Congrats and Well Done Sir!

Well, I don't want the efforts of Spike to be lost in the midst of all this discussion. He has done so much of the work and deserves lots of credit and gratitude. I cannot help but feel somewhat guilty to even suggest changes, enhancements, etc. I certainly don't intend to discourage him. If anything, we should do more to help. Having no real inthe trenches experience with designing and coding a website, commenting on his efforts leaves me with a strange feeling - like I'm in management.

I've dealt with co-workers who are hearing-impaired and visually-impaired. It was quite an illumunating experience. I once experienced a conference call where one of the attendees was hearing impaired. A relay service was used so that they could follow what was being said on the call and participate. A relay service basically types what it said verbally so that it can be read and responded to when needed. At the beginning of the call, the relay service explained to the rest of us how to conduct the call so that they could accurately capture what was being said and convey that information in a timely manner. Of course, folks totally ignored those directions and I watched as the relay service struggled to transcribe what was being said and distinguish between when different folks were talking. Comparing what I was hearing to what I could read, there was a rather noticable gap between the two. Needless to say, our hearing-impaired attendee did not participate in the call.

As for being visually-impaired and using a screen reader to work with, I have had a few rather interesting conversations with someone who has to use one regularly to do their job. It commonly is frustrating and by no means puts them on an even par with the rest of us. Even when what is on the screen is done with screen reader use in mind, too often, the screen reader itself is lacking. Take a minute to really look at the screen before you now. A screen reader would do reasonably well with the text of my post itself but compare the time it takes you to read it with the time it would take to speak it. There alone you lose ground with a screen reader. Even with plain text, there's the problem of it handling spelling mistakes and such. Before you can get to "reading" the text of my post, you have got to get to the post itself. Try navigating about the page without ever using your mouse. After all, if you can't see what is in front of you, you can't see where the cursor is nor know where to move it so any navigation using the mouse is out. Now look to the buttons. A screen reader reads text. That button may look like it has text but text that is part of an image is not really text. An image that says "Forums" is useless unless there is a way to alternately display the text characters Forums. Without that, the button to click on to get to the forums may as well not exist. Imagine being the person trying to use the screen reader.

Even among the "able-bodied" we have challenges. Go try reading a website that's not in English. Those of you whose native language is not English already know this far better than I do. We English-only folks get a bit of a taste of this when we read a post by someone who is not fluent in English. Reading their post, we often still have to "translate" it. When we use slang, colloquialisms and regional expressions, we place yet another challenge in front of them.

Being mindful of these things will always be a challenge to us "able-bodied" no matter how hard we try to be sensitive and mindful to the situation of those that aren't. It's not a matter of being "inclusive", of doing what's right. Plain and simple, it is a matter of respect.

Looks like you can't ether.

Here is how Graham talks.

Hey Tough Guy,
You just can't keep your big mouth shut can you
Just think yourself lucky that I am not standing in front of you right now
Because you don't like me, you always come to the conclusion that everything is my fault
You should learn to mind your own business you arrogant fool
You have a nice day now

graham.a.hood@btinternet.com

What a gentlemen!

--

This post has been edited for profanity - nelsoc

DITTOS and great work

Good Morning Guys
Visit__MyOnlineForum__Today

Metrics Today from FreeDC Stats
Top User :CompuDude - 18,061
Users Returning Work : 92/241 (36.80%)
Points per user yesterday : 2,150

Movers of the Day
Technophile ^4
Kurrika ^3 - Martle ^3 - neclord ^3
Laughing66607 ^2 -
Windflowers ^1 - theunderdog ^1 - Dave Bell ^1 - Spikey_Richie ^1 - 1hookah ^1
A Lovely Madness ^1 - dkrawczynski ^1 - John Kinsworthy ^ - Edward McCoy ^1