FLUID-1821: Image Reorderer instructions for screen reader users

[Michael S Elledge]

Hi Everyone--

Here are my thoughts. There really isn't a problem with having spoken 
instructions differing from visual instructions; that's essentially what 
happens with properly coded html pages and screen readers. Screen 
readers provide context for people who can't see, such as the shape and 
purpose of tables, level and hierarchy of headings, relationships 
between labels and form inputs, etc. Although it could be argued that 
these visual aspects are evident to persons who can view the page and 
are not instructions per se, this seems to me a very fine splitting of 
hairs. Ultimately, we're trying to make it possible for persons with and 
without disabilities to use fluid components, which often represent 
something novel. I think it's particularly important to have 
instructions when tools are unfamiliar and/or don't behave in expected 
ways, especially in the brave new world Fluid is entering--where there 
really isn't a roadmap or history to reference.

So, descriptions like:

"To move an item: Turn off virtual cursor (insert + z). Select item 
using the arrow keys or i, j, k or m. Move an image by pressing control 
+ i, j, k, or m or the arrow keys. Read an image by pressing Enter"

or some such, make sense to me for screen reader users, since they will 
be encountering something new and unexpected. To Allison's point, I 
think it should be hidden, since it would be confusing to non-screen 
reader users.

I don't recall encountering a conflict with control + arrow keys with 
the virtual cursor turned off, but I'll check.

Mike

Allison Bloodworth wrote:
> Hi Anastasia,
>
> What do the instructions say currently? It seems to me that a 
> reference to the "virtual cursor" could be very confusing to 
> non-screen reader users. It also seems that if there were a way to 
> give JAWS users info about *only* the set of keystrokes they could 
> use, it would be best to do that and minimize their cognitive load.
>
> Cheers,
> Allison
>
> On Dec 11, 2008, at 12:53 PM, Anastasia Cheetham wrote:
>
>>
>> FLUID-1821 suggests some improvements to the Image Reorderer 
>> instructions for screen reader users - for example, the instructions 
>> that they need to turn off virtual cursor.
>>
>> In trying to implement these improvements, however, some questions 
>> came to mind that I'm not sure how to deal with.
>>
>> Here's the source of the conundrum:
>>
>> We first implemented the keyboard movement using Ctrl + arrow keys. 
>> We soon found that this key combination was already 'taken' by JAWS 
>> for another purpose, so we found an unused combination: Ctrl + i, j, 
>> k or m. Now, the Image Reorderer will work with either of these sets 
>> of keys.
>>
>> The instructions that are both displayed and spoken describe both of 
>> these keysets. However, JAWS users can't use whichever set they like 
>> - only the letter version will work for them. Also, it could be 
>> argued that non-screen reader users don't really need to be told to 
>> turn virtual cursor off.
>>
>> So: should the spoken instructions be different than the visual 
>> instructions? Is this a good idea? A bad idea?
>>
>> Thoughts from screen reader users? Thoughts from interaction 
>> designers? Thoughts from people who have thoughts on the issue?
>>
>> --Anastasia Cheetham                   a.cheetham at utoronto.ca
>> Software Designer, Fluid Project    http://fluidproject.org
>> Adaptive Technology Resource Centre / University of Toronto
>>
>> _______________________________________________________
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>
> Allison Bloodworth
> Senior User Interaction Designer
> Educational Technology Services
> University of California, Berkeley
> (415) 377-8243
> abloodworth at berkeley.edu
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________________
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> To unsubscribe, change settings or access archives,
> see http://fluidproject.org/mailman/listinfo/fluid-work
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>
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