[bcab] Re: Jaws stops working when I do a Google search

Thanks, Leon

I agree that not having the UK search on the accessible google page is 
annoying, but it is also a pain only being able to get 10 results per page. 
I have my preferences on the google.co.uk site to 100 results.

Perhaps it's time to look for a new search engine.  Anyone know a decent, 
accessible one?  I did read a while back that some guys left Google and set 
up their own, rival search engine, but I don't know what it's called.

Cheers

Barry


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <editor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bcab@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, August 22, 2008 3:33 PM
Subject: [bcab] Re: Jaws stops working when I do a Google search


It's the coding in google.   They are sneaking in more and more web 2.0 
code, and although you may
not notice it so much in Jaws 9, it can be a real problem in older versions 
of Jaws.  Sadly Ebay
have gone very badly in this direction as well.   Examples of what happens 
visually in Web 2.0 code,
which to be honest do not really enthrall so much as infuriate the sighted 
surfer, let alone the
blind one, are:-

* Auto-completion of edit boxes with server-side coded drop down lists of 
suggestions.
* Menu's which pop-up on buttons
* Menu's which pop-up on hyperlinks
* Pop-up's which are not actual new browser windows and cannot be accessed 
via the keyboard with alt
tab.
* Contextual content which is programmed to appear in sponsored ads based on 
the keywords the
visitor uses.
* Animations and continually refreshing content.

As you are using an older version of Jaws Barry, I would stick to the 
accessible google if I were
you!  The company are always messing around with the code on their standard 
page, and I think they
are taking the mickey quite frankly.   There must have been 30 different 
versions of the major
google logo in the past month, yet all of them have said simply "Beijing 
2008" on the alt tag, and
no description has been provided....

But worse than that, on the standard home page they have a got a link called 
"More" which is a web
2.0 control NOT navigable by keyboard, meaning no matter what version of 
Jaws someone has they won't
be able to access it.  Pressing Jaws left mouse click key on the "More" link 
brings down a drop down
menu.   The choices are "Video, Groups, Scholar, Blogs, YouTube, Calendar, 
Photos, Documents,
Reader, and Even More..."   But Jaws simply cannot read these so a blind 
Jaws user wouldn't even
know they were there unless told.  You would think that the company would 
consider these important
enough choices that a blind person might want to access them.  But obviously 
they don't.

One annoying thing about accessible google, is that there is no "pages from 
the UK" option.   This
leads to allsorts of placename namesake errors in the results, directly 
affecting usability.

I get the feeling that the reason they created accessible google, was so 
that they could get away
with accessibility murder on their standard search page.   It has certainly 
gone down hill, by any
measure.

Maybe we can get the old version of Google back from one of those old site 
archive sites?   If so I
would!  At least that one worked properly with older versions of Jaws, and 
less fluent screen
readers.

Leon Gilbert
Editor, www.vipnews.org.uk
About to update July 2008 links...

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Barry Hill" <bbinc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bcab@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, August 22, 2008 2:39 PM
Subject: [bcab] Jaws stops working when I do a Google search


Hi all

For the past two days, when I do a Google search with google.com, Jaws
freezes on me.  I have no problem when I use the accessible google.

It takes a sighted person to shut down IE, then I have to wait a while
before I get speech back.  Using JFW 5.1, Windows XP and, I think, IE7.  Any
idea what and why?

Cheers

Barry

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