Hi All,
I'm the owner of a Google Group for blind yarn crafters. One of the group
members, who is a Window-Eyes user, wasn't able to read a sweater pattern on
the Lion Brand site. she says that, with WE, she found the list of materials
and other preliminary information, but not the actual instructions. I'm a
Jaws user, and I found the instructions without any trouble.
when my knitter contacted Lion Brand for help, the site developer replied
with some questions. My knitter wasn't able to answer them because she's not
a proficient WE user. I'm wondering if anyone on the list can help answer
the developer's questions. I've pasted her reply along with the original
query at the end of this message.
The pattern my knitter was trying to read is at
http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/90464AD.html?r=1
there's a lot of clutter on the page. To find the beginning of the pattern,
jump through the headings to the one that says, "Soft Ribbed Cardigan."
Below that heading are the list of materials, some notes, some links or
buttons that may be flash, and finally the instructions, which begin
something like: "Cast on X number of stitches. Row 1 ...." this is the
version of the pattern with images. To find the version without images, Use
your screen reader to find the word "braille," and press enter on the "Veiw
as Brailler Input" link.
You need to sign up (which is free) to access the patterns on the Lion Brand
page. To sign up, visit
www.LionBrand.com
Thanks.
Ciao
From the Web developer:
I went on over the the Window Eyes site to see if they have a developer
guide, but it doesn't look like they do. I've written to their support, but
meanwhile, can you tell me a couple of things about it?
First, are you using the [website] version with images or the one without?
I checked the version of the pattern that is presented without images and
the pattern text is in the page; I have internal tags and addresses that are
set up so that if you are a Jaws users, they appear as bookmarks and you can
tab between them which makes finding the instruction text easy (I hope!).
I'm not clear how Eyes handles this.t' I've just changed this to be
'Pattern Instructions Text'.
Note that these do not appear to sighted people who are looking at the
version of the webpage that appears in the browser; they appear to the
brower as an A name=tag. I did not have these tags on the version with
images; I've added them.
So, the second question is -- how does Eye's navigate? Does it read the
anchor tags to you so that these are useful? Jaws does a thing where, if
there is a title on an anchor tag, it reads the title in preference to the
actual link in the anchor. Does Eyes do this also? Or does it do
something else?
If it is more convenient, I can phone if there is a time when it suits you.
Original Query:
I use Window Eyes, which I don't like as much as JAWS. I have not learned to
navigate a web site well. I was able to find the link to a pattern (soft rib
cardigan) to be precise. However i could read all the preliminary
information like materials and needles and the like, but then the pattern
wasn't there. I understand that it is a PDF and there is something to click
on to go to that link. Laura was kind enough to email the pattern to me but
I'm curious as to why it's not all together. Here we are again, some of
those pesky blind knitters.
You're our heroin for all you've done for accessibility on the Lionbrand
site. Thanks very much.
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