I'm browsing an appliance site that has the following ADA statement as a terrible excuse to not make their site accessible.
"Welcome to our website! As we have the ability to list over one million items on our website (our selection changes all of the time), it is not feasible for a company our size to record and playback the descriptions on every item on our website. However, if you have a disability we are here to help you." Talk about a lawsuit waiting to happen.
mannystv.com
"Welcome to our website! As we have the ability to list over one million items on our website (our selection changes all of the time), it is not feasible for a company our size to record and playback the descriptions on every item on our website. However, if you have a disability we are here to help you." Talk about a lawsuit waiting to happen.
mannystv.com
Manny's Appliances - Appliances
Manny's Appliances is a family owned Appliances store.www.mannystv.com
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![[screenshot of someone's schedule for a day]
9am - 1pm: Prepping for A CALL
1pm - 2pm: A CALL
2pm - [cut off at 3pm]: recovering from A CALL](https://fedi.ml/photo/preview/640/575322 "[screenshot of someone's schedule for a day]
9am - 1pm: Prepping for A CALL
1pm - 2pm: A CALL
2pm - [cut off at 3pm]: recovering from A CALL")
Sean Randall
in reply to rem • • •rem
in reply to Sean Randall • • •@cachondo perhaps a strong opinion, but when I'm on stage introducing the event, and when I talk about the event, I say it as "F F Conf" (and we correct people who call it "Full Frontal")
It's definitely mad that I've tried to jump through hoops when in reality a screen reader is going to sound it out differently depending on the software you use.
As for the right - I've always argued for small and personal sites, you should have the right to experiment, so long as this doesn't hurt anyone.
Sean Randall
in reply to rem • • •I think the lengths you've gone to for inclusion are remarkable and I admire the technical aspects greatly.
As you say, though, a person's choice of screen reader, speech synthesizer, voice characteristics ... it all impacts. Blind users will spell what they need to, if they don't already use Braille. It's the difference between calling me Shaun or Shawn or (If you're very british and blind, shorn), when the spelling is sean. It's part of our lives already.
rem
in reply to Sean Randall • • •@cachondo on your closing point, I do agree. That's where I nearly (or should have) ended with "am I doing it wrong" in the blog post.
I did also consider changing all instances (across 14 years of micro-sites) from (lowercase) ffconf to (mixed case) FFConf. I didn't mostly because, well, I think screen reader users don't really think (or care) that the event is actually called ffconf (where the F letters aren't pronounced).
rem
in reply to Sean Randall • • •Sean Randall
in reply to rem • • •Sean Randall
in reply to rem • • •there's also a huge disparity between speech engines. Some people want a Human-sounding version of the onscreen text, others see a screen reader as more of a way of accessing data. The predictability of a more monotone voice can allow for faster speeds, for example.
The models used to generate speech have varied wildly over the years as technology has changed.
And then there's the matter of how much the engine should do for you. Is "Dr." drive or doctor. Is MB always Megabyte? Sometimes it's millibars. One of the best examples of this is the Windows properties dialog box, the title of which reads "OS (C:) Properties".
One engine interprets the colon and closing parenthesis as a smily face emoteicon. as a kid I thought it did that when you had loads of space, and it'd change to c:( when space was low.
James Scholes
in reply to rem • • •The post, and eventual "solution" (in quotes because there was no problem) were interesting, and I think the attention to detail is excellent. I always enjoy seeing people learning more about what makes screen readers tick.
Unfortunately, the end result is that screen reader users everywhere will be copying the incorrect event name to the clipboard, creating an impression that they can't write a conference name correctly when they paste it on social media. It also uses more braille cells than needed (10/11 vs six, depending on translation table, repeated across the website).
Given that they end up hearing the "wrong" (in quotes because it isn't) version in the page title before they read any of the "fixed" (likewise) versions, I think the effort was disproportionate to the return on investment. @eric
Sean Randall
in reply to James Scholes • • •Great points, as ever, and I also applaud the spirit to learn of course.
rem
in reply to James Scholes • • •@jscholes @eric there's a lot to parse (and it's late for me, which is why I'm getting muddled), but! I'd say that *if* someone copies the text on the FFConf.org site, they're going to get the *correct* way to their clipboard (FFConf is correct, ffconf, looks "better" but not the letters I want copied).
Absolutely 100% that the effort was disproportionate to the actual problem - the small upshot is that I learnt more about navigating screen readers and a tiny bit about ligatures
Sean Randall
in reply to rem • • •