Giving the Blind Better Web Access 168
crimeandpunishment writes "Decades ago, the breakthrough for the disabled was making buildings wheelchair accessible. Today, it's making their world Web-accessible. Disabled groups are hailing new legislation Congress has sent to the President. Among other things, the measure will give the blind greater Internet access through smart phones, and require devices like iPhones and Blackberrys to be hearing-aid compatible. 'It breaks down barriers for all of us,' says Mark Richert of the American Foundation for the Blind."
Re:New blacktop for the road to hell (Score:5, Informative)
Will we all be stuck with text only websites, which is what Section 508 virtually sets up as the ideal.
No. It's called graceful degradation [edginet.org]. You can have all the fancy shit you want but your webpage should be a coded in a way that if certain features aren't available that it gracefully degrades into a simpler form.
More than just the blind... (Score:4, Informative)
Not about the "web". (Score:3, Informative)
This has nothing to do with the Web. It's about telephony in its VoIP form, broadcast content redistributed over the Internet, and mobile browsers. It doesn't affect web sites. See S.3304 [loc.gov].
Re:New blacktop for the road to hell (Score:3, Informative)
It's really not that big of a challenge, and really most of that ought to be already happening on the site anyways.
Re:Breaking down barriers? (Score:4, Informative)
How would it put up barriers for anyone creating web content? All blind people need is for the webpage to be correctly coded according to the HTML specs and not have the important content in a fancy JavaScript that alters the DOM after the page has loaded (although web readers can usually put up with it). It would break down barriers not only for blind people but also for computers and browser makers as well as the general public, open source operating systems (no more IE-only websites) etc. etc.
As for devices, Apple's Mac OS X is compatible with most screen readers and braille keyboards, even the iPhone has some fancy accessibility built-in, Apple does a really good job at making it accessible from the get-go. Even Windows and most Linux distro's have accessibility built-in although a lot of applications could use some shining up in that area (hot keys being one of them and again, not putting main content in obscure places).
Re:Not about the "web". (Score:3, Informative)
The house counterpart [govtrack.us] is worded a bit more broadly. It would extend the provisions described to cover text based messages as well [govtrack.us].
I am all for just (Score:3, Informative)
pumping plain text to anyone identified coming to my website as impaired.
It is the safest route to follow. Any attempt by me or other others to gracefully handle it only will invite lawyers whose occupation is find those who slip up while acting on good intentions. No, take it to the minimums required and forget it. This is a far different issue than handling weaker devices. You are not up against a finite thing, that is what a device is capable of, your up against a new infinite, what the impaired user thinks they can accept. You can't win except by going for zero.
Been there, done that, you won't believe the crap with ADA my cousins have been hit with at a bakery/cafe. There are people out there whose only business is to use laws like to make money, they could care less that you finally complied, they want money.
The flip side is, perhaps we will get back to deliver information instead of delivering effects. I am so tired of websites that make me work for the content
Re:why? (Score:3, Informative)
One problem solved, at least two more created.
1. Size. Modern hearing aids are very small, they fit in your ear canal, rather than behind the ear. There's not much room to add a bluetooth transceiver and antenna.
2. Battery life. Bluetooth is not free in terms of power and given the above size constraint, you don't have a lot of headroom to put in more battery. You're looking at about 100mAh, 600mAh at the outside, and expected battery life of days to weeks of continuous use. Even with the brand new low energy bluetooth (which practically nothing supports yet), you're still looking at a considerable draw.