Vista Rant

So my laptop was stolen two weeks ago. Data was encrypted, password protected, good backups, not too many worries. The police caught him, recovered my laptop and promptly impounded it for evidence. I'm not going to see it for a year, maybe two. What to do? The kids needed a new computer -- they were complaining bitterly about their 486 and were always sneaking on Tim's or mine, so I picked up a cheap tower from Staples -- fast for them, and I can work on it. But everything came with Vista Home. So why not? I figured I'll need to learn it sooner or later, and the price and immediate delivery is worth it.

3 days later, I finally got my Thunderbird email working and a bare minimum of software to do existing work. A SnagIt installation was prompted by the number of screenshots of error messages that I needed to get. 4 chat sessions, uncounted Google searches of Vista forums, 2 tech support phone calls to get the bare minimum for existing work. I was starting the struggle of getting JAWS to work when the new laptop arrived, so I abandoned the effort. To be fair to Freedom Scientific, I dreaded the problems (every other piece of software was a hassle, and JAWS is a challenge any day) and didn't give the installation a chance.

I got my new laptop two days ago which I custom ordered with Windows XP Pro. I just finished installing ALL my work software -- including JAWS -- with no hassle, no error messages, and no tech support or Google searches. I expect problems with a new OS, but the comparison was so surprising, that I was inspired to make a post -- the first in a long while.

Nothing like a little righteous moral indignation to get my fingers on the keyboard again.

I learned a lot at this last Fidelity gig, and I plan to do some detailed posting soon. Now that I have the laptop working, it may be sooner than later.

Accessible Design priorities - Part II

Different types of disabilities have different needs from the web designer/developer. The canny designer will include the target disability audience in their analysis of the design goals. For example, an investment firm may be very interested in accessibility for Seniors– the aging baby boomers is an strategically critical target market. Aside from obvious design issues as fonts that can be resized, seniors have more subtle design needs, such as clear links and navigation on a page.

The gaming sites my children frequent obviously have not considered the needs of low reading levels in their site design. I spend a lot of time answering, “Mom can you help me with the computer?” The problem is usually game instructions that are not organized for low reading ability and short attention span. Sometimes it is a navigation problem with the site, as they click on the picture of the game they want (not a link) while ignoring the obvious underlined link that says “click here”.

Accessibility and Web Standards and Usability fields start to merge here. Fortunately, I am interested in all three, can you tell? More in my next post.

Accessibility Design priorities for different disabilities

So first we need to get people thinking about designing for Accessibility at all. Given. But I believe we also have to the same kind of client analysis for the disability audience that we do for any other kind of client market analysis. Different disabilities have different priorities. Too often, accessibility analysis is only focused on meeting the WCAG or Section 508 standards and not looking at the target audience.

The accesskeys that make using a page easier for a mobility impaired user can break the functions of the JAWS that the visually impaired user needs to read the page. How do you decide? Client analysis. I was recently working on a proposal for a college that wants to attract visually impaired students. They need to set their accessibility priorities in that direction. A major investment firm wants to meet general accessibility standards, but they also want to focus their accessibility priorities toward senior citizens, a target market.

The May WebAim newsletter has a scholarly article on A Conceptual Framework for Accessibility Tools to Benefit Users with Cognitive Disabilities. It got me thinking about sites that would want to target this large market. So far, it is not a large market of computer users, but the entertainment sites would be wise to consider the very large market of low-level readers and their accessibility needs.

Your thoughts?