[bcab] Re: Residual vision was Accessibility considerations

 this is most interesting  " you are not expected to have any vision? I
always understood Jaws was  meant for people  with Visual impairment up to
and including total Blindness,  Well Well, so even an Assessment in one's
own home by 2 sources  and who advise packages costing in each case well
over £3,000 and this several years ago and neither organisation saying other
than Of course it will work black screen are they  true or Porkey Pies?
dorothy
----- Original Message ----- From: "Tristram Llewellyn" <tris-l@xxxxxxxxxx> 
To: <bcab@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2007 11:11 AM
Subject: [bcab] Re: Residual vision was Accessibility considerations


"if people have got even a little bit of sight, why don't they make the most
of what they've got instead of giving the impression that they've got no
sight at all?"

I don't know if this is quite accurate.  Most if not all visually impaired
however much vision they have use it as much as they can.  However, the
world, general public etc. do not often have time for an accurate perception
of visual impairement unless they experience it for themselves.  It is both
simpler and more comfortable for most general public to assume if you have a
cane or a dog you have no useful vision.  Consenquently if you have neither
you are not visually impaired.  If, as I have, narrowly avoiding fast moving
pavement cyclists, they think you are thick or swear at you because you
haven't spotted them thirty yards off, I suspect if there was a cane or a
dog this would not occur. Therefore I suspect for most visually impaired
people it is simpler to accept offered help or explain they have no sight
than go into chapter and verse about their eye condition.  As for partial
sight I think neither sighted or totally blind understand where you are
coming from.

As for developers of software or technical aids I would also dissagree, Jaws
is not aimed at those who are sighted, you are not expected to have any
vision for Jaws.  Indeed Jaws far too much info for anyone with any useful
vision.  Packages like Zoomtext and Magic with speech are targeted
specifically at those groups and Dolphin Supernova is practically a one stop
shop for everything if you want it, Dolphin make a very good living doing
that.  Historically magnification packages always went ahead of speech
applications, there was a Lunar for Windows even before any speech acess to
Windows.  Those with some useful vision are even catered for in a basic way
in Windows with enlarged schemes that for some may even preclude use of
access technology.

Where there is a difficult crossover is where people want screen reader
speech and are hanging onto very little vision via magnification.  I have
come accross people using screens with much less than a full word visibile
on the screen struggling even for some minutes to read that one word, this
is just not efficient even if their sight holds up for the duration.  There
is also a difficulty in negotiating two different worlds of speech and
magnification.  They are very different and I think in some extreme cases
cause confusion rather than being a compliment.

Because of the very real emotional, practical and cultural significance of
sight loss in particular, and sight impairement in general, it is difficult
to educate those who do not experience this as much as those who are
visually impaired people would like.  In the end you can only provide an
incomplete or at best generalised picture.  Western culture from what I can
percieve is actually moving into ever more complex and nuanced visual modes
of communication rather than meeting with an experience that visually
impaired people would understand probably because it affords faster
communication.   The apparant popularity of the Microsoft Office 2007 ribbon
technology may be seen as an example of that

Regards.

Tristram Llewellyn
Sight and Sound Technology
Technical Support
www.sightandsound.co.uk


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