Re: finally up on PMN
- From: Jennifer Sutton <jensutton@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: blindcasting@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 01 Nov 2005 00:52:55 -0500
Hello all:
Since Steve's message included my private message to him and Jerry, I think
it's important to clarify that I was purely speculating at them about what
MIGHT be done, what might (or might not be) the problem, and yes, privately
ranting a bit because I believe strongly that we need to be offering
concrete very specific solutions to problems we identify.
Do we know what's involved in implementing an audio captcha, out of
curiosity? IS there a VERY easy step-by-step sure-fire method for
implementing one that we can point to?
I've already pointed out that captchas impact more than just blind folks,
but let's just take our case, for the sake of discussion.
Can we point to a Flash player that DOES work seamlessly and say: "make it
like this one?" This is assuming that I inferred correctly that the PMN
player is a Flash-based one.
When people have to figure out the solution, they just won't do it,
especially when they are building new things and need to be moving on from
what they thought was completed.
Believe me, if I were a programmer, I'd be knocking at PodShow's door,
instead of rambling along at people in email -- be that public or private.
I can test sites and software, but I cannot always PRECISELY identify how
to fix the problems I see. My abilities depend on the problems. I'm not a
coder, though of course I do know SOME code.
I can look at somebody's RSS feed, and it doesn't scare me. I understand a
lot of theory, though the reasoning behind why Apple's iTunes had to have
its own namespaces and such still tends to allude me. They had to put
their mark on an open standard, I suppose, but perhaps there's more to it
than that.
By the way, kudos to you, Julie, and any others who are hand-coding your
feed. If I do podcast, I expect I'll be right there with ya.
And public Kudos to you, Steve, for giving a demonstration of the
PMN. Demos speak louder than email, I expect.
As I said in my message to Steve and Jerry, if the PodShow people actually
knew how to write accessible Web pages and programs, I daresay that they
(and most folks) would actually do it.
And here's something that maybe we should think about. What does
"accessible" really mean? How much responsibility do we users have in
terms of using our assistive technology effectively?
I would suggest that the definition of "accessible" falls along a rather
broad spectrum, and screen reader users fall along a wide spectrum, even
within that.
When CC is fixing the PMN, as we hope he will, it'd sure be better for him
if he and his people fixed it for ALL people with disabilities, not just a
segment of blind screen reader users. they also need to learn the concepts
behind accessibility, so that they can begin to have immediate benefits
from the time they invest as they continue to work on other projects.
I've been watching this accessibility/assistive technology "biz" for a good
long time now, and it seems to me that part of what appears never to
trickle down to the mainstream implementers is the accessibility angle when
people are being trained in school, or in stand-alone classes, or in
tutorials on the Web.
Okay, back to our regularly scheduled program, whatever that was -- techy
or otherwise.
Best,
Jennifer
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