At 7:18 AM -0500 8/19/00, Kelly Pierce wrote:
>I will extend the idea even farther by saying that I wish more people who
>work in or approach the area of adaptive technology wold actually take the
>time to learn and use access technology as an end user would to learn
>first hand the issues faced.  Too often we will purchase or use the
>services of an adaptive technology specialist or similar person who is
>unable to use the technology that they themselves are selling, training
>on, promoting, et cetera.

I agree!  This is why I am quick to hire "assistive technology
specialists" -- people who have more experience than I do in using
screenreaders, braille terminals, etc -- whenever I have tasks that
require actual testing.

Sure, I have access to JAWS and I've tried to use it, but in practice
unless I use that as my primary means of access, I'm never going to
"master" it.  I'm a light-dependent person and as such I rely on
my graphical interfaces a lot, and I don't have a whole lot of time
to become as good at JAWS (or any other screenreader) as someone who
is light-independent.  Which means that what a blind user could
check in 30 seconds would probably take me a half hour -- and so I
am very grateful for the ability to subcontract out for services
requiring this specific skill.

I don't pretend to be an expert in assistive technology -- I do
pretend to be an expert in teaching web designers how to put things
together the right way. :)

--Kynn
--
--
Kynn Bartlett <[log in to unmask]>
http://www.kynn.com/


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