FLUID-1821: Image Reorderer instructions for screen reader users

[Colin Clark]

Hey Mike and Everett,

The ARIA spec provides two roles, "application" and "document"  
intended to provide cues for assistive technologies to change modes.  
The idea is that the application role will allow a screen reader to  
automatically switch off the virtual PC cursor.

As I understand it, JAWS 10 does now support this role correctly,  
though I haven't tried this out yet myself. The Code Talks test case  
results do confirm that it works, though with a few quirks:

http://wiki.codetalks.org/wiki/index.php?title=Set_of_ARIA_Test_Cases#Application

We should undoubtedly be taking advantage of these roles in our own  
pages where we can. My sense, though, is that they're most appropriate  
on the page level, rather than on a component-by-component basis, but  
I'll have to look into it further.

Colin

On 14-Dec-08, at 1:10 PM, Mike Elledge wrote:

> Hi Everett--
>
> At least up to JAWS 9.0 it's a decision by the user. I don't know if  
> 10.0 switches modes automatically based on the code it encounters or  
> if it handles dynamic processes by some other mechanism.
>
> I'll bet Colin and/or Anastasia know, however!
>
> Mike
>
> E.J. Zufelt wrote:
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "E.J. Zufelt" <everett at zufelt.ca>
>> To: "Allison Bloodworth" <abloodworth at berkeley.edu>
>> Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2008 6:06 PM
>> Subject: Re: FLUID-1821: Image Reorderer instructions for screen  
>> reader users
>>
>>
>>> Good evening,
>>>
>>> I'm not to familiar with how things are supposed to work, or how  
>>> they actually work, but shouldn't ATs like JAWS automatically  
>>> switch in and out of virtual cursor mode depending on what type of  
>>> region the user has entered?
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Everett
>>>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Allison Bloodworth" <abloodworth at berkeley.edu 
>>> >
>>> To: "Anastasia Cheetham" <a.cheetham at utoronto.ca>
>>> Cc: "Fluid Work" <fluid-work at fluidproject.org>
>>> Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2008 6:57 PM
>>> Subject: Re: FLUID-1821: Image Reorderer instructions for screen  
>>> reader users
>>>
>>>
>>>> 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
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________________
>>>>> fluid-work mailing list - fluid-work at fluidproject.org
>>>>> To unsubscribe, change settings or access archives,
>>>>> see http://fluidproject.org/mailman/listinfo/fluid-work
>>>>
>>>> Allison Bloodworth
>>>> Senior User Interaction Designer
>>>> Educational Technology Services
>>>> University of California, Berkeley
>>>> (415) 377-8243
>>>> abloodworth at berkeley.edu
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________________
>>>> fluid-work mailing list - fluid-work at fluidproject.org
>>>> To unsubscribe, change settings or access archives,
>>>> see http://fluidproject.org/mailman/listinfo/fluid-work
>>>>
>>>
>>
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---
Colin Clark
Technical Lead, Fluid Project
Adaptive Technology Resource Centre, University of Toronto
http://fluidproject.org