Re: [orca-list] form field structural navigation

["krishnakant Mane" <researchbase gmail com>]

On 25/04/07, Lorenzo Taylor <daxlinux gmail com> wrote:
> My problem isn't with reusing technology that started on the other OS.
> Unfortunately for now, some of these technologies put accessibility
> somewhat ahead of where we are now. I just have a problem with virtual
> buffering and especially forms mode in general.
exactly.
firstly, the reason some people are so stuck to the forms mode and the
vertual buffers (I don't know what that word actually should mean), is
because we are in a kind of golden cage which has lot of chains tied
to it and we can only do some thing inside a blackhole.
as Krister pointed out, think about the blind web designers.  again I
had done a small research and found out that blind people indeed have
a good understanding of the visual placement of elements on screen.
I am not refering to colours but the screen layout.  I call it the
digitally coordinated approach because we blind people can imagine in
our minds the physical coordinates of the screen and some times can do
even better work than a sited person.  as a side note some times my
colligues even doubt that I can indeed see and I am pretending.  this
is particularly the modus oparendy when I do web layout.
so if we were to give vertual buffers then the blind person himself
wont have an idea as to how his page is looking.  he might have a
perfect idea and indeed may have layed out the page perfectly but back
in his mind the issue of "I can't see " is there and when he sees the
page in a vertual buffer he never gets the actual idea.
any ways the second aspect which I already mentioned is that when one
works with a sited colligue, it is absolutely necessary to be in
conjunction with the sited person or he needs to know where our
"vertual cursor " is.  another thing which I find is the tables.  we
must render the tables as is so again no scope for vertual buffers
here.
any way enough of my boring thesis.  this has been my parrt of the
research and that's why I have always been against the vertual
buffers.
I also want to add a personal observation.  I know that orca still
needs some refining as far as ff and accessibility is concerned.  but
even then my web experience with orca and firefox has been pritty
well.  I rarely get stuck and although the experience is some times
stressful, I think not having the vertual buffers has really given a
big boost to the web experience.
just imagine, with the addition of link list and frame list and even
the proper and consistent navigation with orca and ff, we will be as
good as a sited person on the web.  jmind you with vertual buffers and
forms mode we are absolutely isolated from the sited people and can
never coordinate together if surffing the web from a same computer.


> The virtual buffer and
> forms mode is the one area where the other OS is far behind from an
> accessibility standpoint.
I think gnome accessibility is pritty rich and it is just a matther of
may be couple or months that we go even beyond expectations.
so please continue with the work and no forms mode and vertual buffers.
I however would strongly recommend having a links list and that too
with no vertual buffers will be really good.
regards.
Krishnakant.