Re: [user-context] What are the use cases for exposing screen reader or magnifier version info?

James Craig <jcraig@apple.com> wrote:
 
> Assistive technology vendors are not beholden to W3C specifications (and
> most AT vendors are notoriously uninvolved in the standardization process),
> so exposing this information when it's absolutely necessary, (and only with
> user content), is one attempt to reduce the unreliability of AT interfaces
> on the Web.

At a Web accessibility conference last week, a content author mentioned this
to me as a highly desired feature due to bugs and limitations (often
version-specific) in various screen readers.

I am concerned however that the information is open to misuse: content authors
may start designing for the "most popular" ATs instead of writing according to
spec. They can also ascertain which ATs are "most popular" for their
particular content by gathering data, which is not possible now, since the
name/version of the AT are not revealed.

Thus I have decidedly mixed feelings about this proposal and, frankly, I'm not
sure whether the practical benefits of being able to work around certain
bugs/differences outweigh the opportunity to "design for the UA and AT
implementation" instead of designing to standards.

Received on Friday, 7 December 2012 02:04:14 UTC