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How to design websites for blind and partially sighted people

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Re: How to design websites for blind and partially sighted people

#2
I actually made a chrome ext that uses im2txt to help blind/partially sighted individuals get scene descriptions for images. Perhaps that can make up for the fact that a lot of devs don't take the time to write alt tags for their images.

http://abhinavsuri.com/aat

Re: How to design websites for blind and partially sighted people

#3
If you're interested in this, I highly recommend the author of EMACSPEAK's blog [1]. Very interesting, innovative stuff (at it least seems that way to me, I'm not an expert on TTS systems or anything).

[1] http://tvraman.github.io/emacspeak/blog/articles.html

Re: How to design websites for blind and partially sighted people

#4
Accessibility (a11y) is an interesting and exciting topic, but it's exhausting to see yet another SEO guy to add his two cents about it. From a technical point of view, web a11y is almost exclusively about semantics or machine readability. There are two kinds of machines: web crawlers and screen readers for visually impaired humans. For whom would you like to work? You are not magically improving a11y by doing good SEO, you are magically improving SEO by doing good a11y. Stop listening to SEO consultants. Build good websites.

Recommendable a11y resources include the A11Y Project[1], WebAIM[2], the W3C[3], and GOV.UK[4]. The WAVE tool[5] and the Vox Media accessibility guidelines[6] are also really helpful.

--

[1] http://a11yproject.com

[2] http://webaim.org/intro/

[3] https://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/intro.html

[4] https://accessibility.blog.gov.uk

[5] http://wave.webaim.org

[6] http://accessibility.voxmedia.com

Re: How to design websites for blind and partially sighted people

#6

Making websites for the blind sounds a lot like 'making music for the deaf'. It can be done and people are doing it, but it just seems like the most inefficient thing to do.

I don't know whether you are some miserable provocateur or just an idiot. Either way, that was a very bad analogy. And I don't say 'bad' with a moral connotation. It was just stupid, really.

I see that you maybe were alluding to the fact that blind people can't SEE the page, but you ignore that they can READ it with assistance of software/hardware in a variety of ways. The article goes in detail about that.

Re: How to design websites for blind and partially sighted people

#7

Making websites for the blind sounds a lot like 'making music for the deaf'. It can be done and people are doing it, but it just seems like the most inefficient thing to do.

It's also "inefficient" to build elevators. I wonder why people do that …

Re: How to design websites for blind and partially sighted people

#8

Making websites for the blind sounds a lot like 'making music for the deaf'. It can be done and people are doing it, but it just seems like the most inefficient thing to do.

Making wheelchair ramps and wide doors for the physically disabled sounds a lot like 'making music for the deaf'. It can be done and people are doing it, but it just seems like the most inefficient thing to do.

/s

We design buildings with accessibility in mind, why should we not do the same for websites? Blind and visually impaired people have just as much use for the internet as you do.

Edit:

'Making music for the deaf' is a poor use of simile that doesn't really represent the reality of the situation. A more realistic and illuminating analogy would be websites for the visually impaired are like subtitles for the deaf.

Re: How to design websites for blind and partially sighted people

#9
post #6

Making websites for the blind sounds a lot like 'making music for the deaf'. It can be done and people are doing it, but it just seems like the most inefficient thing to do.

I don't know whether you are some miserable provocateur or just an idiot. Either way, that was a very bad analogy. And I don't say 'bad' with a moral connotation. It was just stupid, really. I see that you maybe were alluding to the fact that blind people can't SEE the page, but you ignore that they can READ it with assistance of software/hardware in a variety of ways. The article goes in detail about that.

While I completely agree with you, your comment isn't very constructive. It attacks the user, informs him his argument is weak, and provides no argument or counterpoint to the discussion.

Re: How to design websites for blind and partially sighted people

#10
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know whether you are some miserable provocateur or just an idiot. Either way, that was a very bad analogy. And I don't say 'bad' with a moral connotation. It was just stupid, really. I see that you maybe were alluding to the fact that blind people can't SEE the page, but you ignore that they can READ it with assistance of software/hardware in a variety of ways. The article goes in detail about that.

While I completely agree with you, your comment isn't very constructive. It attacks the user, informs him his argument is weak, and provides no argument or counterpoint to the discussion.

Yes, I'm sorry. I was offended by that comment. Hopefully the edit fixes that.
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