pathfinder playtest accessibility screen reader

I tell the students specifically about the importance of alt text, skip links, and structural headings in web design. The lesson breaks down into three phases:Īt the beginning of class, I talk briefly about the challenges that disabled persons face in using the Internet. For detailed instructions on configuring FireVox, see the 'additional resources' section below. You'll need to install a screen reading software on the computer system. Regardless of wich screen reader you use, I recommend that you become comfortable with its controls before teaching the lesson, so that you’ll be able to aid students who get stuck. I will assume from here on in that you are using FireVox. There are other screen readers out there - for example Orca on Linux. Because of its comparative simplicity and its broader availability, I prefer using FireVox for this lesson. It works with Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X (though it’s buggy on Mac). Because it works with only one program, FireVox’s controls are fairly simple. But it cannot access other desktop applications. It turns Firefox into a “self-voicing” browser which can read web pages aloud. It is only available for Microsoft Windows.įireVox, by contrast, is an extension for the Firefox web browser. Because it must deal with a much wider selection of software, NVDA has fairly complex controls. It can read not just web pages, but any application the operating system might run. NVDA, short for “Non-Visual Desktop Access,” is a fully-featured screen reader.

The two have some significant differences.

Because they are open source projects, there are no licensing fees to worry about, and the students may have copies of their own if they wish. So I prefer the free and open source screen readers FireVox or NVDA. There is a 40-minute demonstration version available, but its licensing terms make it unclear whether it’s legal to use the demonstration version for these purposes. Typical JAWS licenses may run up to $1200 USD per seat. The most common screen reader programs, JAWS and WindowEyes, are commercial software, and not cheap. The purpose of this lesson is to introduce the participants to that software, so that they will be aware of the challenges that blind people face in using web sites, and so that they can adjust their own sites to accomodate access for the visually challenged. Many people who build web sites are unaware of or have no direct experience with screen readers, the software that blind and visually disabled people use to access web sites (and indeed all the software on their computers).

Pathfinder playtest accessibility screen reader