[nvda] Re: Debra's Flash application [was Audacity problem]

Debra wrote in part:

I as a web developer/coder just now realized the need for
accessibility,through meeting Kevin Brown, and learning of the limitations, 
which spurred me to to attempt to create an accessible experience for the
visually impaired. It is also double duty for me, not to get off topic, as I would like to make it work for clients who need to talk into a microphone 
and understand what is being said for speech recognition, I work with
lawyers who wish to dictate and have their documents typed as they speak,
and read back to them.
I have no quarrel with your intentions. However, at this point, at least based on what you say, you met one blind person and are basing your assumptions about what kind of program is needed mostly on one person's experience and knowledge. I thought originally your only intention was to design a player that web designers could use instead of current embedded players, many of which don't have properly accessible controls and in some, the controls don't work at all. Now, it appears you are trying to do much more. I don't have the knowledge of the various problems you are trying to address to comment on what the needs are or may be that you are trying to meet.
If you haven't really researched the field, talked with screen-reader companies, gotten onto a list like Blindtech where a very large number of blind people can comment on your proposed player and the purposes you intend for it and other questions that I may not know enough about the field to raise, unless you have talked with organizations like NFB and ACT who have specialists in technology and blindness who may be able to give you good assessments about what you are trying to do and whether some of the needs you are attempting to meet are already being met, as I say, unless you have done real research, you simply don't know how much need there is for what you are proposing, if it is at least partly unnecessary because other programs may already do what you are trying to do in some cases, and whether the method of access you are using is the best technically.
I'm not saying you have to do all these things. But you have to do enough of them to really understand what is already available, if you are addressing needs that have already been met in some cases and how much of your work is duplicative and how much isn't. This may determine what you want the player to do and in what contexts. One blind person whom you met is simply not representative or necessarily properly knowledgeable. Does anyone designing a product for the sighted world base their decisions on what one person tells them? Not if they're smart. They determine need, not just from one person but from a large enough sample to be sure they are meeting a need. You have made general statements about inaccessible mp3 players. In what context? Embedded players on the Internet or players that are not embedded such as Winamp? Are you aware that Windows Media Player, Realplayer and Winamp are already accessible? Are you aware that, as I recall, at least one company has put out a simple mp3 player for blind users and there may be more I don't know about? Are you aware that lots of blind people use programs like Real Alternative? I'm not assuming what you know and don't know but when you say you met one blind person and now have embarked on a mission based on meeting one person, if that is actually what you have done and gotten your information from one person, then these kind of questions need to be discussed and addressed. I'm sorry if you dislike what I have written. I have tried to be courteous and not attack you in any way. At times, when someone is enthusiastic about an idea or goal, they don't like criticism even if constructive. I have no idea how you will react because I don't know you. However, keep in mind that those who honestly and constructively criticize your ideas are going to be of far more use than those who don't because they are afraid of offending you.
I'm not assuming your ideas and goals are not good ones. I am saying that it appears from what you write that you are unprepared to judge what needs to be done and you need to become knowledgeable first.
Gene 
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