I do hope you all got my recent message praising the Saver Software site, as
I was so thrilled at how they had laid it out, putting what you really want
to do next right at the top of the page, so you don't have to trawl through
the site trying to find things.  As I said, every site seems to be laid out
in a different way, and it may be that some sort of standard layout for
shopping sites would be a good idea, although I doubt if they would all
knuckle under.

All the best.

Wendy

-----Original Message-----
From: bcab-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bcab-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Nigel
Sent: 30 October 2006 18:23
To: bcab@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bcab] Re: Accurate Reporting

Not true for you maybe, but true for the person concerned.  I don't use 
Amazon as it's far too complicated to use with a sea of links.  Not every 
one is expert enough to be able to use the Amazon site.

Nigel
If computers crashed as much as cars, we'd all be dead by now.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Iain Lackie" <LACKIEI@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bcab@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, October 30, 2006 11:21 AM
Subject: [bcab] Accurate Reporting




Hi
I know that the web isn't always as accessible as we might like it to be
but when there are stories about this covered by the likes of the BBC, it
would be good if we could get some accuracy. There is a report on the BBC
website which speaks of a blind person trying to buy a book from Amazon
which says
"To find the book I wanted I had to go through an absolute sea of links,
and then when I did find what I needed to buy, and added it to my shopping
basket,
I couldn't move forward from there because the 'continue' button wasn't
marked in such a way that I could find it.".

You can see the story at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/programmes/click_online/6090418.stm.

I know that the Amazon site is not perfect but the impression given reading
this story is that the site is not usable by blind people. Yes, I know that
there is a sea of links but familiarity with the site leads to an increase
in speed of use. Goods can certainly be purchased using the site. I know. I
have purchased many.

To my mind, this kind of reportage on accessibility really does the cause
no good as implies something which is not true.

Iain


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