[access-uk] Speech and navigation, mainly for Peter B and Damon

  • From: Jonathan <digitaltoast@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 3 May 2010 09:12:10 +0100

This is probably going to only be of interest to Damon and Peter or
anyone interested in screenreaders or accessible technology in the UK,
so the rest of you might want to click to the next message as this one
is quite long!

So, a very quick catchup in quotes from February, with my replies inline:

On 25 February 2010 00:27, Peter Beasley <pjbeasley@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> For goodness sake! Even NVDA has a dictionary facility where you can change
> how a word is pronounced. EvenNDDA

I'm so glad you said that, it really spurred me on. For too long,
blind, VI and print impaired web users have had to put up with things
like this:
http://www.reading.gov.uk/Speak/3353.mp3
Don't like their expensive speech system? OK, try your screenreader on
the table:
http://snurl.com/vyhxs (long URL snipped down)

The idea that someone would have to stop and correct pronunciation is
like me having to go through a paper correcting all their spelling
mistakes. (Or "The Guardian", as it's known!).
Talking newspaper listeners want better than that, otherwise how easy
would it be to just get a scratchy synthetic voice to screenread the
local newspaper's website and stick it on a tape?

So that really spurred me on, as did Damon's following comment:

> On  Tuesday, February 23, 2010 7:14 PM, "Damon Rose" <damon.rose@xxxxxxxxx> 
> wrote:
> it's not just about the listening
> experience, its not radio, it's a navigation experience that talks.
>  There are probably half a million mashups I could think of. Would love to
> hear what you're up to off list if you don't want to talk about it openly
> just yet


Well, Damon, I read what you had to say, and after nearly four months,
and with the help of two USENET newsgroups, two mailing lists and the
requests and input from five talking newspapers, I am now putting the
finishing touches to it. I'll come onto the navigation experience in a
minute.

Part of the rationale for the site is that NONE of the 51 talking
newspaper sites I tested passed accessibility tests, and people I had
been working with on another project were saying "I wish there was a
directory" or "My listeners are complaining that they can't play the
audio".
For example: http://ktn.pressakey.net/... No navigation, requires
installation of 12 mb plugin, which includes 5 popup windows and
registering with an email address and password with Real.
Or for another example, what would you do here?
http://www.barrowblindsociety.org.uk/ and how does
http://www.soundeast.org/ suit your screenreader?

And I'm not "picking" on anyone here - a couple of the sites are one,
single huge image made in Frontpage, not even alt text. One even
requires you to move your mouse around a Flash app and click the right
image to listen to the audio.

Four months later, we have (for example)

http://kingston.talking-newspapers.co.uk/
or
http://waveney-words-diss.talking-newspaper.org.uk/

You'll notice the domain is different - this is because some wanted a
different domain, so in fact
http://waveney-words-diss.talking-newspaper.org.uk/ will work too as will
http://diss.talking-newspapers.co.uk/ (it geo-locates based on the
subdomain, which is what the TN's preferred).
Doesn't affect the accessibility, it's just a preference of the
particular TN which one they use. And yes, I'm careful that Google
only spiders one version.

From following the RNIB guidelines, I believe it meets at least WAI
WCAG level 2 Priority AA.
In fact, if I run it through http://wave.webaim.org/ it passes, but
more importantly, it passes all tests from http://try.powermapper.com
and http://www.cynthiasays.com.
(Actually, if you test it right now, you'll find both the above
complain about the RSS certification link (this is to do with w3
blocking the deflected referrer URI) and the fact that number 5
doesn't have a printable character either side of it, but that's just
the way the div works as it's linked to the audio - it looks ugly and
reads twice in screenreaders like that, so in fact it's more
accessible with it out)

It also presents fully valid XML and CSS. The player uses native html
5 audio where possible, and falls back on non-visible flash as a last
resort, which keeps 100% accessibility.

The media is also present as 100% valid RSS and iTune ITPC protocol
links, as well as pls and m3u playlists so the listener can use
"juice" etc.

The colours are cycleable through black on white and yellow on black,
and the inverse of both. The whole page fully scales as per
accessibility guidelines.

Tested in all current version of IE, Firefox, Opera, Safari and Chrome.
Tested with Opera's accessibility mode and stylesheets off and Lynx.

An optional mode exists for anyone linking to the page to have the
audio auto-start:
eg: http://waveney-words-diss.talking-newspaper.org.uk/?speech=true

At the bottom of each page is a div which only becomes active on
clicking a button. This is for visual users to see others nearby on a
map. The optional load is so screenreaders won't start reading stuff
the user doesn't want, and it stops the audio stuttering as the map
isn't being loaded at the same time.

Onto the second part, the finder:
As it happens, halfway through the project, someone asked if I knew
there was already a directory. I didn't, but apparently it lives here:
http://tnf.org.uk/ Go and see if you can find the directory. I'll see
you back here in...a while!
..
..
Not found it? OK, here's a hint:
You drop down the non-accessible javascript menu, and go to local TN contacts:
http://www.tnf.org.uk/... you then choose your county letter, eg
http://www.tnf.org.uk/...
you then find the name of your county, you then find the name of your
TN. You then click a link and it opens up... a pdf!
http://www.tnf.org.uk/...
Let's listen to 78 rows before we find the thing we want...

Anyway, back to my project - now, this section hasn't been as
thoroughly tested yet as it's still in dev, so ideas appreciated.
However, it's at the stage where people are happy to be listed, and 5
completely blind people using JAWS haven't hit problems.

So, the start page is at:
http://find.talking-newspapers.co.uk
The first reason it would fail an automated test is that, if someone
has not pressed anything within 20 seconds, it moves on as it they'd
pressed "speech on". However, I added this in case someone had no
screenreader, and I felt that 20 seconds was long enough. I can fudge
it to pass the automated test be using a php delay instead, but I
don't think that's the point. Agree? Disagree?

On the next page, if the user has specifically CHOSEN to have speech,
it complies with RNIB guidelines on explaining how to silence the
audio within 5 seconds.
The silencing logic is as follows:
The input is automatically focussed on the text input box. If the user
presses enter before pressing anything else, then they won't have
entered a town name, so they can't proceed anyway. If silence audio
was on any other key, it would enter text into the box, this confusing
the result. Have a listen to the audio explanation, let me know if you
think it explains it.
(And yes, I was very tired when recording it - one of a series of 3am
finishes to get this thing done with all the suggestions AND
accessible! Hence the drawling - I'll be doing a re-rec at some
point).

Additionally, I've chosen to add the selected speech option to the
URL, so for example, the user can bookmark
http://find.talking-newspapers.co.uk/?speech=true
That way they can bypass the intro, and it will give more permanence
than the session which only lasts as long as the browser is open. I've
chosen NOT to use a cookie in case it's used in a public area, that
way the next person isn't "stuck" with the previous user's choice.

You then enter a town or city or postcode - apart from the postcode,
mis-spellings are fine.
Try cirencester or sirensester or kingston or diss for example.

Next up is the result - if audio has been chosen, the first link and
tab is "Stop Audio" (as per guidelines).
If audio is NOT chosen (and therefore their screenreader will be "on")
the first link is "Skip to"... as per guidelines, then "Play Results"
is presented, which changes to "pause results".
Both are plain text links meaning screenreadable, and prevent clutter,
again as per guidelines.
The basic details are then presented, with a link to the TN's
microsite, and a link to a very basic "plain text" listing of others
nearby.

It's only going live tomorrow, so as the TN's are still uploading
"fresh" stuff, don't be surprised it text says "test" or older sound
files are present as they experiment with the back-end upload system.

As you can see, this has (hopefully!) been thought through! The
document relating to it is over 14 pages long, and nearly 50 emails
have gone back and forth from users with "what about...?" or "could it
do...?".

I'm now at the stage where key pages (the TN microsite) fully validate
to 3 different standards, the users seem happy and the content owners
(the talking newspapers themselves) find the backend easy to use.

It's not going to change much now - what matters is the users approve
and it validates, but before it goes fully live tomorrow, are there
any thoughts on major showstoppers?


-- 
Providing support to Britain's 500 talking newspaper services
http://www.talking-newspapers.co.uk/
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  • » [access-uk] Speech and navigation, mainly for Peter B and Damon - Jonathan