Hi Cheryl, The simplest and most often feature forgotten when using graphics on a web site is the use of the |"alt tag" which provides a text description for the graphic link and where I would start in order to address your concerns. Allan At 11:34 7/23/04, you wrote: >I've been having a conversation with one of my grocery stores here in town >that has a service for web ordering and delivery (actually the service >includes this store plus two or three others in different towns). I >couldn't shop with it at all in lynx the cat or links the chain but did, >with great effort, make it through an order using freedombox, which means >that eventually those using gnopernicus and/or orca probably would be able >to do it with mozzilla. freedombox has a program called C-saw, whereby you >can put labels on imaged links and then submit them to a repository so >others on freedombox will see those when they go to the website instead of >just "link" "link" "link" for a lot of the links. However, the submission >key mapping for c-saw is alt+s, which the site uses to jump people to the >recipe search box. I can, however, still use alt+l, which is used in c-saw >to do the initial labeling, to look at the image url and link url. I >talked to somebody involved in the grocery deliver department, though not >a technical person. She seemed genuinely interested in how the website >could be made accessible. I'm afraid I wasn't very good at explaining to >her why, if they have a link with a graphic that does have the words for >the link within the graphic, I don't even get the words displayed. when I >explained to her that with C-saw I could see the name of the url and >thereby often deduce what it was but couldn't use the C-saw program >because they have alt=s (the key mapping used to do c-saw submissions) >mapped to a recipe search box, she immediately offered to talk to their >web design person about removing the alt+s keymapping from their site. >I've frankly never had anybody be so responsive. she also wanted to know >if I could point her to a website they could use as an example of how to >do things accessibly. This is where my writing to this list comes in. Can >anybody point me to a webpage to which I can point her for an example of >how they can still do their graphics but make the site accessible for >blind people? Also, is there a webpage that gives information they can >read about how they could implement accessibility on their website with >the least wear and tear possible. I don't have to be as concerned about >javascript in freedombox, though I certainly am going to explain that this >can be an added barrier. If anybody wants to try looking at the website >with which I am dealing, it's http://www.sentryonthego.com >You'll see that by looking at the url title at the bottom of your page >when you are at each link, you can often get an idea what the link is but >not always. And to enter the store they use some kind of button that even >on links the chain just gives you an ok at the bottom of the page and >nothing happens when you try to use the link; you can get into the tour >and the tips for shopping but that's it. In freedombox i can shop using >the search box they have, but I haven't yet found the link that helps you >browse the aisles as they describe so I don't know if I'm missing it or if >there's some other reason I just can't get there. There are a whole lot of >inaccessibility issues with this website but I don't want to overwhelm >them by telling them to change a whole bunch of things at once. If they do >go ahead and drop the alt+s mapping it would indicate to me that they are >serious about accommodating blind customers. In that case, I'd like to >give them the tools for educating themselves about what would help with >their site and give them some space to see how far they take it. I think >when somebody shows an eagerness to do what needs to be done to make a >site accessible, we want to encourage that, and sometimes if we point out >a whole list of things at once we can overwhelm people into feeling they >can't do what is needed and so they may react by doing absolutely nothing. >I think I may have a really receptive business here (they are also usually >very helpful to blind shoppers who come into the store) and i would like >to make the most of it. >Thanks for any suggestions. > > >-- >Cheryl > >"Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." > > >_______________________________________________ >Speakup mailing list >Speakup at braille.uwo.ca >http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allan Shaw 24 - 850 Huntingwood Dr. Toronto, Ontario M1 T 2L9 (416) 754-0109 Email: adec at sympatico.ca ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
