[bcab] Re: Links on web pages and screen readers

Hi, it depends what you mean. A braille display just relies on drivers from a 
screen reader to make it work. A braille printer functions just like a normal 
printer and does need software to tell it what to print, a braille translator. 
Some translation software lets you emboss straight from Word, some is more 
complex and feature rich. Then you have notetakers which can function both as 
braille displays as mentioned already and as PDA's through Active Sync. In that 
case files are just transferred and on board software controls what you read, 
whether or not there is braille translation etc. What is likely to happen 
though is that web pages will become able to be formatted by the originator in 
such a way that you can port them into word or a braille translator and simply 
emboss them, as well as all the other options we already have, keeping all the 
formatting etc.

Cheers
Dave



From: Léonie Watson 
Sent: Saturday, February 23, 2008 12:51 PM
To: bcab@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
Subject: [bcab] Re: Links on web pages and screen readers


    I don't use a Braille device myself, but had understood that they relied on 
some form of software to create the bridge between themselves and the computer. 
Is this not always the case?  If not, I'd be interested to know more about how 
a Braille device interacts with a computer, in this case how it interacts with 
a web page. Thanks.


Regards,
Léonie.




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: bcab-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bcab-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of 
Dave Taylor
Sent: 23 February 2008 08:22
To: bcab@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bcab] Re: Links on web pages and screen readers


Hi, I wouldn't see that as a screen reader job. In fact, if the tagging is done 
properly, I would see it as the role of a braille translator to translate from 
one format like that to another.  I would not be surprised if braille 
translators, especially Duxbury, at some point relatively soon, start 
developing features for all accessible formats, such as page making facilities 
to allow easier creation of modified print from either original files or 
braille files, the ability to create text and speech Daisy files using 
synthetic speech, using the existing tags to create Daisy navigation 
automatically, etc etc. Braille and Daisy making technologies are bound to come 
together, and it makes sense to be able to do easy print transformations as 
well. Much of this isn't too difficult to do even now, so I expect within a 
couple of years it will be much more integrated into one package.

Cheers
Dave



From: Léonie Watson 
Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 6:36 PM
To: bcab@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
Subject: [bcab] Re: Links on web pages and screen readers


    It's theoretically possible to do this to some extent already. If the site 
has been built using CSS, it is possible to create a specific style sheet just 
for Braille devices, but here's the catch. None of the major screen readers 
acknowledge that such style sheets exist. Neither do most browsers come to 
mention it and that's where the problem lies. The screen reader vendors say it 
should be the responsibility of the browser vendors and vice versa. Meantime, 
here we all are...

Regards,
Léonie.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: bcab-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bcab-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of 
Dave Taylor
Sent: 22 February 2008 09:09
To: bcab@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bcab] Re: Links on web pages and screen readers


Exactly, and since braille and other alternative format production is moving 
towards using XML single source files, it should get easier and easier to 
render things however we want.




From: Tony Dart 
Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 8:40 AM
To: bcab@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
Subject: [bcab] Re: Links on web pages and screen readers


Basically, we are back to  the same question for any sort of media - how to 
alter the presentation of the same content to suit different needs. And the 
answer is the same - richly structured content with a filter at the 
presentation level. How long before the web moves to XML? (Don't laugh - it 
will happen.) Then web-designers could do as they liked and our software could 
pull out the bits we want. Hmmmm.

Tony

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Clive Lever 
  To: bcab@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
  Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 1:34 AM
  Subject: [bcab] Re: Links on web pages and screen readers


  Hi Léonie,

  I suppose the classic instance of this is the Deaf lobby who often cry out 
for features which make information inaccessible to blind people, and possibly 
vice versa.  How do you square:
  "Fewer words, more pictures" 
  with 
  "Fewer pictures, more words".

  The Deaf community even has different meanings for the word Deaf depending on 
the case of the initial letter.  How do you do that with speech.

  So you get:

  Deaf people benefit from British Sign Language interpreters at meetings, 
whilst deaf people may favour text to speech reporting. 

  Can you run that past me again? I didn't hear it the first time.

  Best,
  Clive



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