Well, until I read the below criticism, I had been excited about the
touted Web Eyes solution, and even contacted the president by
email to compliment her on the new technology.
Now, I'm back where I've been for years, wondering what my best
purchase for accessibility should be. I'll probably hear of
another solution, think I should go for it, then have my doubts
raised again. Meanwhile, years go by with indecision.
I live in the New York City area -- not exactly the boondocks --
and I can't find a place where I can go to try out and compare
all these different access technologies. This makes a challenging
process absurdly difficult. Could you imagine consumers in the
sighted marketplace being told that there's no store where you
can handle the merchandise?
Peter Seymour
At 11:32 AM 3/15/02 +0100, you wrote:
>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.
>>
>>
>>VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
>>To join or leave the list, send a message to
>>[log in to unmask] In the body of the message,
simply type
>>"subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the
quotations.
>> VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
>>http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html
>
>
>VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
>To join or leave the list, send a message to
>[log in to unmask] In the body of the message,
simply type
>"subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the
quotations.
> VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
>http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html
VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to
[log in to unmask] In the body of the message, simply type
"subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html
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