I'll just repeat what others are saying. I'm a User Experience designer and developer, struggling with making some applications accessibility friendly. This has been really helpful! Thank you!
Great! I am so happy it is helpful. I am planning to try and do another video soon updating this, so stay tuned. Feel free to contact me if I can be helpful to you on jobs.
Thank you so much for this video, Colleen! Watching this video was one of our homework assignments in our "Writing Online Documentation" class. It's so helpful to see how a screen reader works and how we can create our webpages to work optimally with screen readers.
I am so glad it was helpful to you and hopefully others. I know I need to update it, and I have been talking about doing more videos such as this one. Let me know if you think certain things would be helpful! Thanks again!
Hi Colleen, PROFOUND thanks for this great video. I have just been hired to work as lead copywriter for the rewrite of our public utility here in the BIG city (and most of the big state) that I live in. The purpose of the rewrite it to improve accessibility for people with disabilities. I've read all the WCAG regulations and other things, but wanted to learn about what the experience is like for a person with a visual or hearing (or cognitive) impairment. This was brief but really helpful. I'm really glad to be working on this project, because I write for a lot of really huge international companies, and it has really increased my awareness and sensitivity to this issue and I can assure that I will be carrying this forward into all my future projects. So thank you, thank you...you tossed some pebbles out into the internet waters and I'm sure the ripples are going to land on shores you can't imagine and have a very positive effect!
Thank you so much! I am hoping to update this soon with newer info. I am currently looking for more contracts to help with, so if you are still around and willing I would love to work with you on increasing and testing accessibility. Thanks for what you do!
Thankyou Colleen, it's so awesome that you've taken the time to help so many people understand that we all use computers/the internet in different ways and as web designers, with a little time we can make our sites better for everybody! Keep up the awesome work, love the podcast too!
Thank you for taking time to make this video. I lead testing projects and I'm learning how to do accessibility testing (on my own) as well as I'm trying to write training material for other teams. Ultimately I'm looking at writing an approach so my team can guide other projects to make better applications.
Thank you for wanting to increase universal web design and software programming. You might look into DIQUE University as a resource for accessibility testing development. Also WebAim. So glad I could help, and I hope to make another tutorial soon.
Great stuff, thanks Colleen. Very helpful for us web devs to get a greater understanding of not only how screen readers work, but how users actually interact with them.
Thank you very much Colleen! I am a user experience designer for a bank's website and mobile apps and I'm also responsible to ensure our website and apps fulfill all the accessibility requirements. What you have shared is very helpful and valuable!
So glad it helped you think more broadly about universal design in internet terms! I hope to continue making these, but it is a challenge for me to work around copyrites etc. All best to you!
I am currently learning java and noticed the implications of JAWS as a screen reading application and was curious, so I stumbled on your video. You were quite thorough and in-depth. The tips sound useful as well when building programs that can include those that are more visually impaired. It was an interesting video.
Thank you so much! I am so glad this is still helpful. I know I need to do another demo. Let me know if there is something else in the future that would be of interest. Best wishes to you!
Thank you so much for giving me a great understanding of how screen readers work with web content. Though I have an instructional RU-vid channel (pet-grooming), I am currently a taking web development courses at my local community college. ADA compliance is something we need to have a strong understanding of and be sure to implement the structure in our content. I am curious to know if RU-vid content is compatible with screen readers or if there is something I should consider doing when creating my RU-vid content to assure it is? Thank again!
There are a number of things in RU-vid that can make things more accessible, but it does take extra time. I usually just try to make sure my descriptions include pertanent information such as links that might appear on the screen visually to others. Also, RU-vid has its own captioning for videos, but it often needs to be corrected. I often will have a friend double check some of my videos and go into RU-vid to correct my captions if the auto fill has gotten something wrong. You can also consider including a transcript of what you are saying in the description, but often times most of us don't have the time honestly. I usually just put a disclaimer on my content letting people know to contact me if they need something done for access. As far as a platform itself, I do still use some vision to click on videos and I do have someone else edit and post for me....but overall it's pretty accessible with a screen reader. Let me know if I can help in any way, and sorry for the delayed response! Good luck in your studies, and feel free to check out DIQUE University as well, they do a lot of accessibility certifications.
Thanks for putting this out there. This should be required training material for web developers. The section about links was especially a moment of clarity for me.
I am very glad this is still helpful. I know the video is a little out of date and I need to update it, but the concepts are still the same. As Universal Design becomes more necessary I am doing more and more accessibility review for webmasters and app developers. I am working on getting certified through DIQUE University so I know they are a good resource as well. Thanks again for watching, and I hope I can continue to help!
Thank you for this video, it gives me a better understanding of how things work with a screenreader and how to build a website that's more accessible to people with less, or no sight. And just so you know, I didn't think you were rude at all.
Great! I am so happy it is helpful. I am planning to try and do another video soon updating this, so stay tuned. And thank you so much for your support on that. I felt rather bad about it...
I love this and it was very helpful! I'm a tech writer and I write ARIA text for screen readers. I'd love to see an updated version of this and -- to know that after 6-ish years. Do you still prefer to use JAWS, or have you switched to a different reader? If so, which one?
I am still a JAWS user, but I know NVDA has come a long way and is free. Also, Voice Over with Apple products is still wonderful for touch screen products. I am behind on updating this, and I know it is hanging over me! Looking forward to updating soon! Thank you for your comment!
I am a computer with a human-like voice that is providing sight to visually impaired people. My name is Jaws. Forget all of your preconceptions. Jokes aside. My name is David, an aspiring web designer. Colleen, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
So glad you were able to get a basic picture from this video. I need to do another one soon, but I have been swamped by life. Glad I could help and good luck with programming! We need you! Access is so important to get on the front end of design. It is so much more work to retroactively fit accessibility after you have already built a website etc.
Of course! I'm glad it was helpful. I am hoping to update this soon, but the basics definitely still apply. Best of luck in making your web spaces more universally accessible!
Thank you for making all these amazing videos. I have JAWS now and am learning to use it which sometimes can be hard to do for me. I'm also learning to read braille.
I am so glad you are messaging me! I am planning to make another JAWS tutorial video, so let me know if you have specific requests. Great job to you, and I send you love and support!
I'm having a hard time with using the internet with it right now. I'm doing alright with it on Microsoft word but mostly because my teacher has been writing everything down for me so that I can use that large print to practice it.
I hope that things have been going well for you. I find that having a teacher was the best option for me too. However, JAWS itself does have built in tutorials. Surfs Up, is the section I think. The best I can offer you is putting dots on key keys on the keyboard and practicing. The commands I use the most are insert (0) F5 F6 and F7. To get lists of form fields, headings, and buttons. I also use insert and down arrow to read whole articles etc. Hope you are continuing to make things more accessible in your life!
Very helpful video to show what I need to do for better web design. I'd like to see a more recent version of JAWS, I assume that there have been updates since this video was released.
Different accents for JAWS are based in the language settings. So, if you download JAWS from the freedom scientific website, you can also download different Real Speak or Vocal software. UK Male, UK female, etc. It takes up a bit more room, but I enjoy the accent Daniel. Sorry I just saw this comment!
Thank you so much! I am hoping to update this soon with newer info. Feel free to take a listen to some of my podcasts via www.BlindIC.com or check out my performances www.colleenconnor.net. I would love to get into voice over etc. I just have to figure out this demo stuff.
Text on the screen is only a bunch of pixels - that needs recognizing before reading. I develop software for the blinds, you may visit my site if you're looking for the accessible programs such as sound editing tools or languages teaching program. They are free or fully functional free to try
To make it clear. We are talking about recognizing the text on the screen. It's like a bitmap, image - not just some text. There are many different characters, they may be bold or italic. There is often a beautiful background, that complicating the text recognition. It's a complex issue.
Thank you both for your comments! I am always looking to collaborate on jobs, so if you tend to do contracts and iI could help you review your accessibility in some way on your developments let me know! Also, stay tuned for an updated video, I know it needs to be re-done at this point...
Just because most blind or vision people are used to listening to automated voices all day. To navigate my phone and Internet and computer, so I listen to it a little faster than normal speech. What’s interesting? Is that most blind people listen to it very very fast And I can’t process audio that quickly. I hope to do another one of these and I will try to slow my screen reader down and hopefully be able to provide transcripts. Thanks for comment!
I'm sorry but I watch your whole video, and parts of your video you sound very very rude. You might want to change your tone of voice when doing videos like so. Videos very very informative. But you might want to change your tone of voice when you're trying to give examples. Hint hint
I have no idea how you got that impression, but to me she sounded totally normal, polite, and very helpful. I'm replying not so much for you but for her, so she knows that your opinion is not shared by everyone.
I'm sorry but I read your whole comment and parts of it were very very rude. You might want to change the tone of your writing when posting comments like this. You might want to change your approach to giving constructive criticism. Hint hint
Thank you for the critique and for the support. I know of NVDA, and I agree. JAWS is very expensive if you cannot get assistance to purchase it. Great! I am so happy it is helpful. I am planning to try and do another video soon updating this, so stay tuned.
I am so happy to have this video getting some traffic, and please let me know if you as an individual, company, school etc. are interested in getting in touch with me to learn more. If you have any requests for further videos/questions, please let me know! blindinspirationcast@gmail.com
