
JavaScript and screen readers - danw
http://northtemple.com/2008/10/07/javascript-and-screen-readers
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tocomment
No one has ever given me a good answer on this. Why can't we just make screen
readers that render Javascript? At least execute any javascript that runs on
page load, and then read that modified DOM.

You could probably just hack the Firefox code to do it, no big project
necessary.

~~~
esessoms
You mean like:

<http://firevox.clcworld.net/>

And there's this very exciting new development:

<http://webanywhere.cs.washington.edu/wa.php>

Just for completeness, I'll add this link:

<http://www.nvda-project.org/>

Really, though, the problem is one of established vendors with a lock on the
market and, consequently, little motivation to improve their products. Sound
familiar? At first pass, this would seem like prime breeding ground for
startups, but there are serious barriers to entry.

The biggest obstacle for new products is just that visually impaired users are
taught to use JAWS from the get-go: they have the educational market. Yes,
they hate it, but when you can't see it's very hard to comparison shop. All
screen readers have a big learning curve.

Then, if someone could find your product, evaluate it, and like it, well...
most people in the target market are not self-sufficient, and would not
actually be able to pay for it. (You would have to market to the charities and
grant foundations that purchase the products for most users.)

Oh, and did I mention that it's not easy to write a screen reader in the first
place?

As much as I would love to see a startup come into the arena here and change
the rules, I think instead we just have to hope for the success of these
various open-source projects, and be glad that there are people who take this
problem very seriously and are working on it.

Until then, designers and programmers will have to cater to the various quirks
of the market leaders. This article is one of the best guidelines for that
I've seen.

