Hi,

The message below is a reply to a message, that was posted on the vicug-l
listing. I send this reply to some other lists and the president of ION
Systems, because I do not agree with what the ION Systems, who made Web
Eyes, is telling the world.

I tried the Web Eyes plugin on several pages and I do not hope
accessibility problems will be solved with this kind of software! This kind
of software is not an alternative for making web sites accessible.  The
company suggests, that Web Eyes is an alternative cost effective solution
to make web sites accessible.
With my screen reader Supernova using braille and magnification I can
access pages, that seems to be completely inaccessible in the Web Eyes view?
Also on the suggested cnn.com I get an unregistered web site message and I
prefer the normal cnn.com to read instead of the Web Eyes view, because I
do not feel anything at all on my braille display.

It is not only, that Web Eyes does not work at all on a lot of web site,
also the concept is objectionable. All web sites in the world should pay
$500 or more to think they make their web sites accessible, thinking they
have to do nothing more? Web Eyes does not make web sites more accessible.
With a free program like WebFormator I get better access than Web Eyes. Web
Eyes makes pages less accessible for people with a low vision. So my advice
to all companies in the world is, do not purchase this product. You have to
do much more to make you web site accessible!

Regards Peter Verhoeven
Internet : http://www.magnifiers.org (The Screen Magnifiers Homepage)


At 07:35 11-03-2002 -0500, you wrote:
>We have released Web Eyes (tm).  It is an IE browser plug in (722K) that
>can take any web site - whether it
>is tagged for accessibility usage or not - and reflow it so that it can
>be read at any font size (4 points - 144 points) as well as by Jaws and
>Window Eyes!
>
>To try it out, go to http://www.ionwebeyes.com. You can use it on any
>domain for 10 minutes regardless of if the domain has purchased Web Eyes
>
>or not.  We sell Web Eyes to the domain owners as an annual license
>($600 - $5,500 based on the number of pages in a domain) for unlimited
>downloads and unlimited reading time on all registered domains. If you
>try to read CNN.com with Jaws - it does an intelligible job. By
>accessing it via Web Eyes, it is 100% logical and usable.  You can turn
>graphics and columns on and off. For screen readers, use a single column
>
>and a small font size for maximum usability. You need IE 5.5 or higher.
>When installed, Web Eyes is under the Tools menu.
>
>My husband is in DC this week demonstrating it to several government
>agencies. I think this will ROCK the accessibility community since sites
>
>who "haven't had time to add the necessary tags" will now be usable by
>them as well as normal sighted users. It is a win-win-win!
>Accessibility community can read the information, web sites designers
>can still have a formatted site and the corporate entities don't have to
>
>pay to have two sites designed and maintained.
>
>--
>Jill Thomas
>President, ION Systems, Inc.
>[log in to unmask]
>636-937-9094     Fax 636-937-1828
>107 Mississippi Ave., Crystal City, MO 63019
>                 *****
>www.ionsystems.com     Your Bridge To Usability
>www.galaxylibrary.com  Where Electronic And Print Worlds Converge
>                 *****
>eMonocle (tm) an XML viewer for simultaneous use by sighted, low vision
>and, in the near future, blind readers.
>Web Eyes (tm) a web plug-in facilitating compliance with Section 508 and
>accessibility to any web page for low-vision users.
>
>
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