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Development of Adaptive Hardware & Software for the Blind/VI

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From:
Sean Burke <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
BLIND-DEV: Development of Adaptive Hardware & Software for the Blind/VI" <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 25 Jun 1997 23:21:15 -0600
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I think most of the attention to thinking about Web pages' accessibility to
blind folk that I've seen here and elsewhere has focussed on users who
browse with voice-synth software.
But I'm curious, what are the accessbility issues for folks using Braille
displays pads to browse the Web?  Not having firsthand experience with
either access method (voice or braille), I'd assume that using a Braille pad
and Lynx with numbered links) would be less troublesome than a whole
screenreader setup (assuming you have such a display, and know Braille), but
I assume there must be unique problems I can't foresee.

I'm a Lynx user of many years, so I'm familiar with the scads of annoying
HTML practices (frames; imagemaps; ALTless images; etc.) that make browsing
with Lynx difficult for anyone, whether they use a Braille display or are
fully-sighted (like me, at least with glasses) and read off a video display.
What other problems arise with Braille pads?

I'm particularly curious about internationalization (foreign-language)
issues since I am often in a position to nag a few influential (or at least
notoriously bothersome) Internet Engineering Task Force people about such
things.

FYI, I'm (among other things) a Web designer who's curious about theoretical
and practical accessibility issues of Web design.
If there are Braille accessibility problems with Lynx that are remediable, I
would be happy to gather them together and suggest them to the Lynx
development team.
And I also occasionally toy with the idea of writing my own text-based
browser to implement all the odd little features (not relevant to Braille)
that I've wished for over the years.
--
| Sean M. Burke   [log in to unmask]   http://ling.nwu.edu/~sburke/

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