[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Visually Impaired accessibility?

[Greg Grossmeier]

On Fri, 24 Apr 2009, Jason Etheridge wrote:

> > Have there been any tests of Evergreen regarding this issue?
> 
> There were positive yet informal and undocumented tests of the
> Evergreen OPAC with Jaws early on during development, but nothing
> rigorous or sustained that I'm aware of.  In general, I don't think
> Evergreen is section 508 compliant(*), though the Basic HTML version
> of the catalog should be particularly friendly to screen readers
> (there is no Javascript and it is built completely from stylesheets
> and REST-style API's).  One problem there, however, is that the user
> services part of the OPAC (placing holds, renewals, etc.) does not
> have a "Basic HTML" counterpart.  That said, the existing interfaces
> may be amenable to screen readers, but I don't know in this case.
> 
> The staff client is built on the same framework as the Firefox
> browser, and in Windows is about as accessible as any other Windows
> application.  The bulk of the application can be driven by keystrokes
> and menus, and there's really only one piece of functionality that
> requires a mouse currently (and that's activating the column picker
> for lists).  There is interest in developing a text only staff
> interface for the purpose of machine interaction with some legacy
> software, but such an interface could double for human use.
> 
> Anyone out there have more recent experience with this?  Greg, does this help?
> 
> * - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_508_Amendment_to_the_Rehabilitation_Act_of_1973

Thanks for the response, Jason.  I think this will be a useful answer 
for them.

I will forward it on to the original person asking the question.  If 
they have any other specific questions I'll have them join the mailing 
list.


Best,

Greg