Last Thursday I attended another UPA event where a few assistive technologies were demonstrated. For me it was fascinating to see these technologies in action. We talk alot about designing with screen readers and other such technologies in mind but seeing them being used was quite another thing.

Here are some notes I dropped down:

• Don’t auto-start multimedia especially those with audio as they can drown out screen readers.
• Don’t re-load CAPTCHAs when they’ve been correctly filled out but other parts of the submitted form were missing / incorrect.
• AJAX functionality like drag-and-drop can be made accessible via WAI-ARIA.
• Often websites have to revert to a totally different mobile versions (i.e. m.domainname.com) if the main site is totally inaccesible – like Facebook.
• Services like webvism can read CAPTCHAs.
• Horizontal scrolling is very bad as it includes alot more scrolling and clicking around to locate the right chunk of the page.
• Accessibility section of a site can link to various accessibility tools and resources.
• Users who use assistive technologies often prefer navigating sites using link lists as opposed to headings as they’re more reliable.
• Users also prefer using the same screen reading technology. Switching to a different one is a pain.
• Access keys are not too useful. Arrowing down a nav is not too useful and may be more useful to mainstream users who prefer using keyboards.
• You can tag PDFs to make them more accessible but often unsighted users don’t even bother opening them as they’re rarely made accessible.
• British Sign Language users need plain English to be used as BSL is much more limited in terms of vocabulary.
• Use BSL or, as an alternative, computer generated sign language. CGSL is easier to amend (i.e. adding the odd word) but the facial expressions of the signer are not as natural.