Does this site work for the blind?

[Scot]

I just got a message from a fellow Vienna fan from my warmstrangers.com
pages who happens to be blind. He said he loves Vienna's music, but although
he has web-reading software, he can't ready anything on this site (including
the main pages). After I asked him more, he wrote:

I'm no expert in this field, but I think the page is constructed using
JavaScript and the website is probably run through a flashplayer. The
screenreading software, JAWS, does not cope with this at all well. It needs
to be able to pick up links to access each page. Even if there was a link
to bypass the initial front page.

I discovered Vienna whilst looking up another artist on Amazon. Isn't her
music beautiful? ... I missed the opportunity to go
and see her last year in London, so I hope she visits again soon.

Can anyone offer some advice on how he can join the fun?

Thanks,

scot

[Rotkehlchen]

A fellow Vienna fan [..] happens to be blind.
He said he loves Vienna's music, but although he has web-reading software, he can't read anything on this site (including the main pages).

I'm no expert in this field, but I think the page is constructed using JavaScript and the website is probably run through a flashplayer.
The screenreading software, JAWS, does not cope with this at all well.
It needs to be able to pick up links to access each page. Even if there was a link to bypass the initial front page.

Can anyone offer some advice on how he can join the fun?

Thanks for raising this!

I briefly wondered about access problems when Flash was first introduced on the current (v.3) VT site.

Newer web features are not only a barrier to the blind: they are often unkind to those unable to buy new equipment every couple of years or unwilling to restrict themselves to certain proprietary operating systems etc. Over the years, I've often hit website access barriers when using older PCs and software, and preferred websites with a "Text only" option.

The current site's Credits hint where problems lurk:

Recommendations
We recommend the latest version of Firefox for Windows users and Safari for Mac users with Flash and Javascript enabled.
But whether you're a Linux, Mac, Windows, mobile, or Lynx user, or if you have accessibility needs: let us know what we can do to improve the site for you.

Geeky Details
The site runs on Dreamhost's servers, using php and juniper to render pages with greater or lesser dynamic content.
Our mailing list and tour databases are powered by mySQL.
Our animated content run[s] on the Flash engine. [..]

The news and scrapbook sections run on Wordpress.
The forum is powered by phpBB and the mailing list by PHPlist.

Is the Forum accessible via the direct link?
(I experimentally saved your post as html and could re-open and view the saved file - which is a hopeful sign.)

If the Forum doesn't work, there is a text-only version of all Vienna's Q&As on Walking Stranger's Vienna Teng Page.

Your straightforward site would be a further recommendation - except he's just come from there.

Most of Vienna's old v1 site should be good for some (older) fun. I don't hold out much hope for the "click on the seats" page, though.

Vienna's old v2 site isn't currently much fun: most of its links lead nowhere.
But perhaps someone could use it as the basis for a text-only version?

[Michele]

I was asked about this by a blind fan when the site was last redesigned. I recommended the MySpace profile as an alternative. Some problems with that are the music player is not accessible since that is also Flash, and signing up for MySpace was not possible because there was no link provided to listen to the CAPTCHA. I'm not sure if that's still the case with MySpace.

Off the top of my head, I think the best best for text-only browsing at the moment might be the iLike profile. If the fan would like to join the mailing list and whatnot, he can e-mail me for assistance.

[Scot]

Your straightforward site would be a further recommendation - except he's just come from there.

- straightforward is right - as in low technology, lol, but besides not ever
progressing much past hand-coded HTML and perl cgi scripts, I do my web
sites with pretty simple coding also to be compatible with as large an audience
as possible. I guess that's partly reflective of my status as a former Amiga
owner and now linux user.

Thanks for the other suggestions, too!

Michele- thanks, too - I'll add your offer with the other suggestions and the
direct link to the forum!


scot

[Rotkehlchen]

@Scott:

Did you ever have any feedback from our

fellow Vienna fan [..] who happens to be blind

- could we help him at all?
Does his apparent silence mean he's happy now - or does it mean he finally gave up in frustration?

A new (though small) suggestion would be Vienna's Twitter link - when Twitter is online...

[Scot]

Hi Red,

I gave him the link to the forum and he said he'd check it out, but I
haven't heard back. I'm guessing he was pretty frustrated with
trying to access the site, though.

scot

[Walking Stranger]

Hi Rotkehlchen !

If the Forum doesn't work, there is a text-only version of all Vienna's Q&As on Walking Stranger's Vienna Teng Page.
?

I tested JAWS in virtual machine with OS XP via QtEmu in Ubuntu 8.04 and have just updated my compilation of VT Q&A text version.

It sounds better for the blind people after deleting stars / equals / dash and other useless symbols from the first text version.

Enjoy!

WS from France