Re: Accessible Adobe Photoshop and flash
- From: "Octavian Rasnita" <orasnita@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2007 22:28:57 +0300
Well, I have no reasons to promote me and to create a program or web site for
that. I have a full time job and I am very content of it.
When I talk about any kind of jobs accessible for the blind, I am thinking to
ajob that could be filled by many blind persons, not only by some very
intelligent or skilled people, or by those that need to have a special talent
or a big luck to find a job in those fields.
For example programming is something that could be learned by many blind
computer users, better or worse, but they could do what they know to do very
well, in a pretty accessible way.
If I'd recommend a possible job to a blind person, I won't tell him that I
recommend to become a musician, just because it is something accessible,
because that job requires talent, and not everyone has such a thing.
Well, a good designer of any kind should also have talent, and it should not
just know html.
Octavian
----- Original Message -----
From: John Greer
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2007 7:59 PM
Subject: Re: Accessible Adobe Photoshop and flash
But just being a web designer was not my only point. I know that your
knowledge extends beyond just html code. What I meant was have you possibly
considered creating a game, then creating a website to promote this game. Or
an application that may be in demand or may need to be made. Have you maybe
considered teaching? Of course making the game or application is only half of
the battle, because then you have to promote it. Here is another example of a
simple idea that has seemed to have taken off because of a simple marketing
strategy change. Text Aloud., when I first found them was just a simple
website with the only program on it being text aloud. I downloaded the program
thinking it would help me out since the only screen reader I had was Narrator.
When I found out that I could copy the text from a web page and it would read
it to me automatically, I decided to email David. What I told him is I didn't
think he understood the potential of what he had. I told him that I was a
blind computer user and that it helped me to get around the net but it needed a
little work. It at the time did not work very well with screen readers. He
responded to me saying that he was actually starting beta testing on a new
version and if I would be interested in helping make it more accessible. I of
course joined the beta team along with one other blind person. We helped to
explain to him what the program needed and some things he put in and some he
didn't but I have to say the end result is alot more accessible than what he
started with. Well it wasn't long after 2.0 was released that he caught the
attention of a company called ZD net. He got his program promoted and reviewed
on a show they had called call for help and he kind of took off from there.
But all he really did was did a little change in his marketing strategy. Soon
there wasn't a search on google that I could do having to do with the blind
where an ad for text aloud wouldn't come up. Today he has a few more products
up there but he also has a bit of software up there again for people that have
lost their ability to speak. When last I checked he sold the product for 99
dollars US. That is about 2000 dollars cheaper than similar products that
perform the same function. Now I sit and I think sometimes, did my email
change his mind about what he had? I believe it did. Of course I have since
been able to purchase a copy or two of jaws and find myself using it less than
before. But I do still keep it around for reading pdf files etc. And I do
still keep it around because I do get the product for free for the help I gave
him.
----- Original Message -----
From: Octavian Rasnita
To: programmingblind@freelistsorg
Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2007 11:04 AM
Subject: Re: Accessible Adobe Photoshop and flash
Yes I agree with you, I also didn't like those complex web pages hard to
use even when I was sighted.
But this has nothing to do with the requirements for the web designers.
Most of the web users I know know that the web browser has a scroll bar and
that a web page can be longer than the screen, but they usually forget that,
and if they cannot see everything on the first page, they tell that "that link
doesn't exist", so the blind designer must make the pages to fit on one screen
even if they need to show more links or pictures.
The users I'm talking about use to like the menus created with Javascript
"because they are easier to use", and they also like to push "nice buttons"
instead of clicking on links, even though in fact those nice buttons are simple
links with images that change themselves when they hover the mouse above them.
But they don't know that, and they are confused if you tell them that those
are links and not buttons.
And the blind designer might be also confused, because the screen reader
tell him that those are "links" and he cannot see what contain those images.
We are talking about web design companies, about companies that create very
many pages one after another, for other clients, which are usually smaller
companies that don't have an iT department, and most of those clients don't
have an idea about what a good site means.
And I also know that some web design companies are good and they give good
advices about how a good web page should be, but most of those clients don't
agree and like flashy pages, because "they are more dynamic". Most of those
clients don't know or care about the persons with disabilities or about their
needs, and they ask for that kind of pages we don't like. And the interest of
those web design companies is to serve their clients, not to follow W3C's
recommendations or to care about the blind persons.
In these conditions, a blind web designer might be asked for many times to
create web pages that are inaccessible for the blind, and of course that a
blind web designer won't be able to do a good job in those cases.
A very important bank from my city changed its web site which was very
accessible a few weeks ago, and now it uses only Flash.
They didn't do it themselves, but a web design company. Now I can't read
absolutely anything on their web site. Of course they don't care about the
blind, and of course they won't improve their site just because a few blind
persons will ask them.
And there are other cases like that. I don't think a blind web designer
could work for such a web design company.
Those companies are usually pretty small because the market for web sites
is not extraordinary big and there are more web design companies, and I doubt a
blind web designer can find a job. Maybe only by chance...
Octavian
----- Original Message -----
From: John Greer
To: programmingblind@freelistsorg
Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2007 5:47 PM
Subject: Re: Accessible Adobe Photoshop and flash
So, I have to ask, have you tried creating your own business concerning
web design? What I mean is you could start your own business with a few
friends and market your services through web advertising. Much of your
advertising could also be for free if you search around. For example you can
submit your website to search engines, advertise through link and banner
exchanges etc. Web pages do not have to be complex or riddled with pictures to
catch a sighted person's attention. In fact many of the web pages out there
are very over done. pogo.com is the first example that comes to mind. E bay
is another. Now while they have all of the flashy graphics etc. etc., to the
sighted they are cluttered and disorganized. It does not require that you use
every web technology at your disposal to create a useful website. Take a quick
glance at the source for google.com. The layout visually for google is a page
with the google logo, a few links, an edit box and a couple of buttons. And
you know, those guys that own that site are worth hundreds of millions of
dollars. So what I say is instead of having your ideas and hoping for an
employer to hire you, why not take those ideas and create a business of your
own with it. Sometimes all it really takes is a simple but unique idea. Ask
the guy that invented the pet rock how much he made from a rock glued to a
board with a paper that said if it is wet it is raining.
----- Original Message -----
From: Octavian Rasnita
To: programmingblind@freelistsorg
Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2007 7:21 AM
Subject: Re: Accessible Adobe Photoshop and flash
Yes but we had this discussion before and I shown that the design of
that site has not a commercial quality.
Helpful for the blind and maybe other persons, but not appropriate for
promoting a real business.
Yes there are companies specialized for web design that have many
employees and some of them could do just a part of the work while others could
specialize in other fields, however there are very few such companies in some
countries, so the possible oportunities of getting a job in one of them by a
blind are very few.
On the other hand, I've seen that those companies requires much more
from a perspective employee, from knowing PHP, Javascript, knowing a foreign
language like english or french, doing graphics in a certain program like
Photoshop or Photopaint, considering Flash knowledge as an advantage, and other
things.
Well, in that case a blind web designer has almost 0 chances of getting
a job, because not only that he cannot do all the things, but he cannot do the
things considered an advantage either.
I haven't seen any job announcement that asks for knowing the World
Wide Web Consortium recommendations, and knowing HTML is something very normal.
Octavian
----- Original Message -----
From: John Greer
To: programmingblind@freelistsorg
Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2007 10:55 AM
Subject: Re: Accessible Adobe Photoshop and flash
I think what is happening here is people here are lumping web
designer together as a single profession. When you are working for a company,
there is usually a web design department. But, that web design department
consists of many other positions, graphics design, lay out design, concept
design, data entry, coding etc. etc. When working for a company in some cases
more than just one person makes the web page happen. The question is can a
blind person do every aspect of web design? The sad but true answer is no.
But in some cases as I said there is more than one person involved in the
design of a website. Web designer is not the only profession involved in the
creation of a web page. The person that does the graphic designed can also be
called as a general label a web designer if he or she does it for web content.
The same goes for the person that just dreams up the concept of how it should
look and work. Yep even a concept designer can have the general lable of web
designer if he or she does it for web content. That's right web designer is
just a general label people will use to explain what they do, but there is more
than 1 profession involved in web design. Now can a blind person also be a web
designer, the answer could also be yes. For example Inthane is considered the
web designer for the grab bag site. If there are any graphics on Inthane's
site the person who designed the graphic for the site is also considered one of
the web designers for Inthane's site.
----- Original Message -----
From: Octavian Rasnita
To: programmingblind@freelistsorg
Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2007 2:04 AM
Subject: Re: Accessible Adobe Photoshop and flash
Yes, a blind person can be a part of a team of web designers,
because he can do some things.
But he cannot be a web designer, because in that case he would need
to make what an entire team of web design does.
The designer should not just place the images or other web page
elements, but he also need to create the javascript that replaces the images
with other images when hovering with the mouse on them, or align the images in
terms of pixels not by their margins, but sometimes by on the elements
contained on some images, and when the layout doesn't look nice he should crop
the images, or add some transparent margins, but if someone else should do
this, than we can say that somebody else should do the biggest part of the job,
while the blind web designer should only type some html attributes.
Octavian
----- Original Message -----
From: Peter op 't Hof
To: programmingblind@freelistsorg
Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2007 8:33 AM
Subject: Re: Accessible Adobe Photoshop and flash
Hi,
The only reason to have any luck in webdesign as a blind person
is to use a content-managementsystem, so the images can be placed or by
users/administrators/publishers or be placed by the blind person self with
exact directions where to put the images whcich are design by an other person.
The same goes for forms or charts.
In my current job i do some of the functional design so there are
many more ways to do a propper job in this field.
I do not want to state that a blind person can do it allone.
He/she has to be part of a team.
Greetings,
Peter op 't Hof.
----- Original Message -----
From: Octavian Rasnita
To: programmingblind@freelistsorg
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 10:01 PM
Subject: Re: Accessible Adobe Photoshop and flash
If somebody cannot even crop a simple image, that person cannot
call himself a web designer.
Even a kid can adjust some image or table sizes in an html
document by setting some attributes in some HTML elements, but this doesn't
mean that the person that can do this is a web designer.
But maybe we speak about different terms. :-)
See, in my native language, design means something related to
visual things, like clothing design, graphic art. There are even design
faculties that teach the students how to draw, how to do other visual
arrangements that cannot be done by the blind. On the other hand, there are no
faculties specialized only on "web design".
And something else... The word "design" is very closed to the
word "desen" in my language, and desen means "drawing", so when I hear about
design, I understand that the person that does the design need to be able to
draw, to paint, to do graphics in general.
And another thing. If somebody should check and recheck and
recheck the work of a web designer in order to see if what he done looks fine,
because he cannot do it, then I don't think that person can name himself a web
designer.
And by the way, I would like to see a good looking site made by
a blind if there is such a thing. Of course, not good looking and friendly for
the blind, but good looking for the sighted users perspective. Is there such a
thing? If yes, then please show me, because until then I won't believe that a
blind person can work as a web designer.
Thanks.
Octavian
----- Original Message -----
From: inthaneelf
To: programmingblind@freelistsorg
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 10:18 PM
Subject: Re: Accessible Adobe Photoshop and flash
for that the company has a graphics designer, someone that
specializes in such things, though with the programs I recommended to Marvin he
can reliably size and place graphics on a web page, and I believe it was on the
old programming list, the same place that we had this discussion last time.
in some places and some smaller companies one person does the
graphics and the web design, in other places and larger companies the graphics
designer and the web designer are two different people and work in tandem on
something like this.
I don't know about slide shows, I don't remember if that was
mentioned by him directly or not, but I do know that folks are building games
in flash for the blind, go to the site I gave and look around, you will find
them.
and it may be a case as with power point, once one is sure
one has the proper materials for a PP presentation, one can construct a slide
show in it. I have done so, though it was a long time back so remember
working in it, and yes, I remember having to work double hard and taking the
maximum amount of time that we were given for the project, but I did it, and
the project got me a B, so I think I did alright.
no, we can't yet work with graphics editing and/or enhancing
directly yet teddy, but that's not always the case in the world, and stress the
not always... as I mentioned above.
regards,
inthane
. For Blind Programming assistance, Information, Useful
Programs, and Links to Jamal Mazrui's Text tutorial packages and Applications,
visit me at:
http://grabbag.alacorncomputer.com
. to be able to view a simple programming project in several
programming languages, visit the Fruit basket demo site at:
http://fruitbasketdemo.alacorncomputer.com
----- Original Message -----
From: Octavian Rasnita
To: programmingblind@freelistsorg
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 1:33 AM
Subject: Re: Accessible Adobe Photoshop and flash
Where did he spoke?
I am curious how can he create/crop/modify the images, or
how can he create the graphics on a Flash annimation and how he can verify if
what he done is ok.
Where can I read about that?
Octavian
----- Original Message -----
From: inthaneelf
To: programmingblind@freelistsorg
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 11:03 AM
Subject: Re: Accessible Adobe Photoshop and flash
here we go with this again, *sigh* we have had a
professional web designer out here, who was and is blind... invited by James
homme, and he spoke long and straight forward about this...
later,
inthane
. For Blind Programming assistance, Information, Useful
Programs, and Links to Jamal Mazrui's Text tutorial packages and Applications,
visit me at:
http://grabbag.alacorncomputer.com
. to be able to view a simple programming project in
several programming languages, visit the Fruit basket demo site at:
http://fruitbasketdemo.alacorncomputer.com
----- Original Message -----
From: Octavian Rasnita
To: programmingblind@freelistsorg
Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2007 11:25 PM
Subject: Re: Accessible Adobe Photoshop and flash
Web site development could mean very many things, so
they can tell you to do many things that are absolutely inaccessible for a
blind.
It could mean server side programming, client side
programming, database development, server and network administration, and these
are accessible, but it could also mean web design which is not accessible, or
so low accessible that it would not help any blind person to become a
professional web designer.
Discrimination means very many things also. Nothing
could exist without beeing discriminatory for some persons.
For the blind perspective, something absolutely not
discriminatory would be something which has the same accessibility level for
everyone, no matter if they can see or not.
In your case, if the other sighted persons would be
able to do what that program requires, without using the display, it wouldn't
be discriminatory, but it couldn't be that way, because all the sighted persons
think that "sighted is normal", while "blind is not normal".
In this case, you could ask them to allow you not to
follow the classes that requires using the mouse, because you cannot use a
mouse.
If the professors or other students would be able to do
what you need to do without a mouse but only with the keyboard, than I think
you would be able to do it also.
Forcing a blind computer programmer to use a mouse
could mean discrimination.
Octavian
----- Original Message -----
From: marvin hunkin
To: programmingblind@freelistsorg
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 7:24 AM
Subject: Accessible Adobe Photoshop and flash
Hi.
well, next year looking at doing the diploma in
information technology, website development.
a couple of challenges i have, is that a couple of
units, i probably will not be able to do, as one is to use advanced and basic
features of adobe photoshop, to crop, manipulate images, and create 2d and 3d
animation, using adobe flash, as part of my major project.
Now, the National Traning Information System, which
is governed by a national curriculum, for tafe across Australia, and comes from
the department of education, canberra.
now, as i will have trouble being deemed competent,
because jaws, will not work with this software, as a core part of the course,
and i have spoken to my disability office and the main lecturer, who organises
the learning curriculum and talks to other lecturers.
they will be using adobe photo shop, adobe flash.
i know, i could probably use the flash development
kit, but the major challenge is the graphics side of things. So they are
willing to bend, in their curriculum, as they said i would have an advantage,
if i had sighted help to crop, edit and manipulate the objects.
so, got any tips, tricks, or any work arounds for
that, or is this a dissability discrimination act complaint, that might change
their mind and bend to accomodate, not just me, but another vision impaired
friend of mine is doing the same diploma with new south wales tafe, as this is
a national curriculum, and has been rolled out as the new training package for
the past 12 months.
if you can let me know, how to get round this
problem, as the other subjects, i should be able to use php, editor, my sql
database, visual studio.net 2005, for the asp stuff, etc.
if anyone has had the same problem or situation, let
me know asap.
having a meeting soon to review what i have done this
year for certificate iv in website development.
cheers marvin.
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