In Folio and Screen Readers
I attended the NCYPE presentation on In Folio on behalf of Dorton College, a college for the visually impaired. After being provided with a user id, I tried the system out and found it very easy to use from a mouse users point of view. I then moved on to trying it with a screen reader, we use JAWS.
The most important point I found was is that all pictures and videos need to have meaningful names prior to loading into In Folio as this then means that the screen reader can use this to aid the blind user.
Again it is relatively easy to use but you have to use different techniques to avoid the use of the mouse. JAWS has various shortcut keys that help e.g. using the letter H allows you to jump from one heading to another, so provided you have given meaningful names to the blocks you can get to the block you wish to edit and then Tab to the edit button. Up to now I have not found anything that cannot be performed by the blind user within In Folio itself, although the way the end result is achieved is different from a normal mouse user e.g. use of the spacebar rather than click with the mouse.
I am looking forward to trying the system out with students and staff in September. One particular use which we are going to explore further is that of measuring distance travelled recording particular actions at the start of the year and repeating them at a future date to demonstrate the progress or not as the case may be.
Hi Terry,
It’s great to hear that In-Folio is working well with screen readers, and I agree with what you say about adding alternative captions to images too.
At Portland I am also encouraging people to record videos of learners performing a particular act or answering specific questions and then repeating this over time, say once a term. Hopefully over the learners’ time at college we can then build up a bank of media for use in evidencing progress etc.
Matt
In-Folio session using JAWS
I went across to the RNIB College and witnessed a blind tutor as he used JAWS with In-Folio. Not very encouraging I’m afraid. He was struggling to make sense of navigation, links and usability. As it stands they don’t feel they can go with it.
It was my first look at In-Folio and the focus was VI. It would be interesting to know if Worcester RNIB had blind or VI ppl trialling?
The site is divided in to a hierarchical structure of tabs, pages and blocks which can be difficult for some learners to understand. Although the page can be split in to tabs etc, Jaws only “sees” a flat screen and therefore reads out all links to tab headings, pages, pictures etc. The links list therefore just becomes a long list with no structure.
The user does not know which level they are in at any one time.
Links are not specified so where there is more than one with same name there is nothing to distinguish them. Names of links do not say whether they are links to swap to a new tab or page or edit a picture and activate a button etc, so the user does know what the links are for.
Using the Jaws command to list links gives different results to tabbing through the links which is not what the user would expect.
Content is not distinguished from form so that a tab has the same name as a page. Often there are two links with the same name on the page, such as edit or add or delete. There is sometimes more than one edit link on a page but nothing in their labelling to distinguish what they do. This is because these links are taking actions on different objects (tab or page for example). The user therefore just gets a list with two “edits” on it or two “adds” and does not know which they want. They may be able to learn that, for example, the first edit is for a page and the second for something else, but in the end that would not be considered usable. The user could try and create labels with the words “tab” or “page” etc in them, but again, that is adding to the complexity of the tasks. The structure is getting in the way rather than being transparent.
Often objects are not labelled at all. So an edit box will say in jaws “unlabelled edit”. The user does not know what the edit box is for. Makes it very difficult to find the edit box they are looking for. Labels are not fully explanatory e.g. “new tab” should be “create new tab”
There is inconsistency with expectations from using Microsoft Products. Links such as edit and add and delete would usually be buttons, though browse and update are buttons as user would expect. User will have to remember when to use Jaws command to list links and when to use the Jaws command to list buttons.
The web site does not lead the user through the sequential actions. For example:
1. When a user creates a new tab, the best position for the focus would be in the edit box to name the tab. But the user has to search again for the edit box which may be difficult to find as it is unlabelled.
2. When user chooses the link to edit a picture, the focus would be best placed inside the appropriate edit box, but they are left in the middle of the page and have to search again for the edit box.
Although it is possible to carry out these actions the number of keyboard commands means it would be considered unusable.
3. When the user first enters an edit box the usual practice in websites or other applications is for it to be highlighted. The user can then key in characters which overwrite what is highlighted. If they want to insert characters without overwriting they know to move the cursor first to remove the highlight. In this website when they enter an edit box there is no highlight, so they have to deleted what was there before inserting new text. Again, this adds to the number of keyboard presses and is inconsistent from what they would expect.
Too many links - 24 links on a page. A new JAWS user would find it even more confusing.
Would the term ‘tags’ be understood by learners?
?? Martin – don’t think we tried blocks: Margaret and Hanif reckon the blocks also create navigation issues.
Other comments:
The site could be set up with tabs, pages and blocks already created with names such as Tab1, Tab2 etc. However, that site template would have to be created automatically when a user logs in, staff would probably feel they do not have the time to do that themselves for every user. It also limits the user to that structure until they can learn to add to it themselves. The user would still have to learn to edit the names from TAB1 to what they want it to be called.
Staff and learners would need a lot of support to be able to use this. Possibly even sighted learners and staff would find it difficult.
We all felt at the moment the site would be too difficult for our learners.
What the user needs is a structure that supports them in progressing through the sequence of actions they need to take. This is where Microsoft’s wizards are often found to be helpful. So a user would first need to be presented with something similar to:
Create tab, edit tab, view tab.
Then
Create page, edit page, view page.
Then
Create block, edit block, view block.
Ideas for possible actions
1. Label all objects
2. Make labels meaningful
3. Add more logical placement of the focus when an action is taken
4. Add a where am I button to tell the user the level they are currently working at
5. Look at a menu or wizard that would take the user through the correct sequence
6. Rewrite the manual for Jaws users
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As a Newbie, I am always searching online for articles that can help me. Thank you
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