Re: [orca-list] links list

[Alex Midence <alex midence gmail com>]

Hi, Jason,

Please see my response inline:



On 12/6/12, Jason White <jason jasonjgw net> wrote:
> Christopher Chaltain <chaltain gmail com> wrote:
> > Yeah, I would never be so pessimistic to say something would never
> > happen. I can't speak to this particular feature myself though, since I
> > never used it in Windows and have never felt like I missed it, but I'm
> > probably missing out on something.
>
> This feature has been supported for ever in browsers such as Lynx, but I
> never
> found it particularly useful in that context and I don't miss it in
> Firefox.


Really?  I didn't know that.  I'll have to look into it.

> On the other hand, I use searching heavily (including the ' key which
> searches
> only for links).

Searching takes a lot of typing.  Tell me, how would you handle this:

Your job is to assist people with their purchase of tickets to events
and movies around the country.  You have a web-based application in
front of you with its pages organized in dropdowns and tabs across the
top of your screen.  They read: Venues, Events, accommodations,
transactions, and call history.

Joe Snuffy is on your phone wanting to know if you have any rock
concerts coming to town the night of the 15th which are within a
radius of 12 miles from the Pish Posh Hotel which, incidentally, he'd
like you to check to see if discounts are available to those coming to
town for the convention he's attending during the day of this concert.
  Oh, and would you happen to know if there's an exhibit worth
checking out at the Art Museum for his kids to attend while he goes to
his rock concert?  He wants to purchase with his mastercard and he
wants it billed to the same address he used with your company last
time he was in town when he spoke to that nice girl who helped him out
then.

You have 4.5 minutes to answer his call, get what he wants, fill his
order and document the call.  You have to negotiate this screen
quickly and efficiently.  Each dropdown only shows you what is under
it when your mouse pointer overs over it and will change its options
based on the caller's > account number and the city he is visiting.
Each drop down has from 5 to 10 options beneath it.  Each screen these
options brings up has over 40 to 50 links cross several hierarchical
headings with special instructions dynamically inserted in between
enclosed in divs and spans.

I frankly could not imagine doing that without an elements list.  I
teach customer service and have worked in call centers for the last
fourteen years so, this is a very real scenario I'm outlining for you.
 In fact, I only wish  my system was so simple at work.  The people I
teach have from 3 to 4 web-based applications they have to navigate
through, each with its own interface and layout  and must keep their
calls between five to seven minutes long and hold times down to a
minimum.  Accuracy, professionalism and quality of service are crucial
for them to keep their jobs.



> It's also going to be hard to maintain lists of links when the underlying
> Web
> page is being modified by Javascript, a problem that only becomes worse as
> the
> Web becomes more dynamic.

Lots of screen readers do this just fine.  In fact, the dynamic nature
of some pages necessitates them.  My scenario above?  I locate the
dropdown with my virtual pc cursor, I route my virtual mouse cursor to
it, I bring up my links list and quicly arrow through the options it's
pulled up.  If it's a screen or page I visit often, I type its first
letter till I land on it.  This keeps my mouse pointer over the
dropdown link while my links list does with the sighted person's eyes
do and zooms in on the appropriate link to click.  This is with a
jquery dropdown and with acordion-style dropdowns.


> For the people who do find lists of links useful, is there another feature
> that could be implemented which would address your needs just as
> effectively,
> or even more effectively, but which wouldn't involve creating a special
> presentation of the page? For example, would navigating links by number (as
> in
> Lynx 2.8) help, or some improvement to the searching features of the
> browser?
I'd have to try it that way to tell you for sure.  That's my honest answer.

Thanks for making it this far,
Alex M

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