5 ms·

"That could mean websites will be required to include spoken descriptions of photos and text boxes for the blind, as well as captions and transcriptions of mult

"That could mean websites will be required to include spoken descriptions of photos and text boxes for the blind, as well as captions and transcriptions of multimedia features for the deaf" "Mr. Smith also advises companies to ensure that people with motor disabilities can navigate websites without the use of a mouse" As if I needed more reasons to not host my sites in the US.

rpedroso 14y ago
I didn't take this quite as literally as Mr. Smith put it. He doesn't mean websites might need to hire voice actors to read out your content. What he means is that you must actually use HTML's alt and title attributes properly so that screen-readers can produce these spoken descriptions. That strikes me as a fairly reasonable burden.
- whichdan 14y ago
  Not to mention, it's an easy way to improve SEO[1]. [1] http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/12/using-alt-attributes-smartly.html http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/12/using-alt...
bdcravens 14y ago
You don't want to develop your sites in a way that helps the disabled access it? Is this a value of your company?
- ishansharma 14y ago
  But what if I am a small developer and I don't have resources to add all the voice stuff? Sometimes, it is just not possible to develop for a small subset of users for financial or technical reasons.
  - DanBC 14y ago
    Accessible webs sites do not just help a small subset of users. Accessibility helps all users.
  - bdcravens 14y ago
    Read up on accessibility. It's just about learning proper HTML techniques (for example, enabling your markup to support screen readers). We'll learn Ruby or Node or Backbone or whatever: this is just another skill to pick up. I don't think we can take the attitude that it's an undue burden. Small businesses don't always get to say they're too small for a wheelchair ramp (I know this varies by location, but you get the point). If you can't afford to meet a certain subset, maybe you need a new career. In time, dismissing a group of users because it's not financially attractive may be deemed illegal for developers, as it has been for brick-and-mortar for a long time.
    - ishansharma 14y ago
      I was referring to the voice stuff mentioned in the article. For a small business or a bloggers having voice version if everything is not feasible. Correctly adding meta and title etc for screen readers, I'm in for that. In fact, I make sure to add proper alt tags for images already. Will improve of other things for sure m
      - arrrg 14y ago
        No one wants spoken descriptions of anything. That’s just misleading reporting. What the article means by that is text that can be turned into spoken descriptions by speech synthesis.
        ishansharma 14y ago
        Thanks for clarification.
  - potatolicious 14y ago
    > "and I don't have resources to add all the voice stuff?" There is no "voice stuff". A lot of enabling accessibility is fixing your non-compliance with HTML standards - always have alt tags on your images and the such. We're not talking about supporting a completely new frontend strictly for blind users, the facilities for accessibility are already in our base web technology, the only demand here is to use them correctly. Compliance isn't free, but to make the argument than this is like overhauling an old building is entirely false.
    - ishansharma 14y ago
      > That could mean websites will be required to include spoken descriptions of photos and text boxes for the blind, as well as captions and transcriptions of multimedia features for the deaf, said Jared Smith, associate director of WebAIM, a nonprofit group that trains and evaluates companies on Web accessibility. This is what I was talking about. I support correct HTML tags and standards anyway. But all the things mentioned above are an overkill. And it's not about small guys only. Imagine YouTube being sued for not having captions over all videos? Why due anyone for this, ask them nicely!
      - potatolicious 14y ago
        "Spoken descriptions" doesn't mean you need to record your own voiceovers for your website - you are misunderstanding the complaint. Visually handicapped people already use screen readers that will read website aloud to them. The demand here is to ensure websites are compliant enough with basic HTML spec that said screen readers work. The screen readers I've seen don't do anything crazy - they are even fairly tolerant of bad markup, but they aren't magic. The demand here is for websites to care enough to format properly so screen readers actually work.
        ishansharma 14y ago
        OK. Thanks for the clarification. Would have helped if original article just talked about screen readers.
jiggy2011 14y ago
As a non disabled person, I'd love if more sites were keyboard friendly. I memorise all the keyboard shortcuts and keyboard navigate as much as I possibly can. My biggest peeve with webapps is that they usually slow me down to hunt-and-peck speed.

rpedroso 14y ago

I didn't take this quite as literally as Mr. Smith put it. He doesn't mean websites might need to hire voice actors to read out your content. What he means is that you must actually use HTML's alt and title attributes properly so that screen-readers can produce these spoken descriptions. That strikes me as a fairly reasonable burden.

whichdan 14y ago
Not to mention, it's an easy way to improve SEO[1]. [1] http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/12/using-alt-attributes-smartly.html http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/12/using-alt...

bdcravens 14y ago

You don't want to develop your sites in a way that helps the disabled access it? Is this a value of your company?

ishansharma 14y ago
But what if I am a small developer and I don't have resources to add all the voice stuff? Sometimes, it is just not possible to develop for a small subset of users for financial or technical reasons.
- DanBC 14y ago
  Accessible webs sites do not just help a small subset of users. Accessibility helps all users.
- bdcravens 14y ago
  Read up on accessibility. It's just about learning proper HTML techniques (for example, enabling your markup to support screen readers). We'll learn Ruby or Node or Backbone or whatever: this is just another skill to pick up. I don't think we can take the attitude that it's an undue burden. Small businesses don't always get to say they're too small for a wheelchair ramp (I know this varies by location, but you get the point). If you can't afford to meet a certain subset, maybe you need a new career. In time, dismissing a group of users because it's not financially attractive may be deemed illegal for developers, as it has been for brick-and-mortar for a long time.
  - ishansharma 14y ago
    I was referring to the voice stuff mentioned in the article. For a small business or a bloggers having voice version if everything is not feasible. Correctly adding meta and title etc for screen readers, I'm in for that. In fact, I make sure to add proper alt tags for images already. Will improve of other things for sure m
    - arrrg 14y ago
      No one wants spoken descriptions of anything. That’s just misleading reporting. What the article means by that is text that can be turned into spoken descriptions by speech synthesis.
      - ishansharma 14y ago
        Thanks for clarification.
- potatolicious 14y ago
  > "and I don't have resources to add all the voice stuff?" There is no "voice stuff". A lot of enabling accessibility is fixing your non-compliance with HTML standards - always have alt tags on your images and the such. We're not talking about supporting a completely new frontend strictly for blind users, the facilities for accessibility are already in our base web technology, the only demand here is to use them correctly. Compliance isn't free, but to make the argument than this is like overhauling an old building is entirely false.
  - ishansharma 14y ago
    > That could mean websites will be required to include spoken descriptions of photos and text boxes for the blind, as well as captions and transcriptions of multimedia features for the deaf, said Jared Smith, associate director of WebAIM, a nonprofit group that trains and evaluates companies on Web accessibility. This is what I was talking about. I support correct HTML tags and standards anyway. But all the things mentioned above are an overkill. And it's not about small guys only. Imagine YouTube being sued for not having captions over all videos? Why due anyone for this, ask them nicely!
    - potatolicious 14y ago
      "Spoken descriptions" doesn't mean you need to record your own voiceovers for your website - you are misunderstanding the complaint. Visually handicapped people already use screen readers that will read website aloud to them. The demand here is to ensure websites are compliant enough with basic HTML spec that said screen readers work. The screen readers I've seen don't do anything crazy - they are even fairly tolerant of bad markup, but they aren't magic. The demand here is for websites to care enough to format properly so screen readers actually work.
      - ishansharma 14y ago
        OK. Thanks for the clarification. Would have helped if original article just talked about screen readers.

jiggy2011 14y ago

As a non disabled person, I'd love if more sites were keyboard friendly. I memorise all the keyboard shortcuts and keyboard navigate as much as I possibly can. My biggest peeve with webapps is that they usually slow me down to hunt-and-peck speed.