The E-Reader Explosion: A Cheat Sheet By almost any imaginable definition, last week was the newsiest ever in the still-new world of e-book readers. We witnessed the unveiling of Barnes & Noble’s ambitious Nook. We got more details about Plastic Logic’s long-awaited device. We learned of an underdog known as the Spring Design Alex. We were informed that Amazon was killing the original Kindle 2 and lowering the price of the model with international roaming, and saw a demo of an upcoming Amazon Kindle reader application for Windows (a Mac version is also in the works). In short, the era in which it was logical to use “Kindle” as shorthand for “book-reading gizmo” is over. It seems like a good time, then, to put some basic facts and figures about a bunch of major and/or new e-reader competitors in one place. Amazon Kindle With U.S. and International Wireless In three words: Pioneering…getting stale? Price: $259 Availability: Now Books, etc: 360,000 books; newspapers, magazines, and blogs. Input: Physical keyboard, buttons Price: TBA
NVDA – a free, open source screen reader Testing your work with a screen reader, especially if you’re building something that is more advanced than a basic info website, is likely to help you create a more accessible website. The best thing is to have actual screen reader users test your work, but that isn’t always feasible to do on a day-to-day basis unless you happen to have a co-worker who uses a screen reader. So being able to do some testing on your own is pretty much a necessity. There are several screen readers to choose from, but one that is particularly appealing is NVDA. It is free, open source, works with Firefox, and has support for WAI-ARIA. The catch is that NVDA is Windows only, so Mac users like myself will need to use virtual machine software like Parallels Desktop or VMWare Fusion to run it. If you’re wondering why testing with Apple’s VoiceOver screen reader (which is shipped with Mac OS X) is not enough, there are a few reasons.
E-book Reader Matrix This page compares e-book reader devices that use e-paper. The data on this page represents the second generation of eBook Readers and most are no longer available. For newer current devices see eBook Reader Matrix. [edit] Other pages of interest First generation devices are collected in the Older E-book Reader Matrix. [edit] 5" Devices [edit] 6" Devices Because of several requests there is also a row oriented version of the 6" eBook Reader Matrix. [edit] Large Devices Setting up a screen reader test environment » iheni :: making the web worldwide Back in the day when web pages were web pages and not web applications you could just about get away with not testing with a screen reader. Using a combination of text based browsers, accessibility testing tools such as the Web Accessibility Tools consortium Accessibility Toolbar and and browser tools such as Preferences settings in Opera (see Opera > Quick preferences or Preferences), you could more or less muddle your way through. This is not the case now though as browsers, screen readers, guidelines and technology has moved on and in many ways is catching up with one another. Why test with screen readers WCAG 2.0 and JavaScript: Where WCAG 1.0 had a blanket ban on JavaScript WCAG 2.0 now allows it providing it’s accessible to assistive technologies, or in WCAG 2.0 talk accessibility supported.WAI-ARIA: Screen readers can in fact handle most uses of JavaScript. Set up a sandbox Whether on Mac or PC you want to set up a screen reader testing sandbox. Configuring screen readers
Connexions - Sharing Knowledge and Building Communities Screenreader Visibility - css-discuss From CSS Discuss Summary: When you hide material from visual display on a PC screen, you almost always hide it from screen readers too. Detail: As we move from tag soup to CSS governed design, we throw out the layout tables and we throw out the spacer images. This technique has a certain appeal. The results are in: The technique does not work as expected. How do we know? I turned to accessibility gurus and to people who use screen readers everyday, asking them to try my Screen Reader Visibility Test. How did we get here? First and foremost, the difficulty is with the screen reader products, none of which honor aural style sheets, and few of which pay any attention at all to CSS standards. Open memo to screen reader publishers: It is long past time to start building products that comply with W3C standards. What next? What would we really like, and how can we accomplish it? The downfall, of course, is that the screen reader publishers don't yet pay attention to media="aural". Notes: none
Screen Readers For Testing Website Accessibility Blog - Jaws, Window Eyes, Parallels, and Boot Camp Screen readers and my HP laptop have never been friends. JAWS causes major stability issues. Window Eyes stutters a lot. Now that I have an Intel-based Mac with Parallels and Boot Camp for running Windows, I have found the perfect screen reader testing system. Parallels is a program that allows Windows to run within a window under OSX. Boot Camp allows you to boot into Windows on a Mac computer. Disclaimer: You must have up-to-date screen readers (tested with JAWS 8.0 and Window Eyes 6.1 demos), Parallels (build 3214 – June 21, 2007), and Boot Camp (1.3 Beta). Parallels Parallels rocks! For kicks, I have installed Windows Vista and Ubuntu Linux in other virtual machines. Boot Camp Boot Camp is a (currently) free program from Apple that allows you to boot your Intel Mac into Windows. Screen readers on your Mac Upon starting JAWS in a Parallels session, you will receive a Video Intercept prompt. Window Eyes GW Micro also offers a trial of Window Eyes. MacBook keyboard mapping
Windows-Eyes screen reader (visual-impairment, illiterate) GW Micro - Window-Eyes Window-Eyes Quick Intro Window-Eyes is nothing less than the most stable screen reader available on the market today. Featuring Windows 2000, Windows XP (Home, Professional, and Media Center), Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista (all 32-bit and 64-bit versions, including Vista Ultimate, Vista Home Premium, Vista Home Basic, Vista Business, and Vista Enterprise), all 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2008, and all 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7, Window-Eyes puts you in the hands of the most powerful screen reading software ever created. Window-Eyes gives total control over what you hear and how you hear it. Pricing Information Agency Licenses, Site Licenses and Educational discounts are available. Window-Eyes is your key to opening the doors of a world with unlimited information. Applications that utilize standard Microsoft controls will be spoken automatically with little to no configuration necessary. GW Micro is committed to the user.
Testing with Screen Readers: Questions and Answers You are here: Home > Articles > Testing with Screen Readers: Questions and Answers What are the benefits of testing web content with screen readers? Listening to your web content rather than looking at it can be an "eye-opening" experience (pardon the pun) that takes sighted users out of their normal comfort zone. Should I always test my web content for accessibility using a screen reader? Perhaps. So if I don't know how to use a screen reader, I shouldn't even try? Well, that would be an easy way out, but before you start making excuses, let's take a look at what you'd be missing out on. Although a screen reader isn't a "browser" in the same way that Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer are browsers (in fact, in most cases the screen reader depends on those browsers), screen readers are a way of accessing web content that is different from the way that sighted people use browsers. Blind users access web content in fundamentally different ways compared to sighted users.