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

    Thanks for the description. It sounds as though screen readers, as well
as various Braille devices, would need to be able to recognise Braille style
sheets in order for them to work effectively.  
 
 
Regards,
Léonie.

  _____  

From: bcab-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bcab-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Dave Taylor
Sent: 23 February 2008 19:22
To: bcab@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [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 <mailto:tink@xxxxxxxxxx>  
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 <mailto:tink@xxxxxxxxxx>  
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 <mailto:tony@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>  
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 <mailto:clive.lever@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>  
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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