[ossrp-control] Re: What Is A Screen Reader?

The idea of making graphics and diagrams more accessible via speech is
interesting, especially for those in art and for students, particularly in
math and science.  However, it may be best to make this a feature and not
required in all situations.  Having never had sight, I would find all the
graphical decorations of the average website interesting to learn about but
overwhelming to "see" every time I log on.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Will Pearson" <will-pearson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ossrp-control@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2005 8:51 AM
Subject: [ossrp-control] Re: What Is A Screen Reader?


> Hi Dennis,
>
> In part I agree with you.  The extent to which features from other screen
> readers need to be somewhat cloned comes down to psychology.  If we do
> things differently, and we also give the user motivation, in the form of
> rewards and benefits outweighing the work in learning the new system, then
> the user should be motivated to learn the new system.
>
> I'm a bit reluctant to simply create a clone of JAWS, Window Eyes and Hal,
> as I  firmly believe that better screen readers can be created than those
> that currently exist.  There's techniques available for gaining access to
> diagrams and images, as well as for giving the user more information about
> wwhat's on the screen, which will lead to the user having a better
> understanding of what actions they should perform when.  All in all, I
think
> that computer use can be made easier, simpler, quicker and more accessible
> than it currently is, and the reason it hasn't happened already with the
> other screen readers is more for commercial reasons rather than the myth
of
> technical limitations that is often presented by the spin doctors of the
> access technology vendors.
>
> So, if there's ways to do things better than the existing screen readers
> then I would really like to take those.  One fundamental aim of this
project
> is to investigate and research techniques for improving screen readers,
it's
> mission isn't really to create a JAWS clone, any way, bugs are hard to
clone
> :-).
>
> Will
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dennis van der Heijden" <dennis.vanderheijden@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: <ossrp-control@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2005 9:47 PM
> Subject: [ossrp-control] Re: What Is A Screen Reader?
>
>
> > Hi David,
> >
> > Copyright a good point, but HAL, ZoomText, Windows-Eyes and Jaws have
> > things
> > in common... by copying the features of each other... but naming them
> > different. So don't forget to do the same ;-)
> >
> > Shortcut keys that are difficult to reach I understand and agree they
> > should
> > be fully customizable. But work with well know predefined sets (Jaws,
> > Windows-Eyes, Zoomtext key. Just like Dolphin did in there 6.5 releases.
> > They have all shortcut of competitor product in there and you can select
> > that shortcut set as well (for transition of other products).
> >
> > Which product will be developed first (the screen-reader I guess) on
what
> > platform etc... where can I find that info?
> >
> > Dennis
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: ossrp-control-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > [mailto:ossrp-control-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of David Lant
> > Sent: woensdag 1 juni 2005 22:01
> > To: ossrp-control@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Subject: [ossrp-control] Re: What Is A Screen Reader?
> >
> > Hi Dennis,
> >
> > Just to pick up on your point about not changing the layout, and to use
> > JAWS.... I'm not exactly sure what you're referring to.  But if by any
> > chance you're referring to things like the JAWS Control Panel or other
> > parts
> > of the JAWS user interface, then I don't think copying it is an option.
> > There are such things as copyright restrictions, and as has been pointed
> > out
> > more than once, personal preference.  Keyboard shortcuts, just as they
are
> > in JAWS, should be customisable, so that the user can set them how they
> > like.  Choosing a good set of starting values for keyboard commands is a
> > worthwhile exercise.  But my own view is that the JAWS approach is not a
> > good one, and I defy some people with only the regulation number of arms
> > and
> > fingers to physically reach some of those keyboard combos on non-US
> > keyboards. <grin>  Oh, and using your nose is not allowed!
> >
> > In terms of laying out the information from the Windows or operating
> > system's GUI, then that needs to be thought through carefully.  I've
seen
> > advantages and disadvantages to the decision to reformat the screen
> > presentation for use by screen reader users.  An advantage, is that you
> > can
> > allow the user to do things with the information that would otherwise be
> > more cumbersome, if not impossible.  However, it does also introduce the
> > possibility that the screen reader might get the reformatting wrong.  A
> > simple example is that on all the development systems I've tried at my
> > workplace, creating a basic web form using Visual Studio.NET is all very
> > good.  But JAWS, for some inexplicable reason, insists on rendering the
> > entire page upside-down.  Not good. <smile>
> >
> > All the best,
> >
> > David
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: ossrp-control-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > [mailto:ossrp-control-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Dennis van der
> > Heijden
> > Sent: 01 June 2005 07:35
> > To: ossrp-control@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Subject: [ossrp-control] Re: What Is A Screen Reader?
> >
> >
> > Hi there,
> >
> > My name is Dennis van der Heijden from the Netherlands and I am new to
> > this
> > forum... but ready to jump right in. My job is to write on AT product
and
> > watch the market for AT (computer related) products.
> >
> > The problem with screen-readers is that all layers, catching XML etc.
> > never
> > worked in the past, because no programmer follows a guideline. So in
order
> > to 'catch' the text on a the screen (for, reading, Braille of
> > magnification)
> > they all now use the DCM (Driver Chain Manager)
> >
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnacc/html/
> > atg_driverchain.asp if the software runs on a Microsoft platform. This
is
> > the location where your software should hook into the video driver and
> > extract the data from. Not from applications, webpages etc. If you want
a
> > uniform system, hook into the DCM that is out there and not think of a
new
> > guideline or one code that only some applications use.
> >
> > When you got the images transformed into text, SAPI speech is the most
> > supported so again please stick to a standard (even if it is Windows).
> >
> > Scripting is great I indeed would create an API and a wizard. The wizard
> > allows a user to adjust web pages, programs etc. (with own tags for
> > fields,
> > buttons, images, links etc).
> >
> > Last suggestion of this newbie here. Don't change the layout, but use a
> > simulair layout. Might not be revolutionary but just stick to things
that
> > work in Jaws and just copy it. They really know what their doing and a
> > complete new GUI will take lots of training (difficult to support).
Maybe
> > even use the same shortcut keys... and final... make a multi-lingual
> > system
> > from start (let others translate if they wat... nice job for me ;-)
> >
> > I fully support inexpensive AT program, the need is everywhere in the
> > world
> > (low-tech) AT solutions that run on simple machines with little fancy
> > features... just do the basic right!
> >
> > Good luck and if you need me for simple stuff (I can't program anything
> > but
> > my microwave) let me know,
> >
> > Dennis
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: ossrp-control-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > [mailto:ossrp-control-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of rjc
> > Sent: woensdag 1 juni 2005 19:53
> > To: ossrp-control@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Subject: [ossrp-control] Re: What Is A Screen Reader?
> >
> > There seem to be two diverging needs here:
> > 1. Do everything *right* from the outset. This is fine until the
> > application
> >
> > author decides he doesn't want to right his widgets using UI automation
or
> > MSAA or Swing or whatever API is required to maximize accessibility.
> >
> > 2. So now we have hacks which can try and extract information from an
> > application which doesn't want to provide it in the way required, or
hacks
> > which give us keyboard access where none is provided by the developer,
> > etc.
> >
> > It seems that both these behaviors are required in today's world in
order
> > to
> >
> > make a screen reader which is truly useful.
> >
> > -- Rich
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Travis Roth" <travis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > To: <ossrp-control@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2005 11:53 PM
> > Subject: [ossrp-control] Re: What Is A Screen Reader?
> >
> >
> > Hi Sina,
> >
> > Agreed, the screen reader is going to need to be scriptable. I like the
> > idea
> > of an API. There is a lot to be said about doing accesibility correctly,
> > such as implementing a correct MSAA client, and a correct UI automation
> > client. However I am quite concerned about the many programs and vendors
> > who
> > do not and liley will not start conforming with any guideline so that if
a
> > user really has to use the product, a hack of sorts still has to be
> > created,
> > ala today's JAWS scripts. That's what makes JAWS popular at this time,is
> > you
> > can force it to work with programs that don't conform to accessibility
> > guidelines... At least sometimes.
> >
> >
> > **  Travis Roth
> > www.TravisRoth.com
> > travis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: ossrp-control-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > [mailto:ossrp-control-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Sina Bahram
> > Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2005 10:25 PM
> > To: ossrp-control@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Subject: [ossrp-control] Re: What Is A Screen Reader?
> >
> >
> > Hi Jamal,
> >
> > That's true, but who is to decide which one of those pieces of
information
> > is important?
> >
> > I thought the O in this project stood for Open?
> >
> > Why not let the user decide that ...
> >
> > I'm not being abrasive, honestly.
> >
> > But even after my long phone conversation with Will ... I just really
> > don't
> > like the idea of not having a programmatic way of scripting this thing.
> >
> > Take care,
> > Sina
> >
> > ________________________________
> >
> > From: ossrp-control-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > [mailto:ossrp-control-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jamal Mazrui
> > Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2005 4:18 PM
> > To: ossrp-control@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Subject: [ossrp-control] Re: What Is A Screen Reader?
> >
> >
> > Hi Will,
> > I agree that a screen reader will often have to guess probabalistically,
> > rather than be able to know determinatively, all the semantic meaning
> > intended by visual aspects of layout, including spacing, fon choices,
etc.
> > My hope though is that we develop the huristic analysis capability as
much
> > as possible, separating what is functionally significant from visually
> > decorative or at least redundant.
> >
> > What is the purpose of the dialog?  What task does it enable the user to
> > accomplish?  These are more importantquestions, in my opinion, than what
> > are
> > all the visual effects presented to a sighted user?
> >
> > Jamal
> > ----Original Message-----
> > From: ossrp-control-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > [mailto:ossrp-control-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Will Pearson
> > Sent: Sunday, May 29, 2005 2:39 PM
> > To: ossrp-control@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Subject: [ossrp-control] Re: What Is A Screen Reader?
> >
> >
> > Hi Jamal,
> >
> > It's difficult to quantify the semantics conveyed by a particular
physical
> > encoding scheme in a general sort of way.  There's multiple
> > characteristics
> > of space, namely position, proximity and size.  These can convey
> > semantics,
> > or they may not, in one scenario, size may be used to convey relative
> > importance, whilst in another scenario it may be used to differentiate
> > between two or more groups of items by having the items in each group a
> > different size compared to those in another group.  This is also true
for
> > other mechanisms by which semantics can be encoded visually, such as
> > color,
> > font, and font attributes such as bold, italic, etc.  So, it's very
> > difficult to determine what semantics, if any, are encoded using a
> > particular technique in a scenario devoid of context.
> >
> > There's a couple of ways that this can be presented to a user.  Firstly,
> > you
> > can have some form of intelligent system that will extract the semantics
> > from the visual presentation and convey the semantics to the user,
either
> > in
> > raw form using additional spoken words, or by altering the attributes of
> > the
> > spoken text associated with the item for which the semantics are being
> > conveyed.  The major drawback to this is that it's very hard to create
the
> > intelligence to do this in an autonomous manner, and so the system would
> > have to be taught the relationships between encoding techniques and the
> > semantics they convey in the various different contexts.
> >
> > The second method of conveying the content is to take the encoded
> > semantics,
> > e.g. spatil position, color, etc. and convey this to the user but
altering
> > it's physical presentation.  So, instead of conveying spatial
> > relationships
> > through parallel presentation of different elements, you could convey
the
> > spatial positioning of each element, and thus the rrelationship, through
a
> > series of spoken co-ordinates, which would still leave space as the
> > encoding
> > technique for conveying semantics, but would modify the physical
> > representation of that encoding to speech.  A similar thing could be
done
> > for color, where instead of altering te wavelength of the displayed
> > element,
> > you could just use speech to say the color of the item, which would
still
> > leave color conveying the semantics.  Alternatively, you could have
> > parallel
> > auditory displays that use different frequencies/wavelengths to present
> > the
> > information.
> >
> > That's just some of the ways in which it could be done, and they're by
no
> > means designs.  One point that I think needs to be born in mind when
> > thinking about this sort of thing is the limitations of speech.  Firstly
> > it's serial in nature, and so the more you produce in terms of speech
the
> > more time it takes someone to receive that semantic content, and
secondly,
> > people have a short term memory limit of between five and nine chunks of
> > information, at least according to George Miller's 'Magical number
seven,
> > plus or minus two' theory.  Speech being serial in nature doesn't allow
a
> > user to very easily quickly jump back to a position to review the
content
> > at
> > that position, so people tend to have to remember the content as they
go,
> > and this is stored in their limited short term memory.
> >
> > I think it's something that needs some careful consideration to come up
> > with
> > the optimal design.
> >
> > Will
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Jamal Mazrui <mailto:Jamal.Mazrui@xxxxxxx>
> > To: ossrp-control@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2005 9:22 PM
> > Subject: [ossrp-control] Re: What Is A Screen Reader?
> >
> > Good point.  That is a different, more complex  example, but certainly
> > such
> > scenarios are also common.  I think the scenario that I described often
> > occurs with order forms on the web, typically asking for contact and
> > credit
> > card information in a familiar pattern.
> >
> > In evaluating this issue, at least two questions seem relevant:  (1)
what
> > does spatial information convey about the function of the dialog? and
> > (2) to the extent that functional rather than asthetic information is
> > being
> > conveyed, what is the best way to achieve an equivalent result
> > nonvisually?
> >
> >
> > If there are optional subgroups of fields, then tabbing through all of
> > them
> > is, indeed, inefficient.  To achieve productive data entry, let us
> > separate
> > function from presentation.  The blind person probably does not need to
> > know, for example, how many pixels separate controls in order to judge
> > which
> > ones are part of the same subgroup and which are part of another.  The
> > fact
> > that the border of group boxes uses a 3D rather than simple style is
> > inconsequential.  The objective is to enable the blind person to
identify
> > and navigate to the different subgroups.  For the screen reader user, a
> > multi-page tab dialog might be the most efficient solution rather than a
> > single page dialog where subgroups are indicated by spatial proximity.
> >
> > Jamal
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: ossrp-control-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > [mailto:ossrp-control-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of David Lant
> > Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2005 3:46 PM
> > To: ossrp-control@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Subject: [ossrp-control] Re: What Is A Screen Reader?
> >
> >
> > Hi Jamal,
> >
> > Broadly I understand your point.  However, there are situations where
> > simply
> > going sequentially through the items in a dialog is not the process
> > required
> > for daily use of a facility.  If, for example, your job is processing
pay
> > claims, and allocating charge codes to the relevant portions of hourly
> > rates, overtime rates, expenses and so on, it would, and does, become
> > extremely tedious having to tab through all the fields that may have to
be
> > displayed to inform you what needs to be done.
> >
> > It may be much quicker, if the pieces of information are all grouped in
> > one
> > control group, and the fields you need to fill in are in an adjacent
one.
> > There may very likely be other data on the screen at the same time,
which
> > don't relate directly to the job in hand.  Sighted people visually skip
> > over
> > that stuff, such as the box at the top giving the identification summary
> > of
> > the person and their pay reference etc.  They see that the boxes they
need
> > to work with are all in two rectangles on the right of the screen, one
> > above
> > the other, and so visually concentrate on those.  They will glance
through
> > the information in the first box, to identify the hours being claimed,
and
> > will then click in the second box to place an insertion pointer so they
> > can
> > type in the relevant charge codes.
> >
> > For a blind person to do this, they would need to have a quick way to
> > rapidly get to the information in the upper right box, and read it.
Then,
> > to
> > equally rapidly, move to the lower right box, in order to start filling
in
> > the information.  It is true that the fact that these boxes are on the
> > right
> > of the screen may be of no significance whatsoever as far as both the
> > blind
> > and sighted person are concerned.  But the significance is that they
> > separate out the information that has to be dealt with, so that the
> > details
> > on the left of the screen can be largely ignored unless something
special
> > turns up.
> >
> > This, I think, is the kind of scenario that Will is talking about. Not
> > just
> > the fact that address fields are grouped together, but that you may need
> > to
> > perform specific, and isolated tasks on that group, separate from the
rest
> > of the data on the screen.
> >
> > All the best,
> >
> > David
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: ossrp-control-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > [mailto:ossrp-control-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jamal Mazrui
> > Sent: 05 May 2005 08:21
> > To: ossrp-control@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Subject: [ossrp-control] Re: What Is A Screen Reader?
> >
> >
> > Hi Will,
> > I agree that spatial relationships can and do convey a lot
> > of information to sighted users.  I was not arguing that visual
placement
> > is
> > generally irrelevant, but maintain that it can be so for blind users
where
> > it does not affect the interface we experience and the functionality of
> > the
> > task at hand.
> >
> > For example, if the purpose of a dialog is to retrieve
> > typical contact information (name, address, phone, etc.) through a
> > well-understood set of fields, then it may be irrelevant to the blind
user
> > where the controls are placed, as long as they speak properly.  The
layout
> > of the dialog is not an end in itself, but a means to an end, that of
> > gathering the data for a contact record.  The database does not care,
and
> > does not track, where the controls were placed in the input dialog that
> > gathered the data for the record that was saved.
> >
> > To elaborate, I might press tab successively hearing fields like "First
> > name", "last name," etc., filling each one in, including reviewing the
> > data
> > in each edit box.  If the tab order is logical and the field name and
> > current value speak as expected, than it does not matter to me how the
> > fields are aligned, what fonts are used for field names, what point size
> > the
> > entered characters are, etc.
> >
> > Sighted users, on the other hand, are affected by such characteristics.
> > Even if the tab order is the same, logical sequence, they will be
confused
> > if the "City" field is placed above the "First Name" field. If a few
> > fields
> > are cramped together in one corner of the dialog in an unpleasing manner
> > aesthetically, their productivity will be reduced because of the
> > disorientation they experience, etc.
> >
> > Jamal
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: ossrp-control-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > [mailto:ossrp-control-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Will Pearson
> > Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2005 4:25 PM
> > To: ossrp-control@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Subject: [ossrp-control] Re: What Is A Screen Reader?
> >
> >
> > Hi Jamal,
> >
> > "As a blind user, placement
> > can actually be irrelevant, having  no effect on functionality."
> >
> > Based on psychology, semiotics and communications theory, I would have
to
> > disagree with that statement.  A control's relationship to other
controls
> > and it's absolute positioning can be sources of semantic information
about
> > that control's functionality.  For example. buttons grouped together may
> > have similar functionality, buttons placed next to a list box may
perform
> > an
> > action on that list box or it's selected index.  On the web, a row of
> > links
> > placed in vertical alignment at the top of a page are often used as a
> > quick
> > navigational group of links.
> >
> > So. spatial relationships and absolute positioning can add a lot of
> > meaning
> > regarding functionality beyond that conveyed by a simple text label.
> > Users
> > can, and often do, work out the full semantic nature of a control, but
> > this
> > is often through trying out the control and seeing what it does, which
is
> > inefficient at best, and possibly disasterous at worst, imagine deleting
> > something that you didn't actually mean to delete.
> >
> > Will
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Jamal Mazrui <mailto:Jamal.Mazrui@xxxxxxx>
> > To: ossrp-control@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Sent: Monday, May 02, 2005 2:41 PM
> > Subject: [ossrp-control] Re: What Is A Screen
> > Reader?
> >
> > Just an observation to share.
> >
> > In trying to program dialog boxes under Windows, I
> > have experienced the situation where something I developed worked well
> > with
> > a screen reader, yet I subsequently discovered that it was almost
unusable
> > for a sighted person.  A screen reader can tab from one control to
> > another,
> > and as long as each control is properly labeled and otherwise voicing as
> > one
> > would expect at the time it has focus, then the controls in the dialog
> > serve
> > their purpose.  It may be the case, however, that the controls are
placed
> > in
> > visually peculiar, unbalanced, or overlapping places on the screen, thus
> > making the dialog difficult for a sighted user.
> >
> > As a blind developer, I need to know the location of
> > controls so that I can meet the needs of both sighted and blind users.
As
> > a
> > blind user, placement can actually be irrelevant, having  no effect on
> > functionality.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Jamal
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: ossrp-control-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > [mailto:ossrp-control-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Lyn Eagers
> > Sent: Saturday, April 30, 2005 11:19 PM
> > To: ossrp-control@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Subject: [ossrp-control] Re: What Is A Screen
> > Reader?
> >
> >
> > Hi Will and Others,
> >
> > Will, I found your description of what a screen
> > reader is quite interesting.
> >
> > I train people to use screen readers and, from my
> > experience, some blind folk are interested in where things are on the
> > screen
> > (spacial perception) and others are not.  In particular, those who have
> > had
> > sight and were extremely visual people find it important to know where
> > things are.  Some, and I say some, so therefore not all, long term blind
> > people don't seem to be interested in the spacial factor.
> >
> > I am a long term blind person and have always tried
> > to grasp a mental picture of what is on the screen and where - probably
> > because I teach both kinds of blind people and sometimes assist sighted
> > folk.
> >
> > Anyhow, I thought I'd share my experiences with you.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Lyn
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Will Pearson
> > <mailto:will-pearson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > To: ossrp-control@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ;
> > uvip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Sent: Sunday, May 01, 2005 11:58 AM
> > Subject: [ossrp-control] What Is A Screen Reader?
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > I thought I'd share my, rather academic, view of
> > what a screen reader is.  It offers a little glimmer into what screen
> > readers could potentially do, and some of the pitfalls that the current
> > crop
> > of screen readers have fallen into.  All this is from the viewpoint of
> > human
> > computer interaction, psychology and communications theory.
> >
> > OK.  So, what is a screen reader?  Well, it's
> > actually a lot more than people often assume it is.  It's not just
> > something
> > that grabs the text from the screen and reads it to you, well, at least
it
> > shouldn't be, it is in fact the interface by which user and machine
> > communicate semantic meaning, relating to thoughts, concepts, actions
and
> > states.
> >
> > So, how did I arrive at this view?  As some of you
> > may know, I've been researching into semantics and their role in
software
> > interfaces for a while now.  During this time, it's become apparent that
> > software interfaces are just intended to communicate semantic meaning,
but
> > as we're not capable of extr sensory perception and telepathy with the
> > computer, we need some way to indicate our thoughts, concepts, actions,
> > etc.
> > to the computer, and vice versa.  The way this is visually done is by
> > placing elements on the screen, such as icons, buttons, etc. and having
> > their shape, colour, position on screen and relationships to one another
> > act
> > as encoding channels by which the semantic meaning is conveyed.  Users
> > then
> > just point to an object, conveying the semantics of which element they
> > would
> > like to interact with, and either click it or select an action to
perform
> > on
> > it from a menu.  All this is just a form of physical encoding of the
> > semantic meaning between user and machine and vice versa.
> >
> > So, as a screen reader is a replacement for the
> > visual interface, it's role is simply to act as an interface between
user
> > and machine and convey the semantic meaning generated by the machine.
> > However, there's a nasty twist, and that is that a screen reader has to
> > get
> > the semantic meaning that it is to communicate to the user from
somewhere.
> > As the screen reader has no access to the internals of the machine, it's
> > only available source of semantics that the machine wishes to convey is
> > the
> > visual interface, which uses encoding techniques such as colour, shape,
> > position and spatial relationship to convey it's semantics.  So, a
screen
> > reader should really be about extracting the semantics from the visual
> > display and encoding them in a non-visual form suitable for a blind
user,
> > and this is where current screen readers fall down.  To maintain
accurate
> > and efficient communication with the user, all the semantics that are
> > conveyed visually need to be conveyed to the user.  This includes things
> > like spatial positioning and spatial relationships between interface
> > elements, things that are currently lost to the user when they are using
> > one
> > of the current screen readers.  If this were to happen, then the number
of
> > errors, and according back-tracks and reissuing of commands that go
along
> > with errors, would decrease, and screen reader users would be more
> > efficient
> > beasts.
> >
> > I haven't gone into design specifics, as they're for
> > another day, and these can dramatically affect efficiency as well, but
> > that's my thoughts of what a screen reader should be doing.  In focusing
> > on
> > the semantics, then it's likely that through the use of semantic
> > translation
> > access to all those difficult accessibility problems could be increased.
> >
> > Will
> >
> >
> >
> > To post to the list, send a message to: ossrp-control@xxxxxxxxxxxxx To
> > unsubscribe, send a message to: ossrp-control-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > and set the subject field of the message to "unsubscribe" (without the
> > quotes
> >
> >
> >
> > To post to the list, send a message to: ossrp-control@xxxxxxxxxxxxx To
> > unsubscribe, send a message to: ossrp-control-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > and set the subject field of the message to "unsubscribe" (without the
> > quotes
> >
> >
> > To post to the list, send a message to: ossrp-control@xxxxxxxxxxxxx To
> > unsubscribe, send a message to: ossrp-control-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > and set the subject field of the message to "unsubscribe" (without the
> > quotes
> >
> > To post to the list, send a message to: ossrp-control@xxxxxxxxxxxxx To
> > unsubscribe, send a message to: ossrp-control-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > and set the subject field of the message to "unsubscribe" (without the
> > quotes
> >
> > To post to the list, send a message to:
> > ossrp-control@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > To unsubscribe, send a message to:
> > ossrp-control-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > and set the subject field of the message to "unsubscribe" (without the
> > quotes
> >
> > To post to the list, send a message to:
> > ossrp-control@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > To unsubscribe, send a message to:
> > ossrp-control-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > and set the subject field of the message to "unsubscribe" (without the
> > quotes
> >
> >
>
>
> To post to the list, send a message to:
> ossrp-control@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> To unsubscribe, send a message to:
> ossrp-control-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> and set the subject field of the message to "unsubscribe" (without the
quotes
>

To post to the list, send a message to:
ossrp-control@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
To unsubscribe, send a message to:
ossrp-control-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
and set the subject field of the message to "unsubscribe" (without the quotes

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