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Yeah, I've tried using the free options to sort of test my products, but it's not a realistic test; the most useful work comes from people who use screen reader

Yeah, I've tried using the free options to sort of test my products, but it's not a realistic test; the most useful work comes from people who use screen readers daily, but it's really hard to test if we've fixed the problem even when it's been identified so we have to go back and forth. And, I mean, there are accommodations and assistive technology built into the standards. It's just nowhere near as widespread as it should be, in terms of usage, and it's always an afterthought (if it is thought of at all) in frameworks and HTML templates and such. And, because most of the time an inaccessible site or app is so inaccessible as to prevent anyone who would notice from getting far enough in to complain. So, we need good tools for knowing when our stuff is broken from an accessibility standpoint. I think what I'm getting at is that it should be easy to see errors in accessibility, and maybe search engines should favor sites that at least make an effort.

extra88 9y ago
The problem with testing with assistive technology yourself is you're not a real user who knows the tool well. Also, like browser testing, there are differences between different AT; VoiceOver is used by many visually impaired people but what it supports and how it works is different in a number of ways compared to JAWS or NVDA (e.g. VoiceOver doesn't have "form" and "browse" modes). Search engines giving more accessible sites a "buff" as Google now does for HTTPS sites is a good idea. They already do in a small way in that having things like proper headings are good for SEO but they could go much further. Google has their own Accessibility Developer Tools [0] add-on, they could make it a default part of Chrome Dev Tools and make it more prominent. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/accessibility-developer-t/fpkknkljclfencbdbgkenhalefipecmb?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/accessibility-deve...

extra88 9y ago

The problem with testing with assistive technology yourself is you're not a real user who knows the tool well. Also, like browser testing, there are differences between different AT; VoiceOver is used by many visually impaired people but what it supports and how it works is different in a number of ways compared to JAWS or NVDA (e.g. VoiceOver doesn't have "form" and "browse" modes). Search engines giving more accessible sites a "buff" as Google now does for HTTPS sites is a good idea. They already do in a small way in that having things like proper headings are good for SEO but they could go much further. Google has their own Accessibility Developer Tools [0] add-on, they could make it a default part of Chrome Dev Tools and make it more prominent. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/accessibility-developer-t/fpkknkljclfencbdbgkenhalefipecmb?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/accessibility-deve...