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By Muslim guy on
We are working on a demo site for the Federation of Deaf People.
Next will be the BLIND and Visually Impaired.
As you will care to see, the approach will be different in the presentation, display, and workflow (for admin, writers, visitors, users).
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FOR BLIND/VI
Can some good people develop an AUDIO module which is enhanced and easy to operate (by a blind person)?
Maybe when creating an audio
- the module searches for an audio (MP3, wav) inside specified folder where audio files are created
- use Step Voice Recorder which is only 350 KB and free with no ads
*would be nice if the module can create a content which is the audio record
Display - either use:
- Onmouseover - instead of having to click a tiny button, which is of course hard to do for a blind or even a normal person in dim light :)
- Autoplay, with large (Big) interface - can play, pause, stop, adjust volume
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The first code / script: - autoplay, no control
< META HTTP-EQUIV=refresh CONTENT="#seconds; http://drupalmalaysia.org/gemilang/files/Surah-an-Nasr.mp3" >
The second code - autoplay, control
<embed type="audio/mid" src="files/Surah-an-Nasr.mp3" autostart=true loop=false height=162 width=400 controls="console">
Comments
See the code working
Demo
http://drupalmalaysia.org/gemilang/node/43
Website for the
Website for the Blind
http://drupalmalaysia.org/EBUTA
This website is AUDIO oriented
I will rearrange blocks to be only at right
***Note: this page will horrible with Microserf Internet Explorer - what you get with a horrible software from a horrible monster corporation
- Get Firefox and Audio-Video ready
I think you'll lose a lot with this approach.
Have you ever sat down to surf the web with a blind person? I used to work with disabled kids and teens, and I have a blind nephew. If I understand what you are describing correctly, your site won't turn out nearly as accessible as you think.
It sounds like you would like most or all of the site's content to exist as mp3 files, recorded by StepVoice, and that you would like to use large buttons with mouseover sounds to ease navigation. It sounds like you want the mp3 files to be played embedded in the web site (probably using Flash).
Off the top of my head, I came up with the following problems for your design:
Luckily, there's another approach that's been time-tested to work much better:
Create a site that is friendly to text-to-speech software for the blind, with an unobtrusive, high-contrast, dynamically-sized layout for other visually impaired people. Just a handful of the advantages include:
Please see the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Accessibility Initiative page for a good starting point to learn about building accessible web sites.
Susan
Thank you Susan :) For the
Thank you Susan :)
For the Blind:
I have 2 purposes
1- Create website for the blind to enjoy - I believe audio is enjoyable, but a text-to-speech is unfriendly in term of `its not real human' .
2. Create a website for the blind to PUBLISH their stuff - either audio, video, or writings.
The 2nd is challenging,and I havent started anything significant to demonstrate.
I dont use audio.module (yes, Flash button is small and inaccessible) - I thought of getting in touch with the module developer to consider creating a new audio module that uses `onmouseover' and `tab' instead of clicking around
*A mouse and a keyboard is cheap, whereas a specially designed keyboard and PC for the blind is prohibitively expensive. The Braille-text keyboard has 20 cells and 80 cells, and 20 cells are beyond afford of most people who need to have them.
Assuming many of the blind persons have non-blind family members, and can afford a regular PC+Keyboard+mouse.
Creating a voice, or reading, audio mp3 files are easy and cheap, although the quality depends on the microphone, it is also cheap.
We can even use a cheap webcam, to create a short VIDEO message with AUDIO using Eyeballchat.com free webcam software.
Step Voice Recorder is freeware, so do Hi-Q, and both produces decent quality of mp3 files. So 1 problem solved.
So the website is promoted by words of mouth, by advertising around, etc.
****Doing this via java is possible, but would make the site completely useless to people whose browsers don't support java, and writing such a player in a portable, accessable way would require an amount of coding that would strain the budget of a small nonprofit.***
Drupal to the rescue! That's why we loved Drupal - it doesnt provides all the solutions but it provides almost all the tools DIY to solve problems.
- I used Flexinodes to create a node content type consisting of:
Upload mp3 file, textarea containing the Javascript `onmouseover' textarea for the audio transcript
- So the job of uploading and creating an AUDIO which is played by `onmouseover (can be paragraph, link, image) is easy (for non-blind author).
- I also create a similar audio type that uses META TAG autoplay on loading page - since bgsound is only for IE, meta tag works for Firefox, Mozilla, and others. The audio is played when the page is opened.
***Lastly - text-to-speech software are mostly in English - and I even thought of producing my own language's audio files, but this is way beyond my capabilities, and there is no software company or person that wants to volunteer.
****I personally think that the Internet, and popular sites like myspace.com, friendster.com never thought of being accessible to the blind, or have they? If deafnation.com is for the deaf, anybody knows if there is a site truly for the blind? (either personal or organizational site)
Thank you Susan :) For the
I tend to try to mix text with recorded audio (podcasts and such), you get a good balance of usability and aesthetics.
Anything you have to click is bad for the blind, period. Any blind person I've used the computer with has told me that mice and similar pointing devices are totally unusable because one must coordinate visual cues from the monitor with kinesthetic cues from mouse movement, something the blind can't do.
But they don't use the mouse. I never suggested special braille keyboards. The blind can learn to touch type as easily as I did.
Why do you feel the need to push specific recording software, especially closed-source proprietary software over which you have no control?
<snip>Get to know the FLOSS community at large. There are many willing translators, and I'm willing to bet that someone has already done at least some work on supporting languages other than english for text-to-speech. As for the corporate side, good luck.
I've not found anything particularly well done. Heck, here in the US many government sites that are required by law to be accessible to the blind aren't.
Good luck with your work :)
Susan
P.S. -- Have you considered getting a usability group together of several deaf people of different ages, sexes, and backgrounds to help you work through some of the kinks and test ideas for usability?
***Why do you feel the need
***Why do you feel the need to push specific recording software, especially closed-source proprietary software over which you have no control**
I am not a pusher :) nor am I pushing the softwares. They just existed, free, and I have the copy in my domain, and I link them for my clients and users to download for free
The reason I mentioned the Step Voice is because I have scoured the Internet for a decent freeware and those two were found. The 1st is only 300 KB fits your pocket (your diskette :) so I can easily copy the recorder and give others for free to save them from the hassle.
I believe Windows XP PCs and laptops have bundled softwares that include TTF, voice recorder and such, but I havent tried them myself.
****Podcats - that's interesting. Somenone mentioned that the audio_attach for Drupal 4.7.2 and I have tried it, but I donno about podcasting. Do we have to use a browser plugin to play the audios?
****1 challenge is for me to get the webmaster of the Blind Association to at least care for what he do (whoever he is whether a salaried staff or a webdesign company)....I tried to get in touch with the webmaster, and the staff but they dont seem to be interested, their website is just for profile and not much benefit. They dont even have any contact form or feedback. And ignoring emails from the public seem to be the habit that say a lot about the webmaster. I am averse to webmasters who put their emails in the website (Contact Us : mailto:webmaster@) but dont read them. At least, if they use Drupal instead of static HTML, they can do a lot of interesting stuff, at least accessible to the public for example non-blind parents for their blind children, and family members. And be responsive to the public.
Another is for Web Design Companies to care for people with disabilities. They charged high for static HTML web design, but they dont even know what CMS is. Let alone `accessibility' and anything that is out of their current knowledge.
I am pretty much a self-motivated online activist who advocates the use of Drupal because people can do wonderful stuff with it.
***Thanks Susan for the Web Accessibility site - I am reading it and it will be useful to `knock the bigwigs head' :) Lets get serious about websites people! :o
Required by Law I was aware
Required by Law
I was aware of that but that's only in the US.
If Malaysia wants to be the host for ICT 2008, then the Government has to get serious about websites.
Most government sites use JSP and (gasp!) Mambo - imagine that thousands of users flock to a Mambo site to download a critical document, and they only have 1 server!
Only because this is still highly ranked in google
Thought I'd point people to the accessibility group where this is being discussed for Drupal.
So far it's looking very good for Drupal 7.