Assistive tech (semi-) poll

[denise]

One of the problems we've been running into lately when talking accessibility-focused design is that it's very hard to know what assistive/adaptive tech people are using to access the site. Sometimes this information shows up in the Google Analytics aggregate data that we look at for information on browser capabilities, but it's hard to get an accurate picture that way: a lot of adaptive tech self-reports as something other than it is in order to "trick" websites that do browser-specific design into giving it different results, etc.

So, in order to a) make sure we're testing things in the most commonly-used assistive technology setups out there and b) make sure we're making the right design choices in the future (especially as there are multiple conflicting accessibility-related paradigms), we would like to get a better picture of what kinds of assistive technology our users are actually using to access the site.

Rather than trying to make a poll and listing off various forms of assistive tech (and invariably forgetting half of them), let's run this as an open-ended semi-poll. If you use any kind of assistive technology (screenreader, text-to-speech software, dictation software, screen magnifying software, browser extensions or plugins that change the way web pages display to you -- anything at all), please comment to this post listing off all the things you use. (And, if it's software, include the version number as well, if you can find it -- there are major differences in how different versions of some programs work.)

For "assistive technology", we're taking a very, very broad definition -- anything from "JAWS, version 13" (screenreader software) to "Dragon NaturallySpeaking" (dictation software) to "NoSquint" (Firefox extension) and anything in between. If you use it to help you make the web more accessible for you, we want to know about it, no matter how minor you may feel it is. (And even if your particular assistive technology has been mentioned already, mention it again; we'd rather have something reported multiple times than risk missing it!)

For those who feel uncomfortable talking about this publicly, anonymous commenting is enabled in this community (with the antispam test temporarily disabled) and all anonymous comments will be screened on this particular entry, so if you comment anonymously, it won't be public. We don't need to know who uses what particular setups, we just need to know what setups are being used, if that makes sense!

Comments

[shoaling_souls]

well, after reading comments here I'm installing flux. I also do a lot of keyboard navigation. One of the browers I use, luakit, has an option where if you press the "f" key, it numbers all the links on the screen, in such a way that the links are spread out across numbers so you have a good chance of only having to type two numbers even on a page with lots of links. I use the Readability add on for FireFox if a page is too busy. I use ctrl + to make things bigger sometimes. I also use adblock but sometimes have to resort to zoom in + side scrolling to make animation go away.

I have a larger default text size set in my browser settings, which sometimes causes layouts of sites to break.

[zdashamber]

I don't know if you've tried this, but hitting "Esc" will freeze all animations on a page (except the javascript ones, which I block with NoScript on Firefox). And I also use AdBlock Plus to block any animated images that show up often, like friend's icons, or you can block the whole class of mood icons with bouncing bunnies. :)

I have the larger default text size too, and it breaks layouts All The Time. Pretty much every airport website. Oy.

[denise]

FYI, it's possible to disable animations entirely in most major browsers, not just only stop them once the page loads -- I have them disabled in all of mine :)

Chrome requires an extension; in Firefox type "about:config" in the URL bar, look for "image.animation_mode", doubleclick it and set its value to "none" (no quotes); in IE go to Tools -> Options -> Advanced, uncheck the box in the Multimedia group labeled "Play animations in web pages"; in Safari you need an extension; in Opera press F12 and uncheck 'Enable GIF/SVG animation'.

[dorothean]

I was about to describe the Firefox about:config procedure in a new thread, but you've done it here. That plus using Adblock and NoScript gets rid of things moving on the screen that are a problem for me.

[shoaling_souls]

I once knew about the esc thing, but I'd forgotten, so thanks for reminding me. I don't mind animations all the time, just sometimes when I'm on the verge of a migraine it can tip me over the edge, or if I already have a migraine and shouldn't be on the computer it can make things worse.

The website for a local delivery company is totally borked in all of my browsers except Chrome. They are the cheapest way to get cat litter, because otherwise I'd have to take the bus and only be able to get one small bag, or I could use this website and have 10 delivered for the price of what I would've spent on the bus tickets, and I can get them to deliver cans of non perishables while they're at it (no extra cost) which is great, because non perishables are cheaper on the other side of town.

I always forget which browser works with that website, so I have to try them all. I only remember that it's Chrome right now because I ordered recently from them. The problem may be related to my large default text size, or it just might be badly coded -- I'm not sure. I don't have default text size changed in luakit because luakit remembers what level of full page zoom I lasted used for every website I've been to before, but it still doesn't work in luakit. The problem is the sidebar on the righthand side overlaps the order form so that I can't fill out my order. The sidebar doesn't have pictures, so I can't block it with adblock. Additionally, you can't get to the order form without logging in, so I get lots of practice at typing my password.

I tend to read my dreamwidth reading page in an rss reader, so I don't see mood icons all that much. I add the feeds for each journal i read which posts publicly. I do this because my rss reader is always open, whereas I don't visit dreamwidth's website everyday. I can't get protected entries to work, though (on lj, you add ?auth=digest to the feed url, but it doesn't work for dreamwidth feeds. oh well.)

[foxfirefey]

Actually, auth=digest should work on readers that support it--which reader are you using? I might be able to determine what needs to be done to get it to work, or that something is wrong and needs to be fixed.

[shoaling_souls]

Liferea 1.8.3 on ubuntu 12.04. I think it's similar to feedburner (but am not sure). I tested it by adding my own account to liferea, and specifying my username and password in the feed's settings, and none of my entries have ever shown up (mine are all access only). It would be nice if it were fixed because I'd like to be able to read my friends access only posts more regularly.