Re: Accessibility Issues with NSPopover (MacOS)
Re: Accessibility Issues with NSPopover (MacOS)
- Subject: Re: Accessibility Issues with NSPopover (MacOS)
- From: Travis Siegel <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 24 May 2012 15:36:12 -0400
When a new window shows up, vo does announce the window, though it's
not always obvious what the window refers to, or indeed if it's a new
one, or a reinit of an existing one, because vo usually only says
something like "New Window" or something similar. However, as I've
mentioned on this list before, and to several developers, and what I
strongly urge developers to keep in mind, is that vo users don't want
you (as the developer) to "tell" them what they should be looking
at. It's a screen reader's job to read the screen, nothing less,
nothing more. Any added features are a nice to have, but doesn't
mean they should be used in all cases. Knowing there's a screen with
the info I need is generally enough, I don't (usually) wish to be
yanked out of what I'm currently doing, and be dumped into anther
screen, just because the author of that particular program thought I
needed to know what it says, and I need to know right now.
I can't tell you how extremely irritated I used to get when safari
was chugging along loading a web page, and I went to check mail, then
when the page was done, voiceover would happily switch me (focus and
all) to the safari page that had just loaded. It didn't matter if I
was in the middle of typing a message, viewing subject lines, or
pressing enter to read the message in the cursor, safari would grab
the control, and all my input would then be directed to safari
instead of mail. Of course, as soon as apple added the checkbox to
move to newly loaded web page, you can be sure I unchecked that box
just as fast as I could find the silly thing, and I've never regreted
my choice.
If you need to play a tone of some sort to let people know the info
is present, then do so, but don't ever take control of the user's
session, and force them into something they won't know they're in, it
only creats illwill, and (in extreme cases) turns off the user, and
they won't use that application, no matter how accessible it may be.
There's such a thing as being too helpful. I don't like when folks
grab my arm and begin dragging me across the street at an
intersection, and I sure don't like when software tells me what I
should be looking at instead of allowing me to make the decision for
myself.
I realize you're trying to help, and letting folks know there's
something that needs looked at is important, but jerking them out of
whatever they're doing, and slamming them into that particular screen
just because *you* think it's important isn't the way to do it. If
you don't make the whole screen a window, and cover up everything
else on the monitor to force sighted folks to look at your screen,
then you shouldn't force vo users to be preempted from their work to
do the same.
Think about your design, and try to come up with something that will
allow the users to know info is there, and perhaps make it a point in
the documentation to explain such screens, but for everyone's sanity,
please don't *8force* them to look at things just because you think
it's important, the user in question may not think so, and it's a lot
easier to explain a lost screen than it is to explain you interrupted
their other work, because you *wanted* them to see your progress
update. Remember, this isn't dos, folks can and do multitask, and if
your program isn't foremost, then there's no need to coopt their
attention to dealing with that program unless something drastic has
taken place, but in that case, I think other cues would already tell
the user there's trouble. :)
I hate to keep harping on this, since every developer has (what they
believe to be) good reasons why they *should* force the user to look
at this or that, but remember, the user should be in control of what
they do, and if that means they don't get to see a screen the instant
it pops up, then that's the tradeoff you need to accept to allow them
to use their machine the way they want to use it.
Making the screen accessible with the command-~ key should be enough,
if you can do that, and there's no need for the user to resort to vo-
f2-f2, then everything should work as expected, but even with apple,
sometimes a vo-f2-f2 is necessary (finder pop-ups do this sometimes,
as do javascript pop-ups on web pages depending on how they're coded)
so at least an experienced vo user will know to look in the vo-f2-f2
area if they can't find something they're looking for, but this still
isn't a reason to force the issue programatically.
Vo users are always greatful to developers who take the time to make
their programs accessible, and I'm not in the least trying to
undermine that here, I'm only urging developers to seriously think
about their approach to that accessibility, and consider how usable
that solution may be. In short, if you don't enforce sighted users
to do particular things then you really shouldn't try to force vo
users to do those things either.
I'm getting long winded here, and that's not my intent, I'm only
trying to explain how I myself view such things, and other vo users
I've talked to (generally) agree, though there's always those who
disagree with me, and that's fine, since that's the whole point of
choice right?
The point is, we always love when a program is accessible, and on
osx, that's a *much* larger out of the box percentage than on other
operating systems, but just because apple provides tools, it's not
necessary to force those tools on the end users. Having a program
that's not quite accessible (I.E. unlabeled buttons and areas of the
screen that have no decernable purpose are annoying too, because they
frustrate us knowing the program *can* be used, only if ...
But those that try too hard are frustrating too.
Whether or not that applies in this case isn't up to me to decide,
I've not used the program, so can't comment on that directly, but I
do know that when a program forces me to do something, even if it's
beneficial to have it done may not be what I wanted at that
particular moment, and so can be just as frustrating.
Overall, I think developers do a decent job, but I'm constantly
seeing requests on here asking how to force vo to do this, or how to
force vo to do that, and I just want to remind developers that vo
users are still users, and should be treated as such. Some are
advanced, and some are beginners just like everyone else, which may
make for a little more support work (explaining the screen is there)
but that doesn't mean they're any less capable of doing what needs
done, please, folks, keep in mind when developing accessible programs
that it is possible to be too helpful, and forcing vo to go here or
there (imo) falls into that too helpful category.
I think I've gotten away from my original point, and this probably
isn't the best way to explain it, but I hope folks understand, and
take this note the way it was intended, simply as a reminder, or
gentle guidance, nothing more.
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