[Nfb-web] NFB-WEB Sandbox

Fri Mar 6 22:14:24 UTC 2009

Hi Susie. I suspect that what you say is very difficult for us to hear,
but I think the truth of the matter is that the way screen readers
present Web content to us doesn't really give us much in the way of
usable information to do our own web design. The way we see things on
the screen reader makes us believe that we are looking at one long
wordprocessing document, and very often we have no idea what is located
on the upper left or the lower right. Even when we know these things, it
is very difficult, short of doing meticulous calculation, to position
things so that they proportionately look correct to other people. Add to
this the issue of graphics, their size, and again, their placement
relative to other graphics and text, and it is an uphill challenge. I
know that on the blind programmers list there are people who do quite a
lot of graphical design, and although they have some rather complicated
formulas for figuring out what goes where, they admit that, in the end,
they submit their screens to other people for their opinions and
manipulation. They concentrate more on the logic behind the screen than
they do the actual screen layout.

As if all of this weren't enough, I think sometimes we have been content
to say to ourselves that all the sighted  really want is eye candy, and
that this is a sign of a decaying world. Be that as it may, I live in
the world, and for as long as I live in the world I'm going to have to
play by its rules. If people decide that they want pictures, and if I am
to write material for them, I've got to figure out a way to incorporate
those pictures into what I write. I note, with some discomfort, but my
experience in the classroom today is quite different from what it was 35
years ago. When I went to college, the blackboard was certainly a
welcome asset by the professor, but only in very difficult situations
wasn't used to convey much information. Even this was primarily limited
to the sciences. The professors I listened to then would probably today
be called talking heads, for they did not make extensive use of slides,
and they did not hand out class notes so that one could be more
comfortable in paying attention to the lecture. Ah, but I see that I am
drifting 

If someone really wants to take exception to the observations you've
made, I think this would be a wonderful place for it, but I think the
proof has to be in the pudding, and the truth is that, more often than
not, I hear people say that we have wonderful informational content, but
that often they are put off by the way our site looks and have to have
an extra special reason to go beyond their negative feelings about how
differently our sites appear. 

Warmest regards my friend,

Gary

-----Original Message-----
From: nfb-web-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-web-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Stanzel, Susan - Kansas City, MO
Sent: Friday, March 06, 2009 1:26 PM
To: NFB Webmaster's List
Subject: Re: [Nfb-web] NFB-WEB Sandbox

I totally agree. I am trying to help my career along, but I don't
exactly know what to do. I am reading a Java book. I evaluate web pages
for work, but I don't know what I really believe about blind people
making pages that sighted folks like. By this, I am especially meaning
totally blind folks. Now, please don't any of you get offended because
that is not what I want to do. I think we are getting into the area
where sighted assistance is needed. That being said, I think we should
understand how pages are made and what makes a good page. I know at my
work we have templates because they need a uniform look and feel.

-----Original Message-----
From: nfb-web-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-web-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Gary Wunder
Sent: Friday, March 06, 2009 7:51 AM
To: NFB Webmaster's List
Subject: Re: [Nfb-web] NFB-WEB Sandbox

I am a programmer but I know for a fact that programming concepts are
sometimes hard to get offered from a sighted perspective - how does a
blind person really do Object Oriented Programming and layout a good
Graphical

User Interface. I think we have a good idea here. I don't think it is a
national Youth Slam offering but I think there are many of us who could
benefit here. Not only is the instruction helpful, but some of us would
benefit from the structure of promising to read pages X through Y by
date Z.

Gary

----- Original Message -----
From: "Arnold Bailey" <arnoldbail at gmail.com>
To: "NFB Webmaster's List" <nfb-web at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 05, 2009 6:19 AM
Subject: Re: [Nfb-web] NFB-WEB Sandbox

> Mike.
>
> Thanks to Everett and yourself for the comments.
>
> My interest in Drupal is twofold.
>
>   1. Curiosity and to expand my knowledge.
>   2. I have this vision of creating a platform to draw blind and
visually
>   impaired students into investigating programming as a career. It
would 
> be
>   great if it was at a national level; but, a chapter level is ok.
With 
> 70%
>   unemployment in our community, there is obviously a great need. I
must
>   admit, though, that, other than Peter D,, I've found zero support.
But, 
> I
>   can't give up the vision without feeling I've let down a lot of
kids. 
> The
>   Drupal development platform and learning support activities that it
>   requires, I think, is a great learning mechanism.
>
> Arnold
>
> On Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 11:28 AM, Michael Hansen <mhansen4 at gmail.com> 
> wrote:
>
>> Arnold,
>>
>> Everett is correct. My thought on the matter would be how much do you
>> want the ISP to take care of versus how much are you the Admin
willing
>> to take care of?
>>
>> Mike
>> ---
>> Mike Hansen
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 9:20 AM, E.J. Zufelt <everett at zufelt.ca>
wrote:
>> > Good morning,
>> >
>> > If the ISP supports mysQL and PHP it takes about 20 minutes to
install
>> > Drupal for a hosting account.
>> >
>> > HTH,
>> > Everett
>> >
>> >
>> > On 4-Mar-09, at 8:37 AM, Arnold Bailey wrote:
>> >
>> >> Mike,
>> >>
>> >> Very nice work. I did notice that in firefox the navigation side
bar 
>> >> is
>> >> located into the center of the webmasters sandbox page. In IE it's

>> >> fine.
>> >>
>> >> One question I have. Is there any thoughts given to affiliate and
>> chapters
>> >> usage of drupal? It seems like it would make sense for the
affiliate 
>> >> and
>> >> chapters to pull a drupal theme and NFB applications and use them
on
>> their
>> >> site, The problem is that drupal is not usually found on most
ISPs. I
>> >> would
>> >> think that a single ISP that has drupal support would be cost
>> effectively
>> >> justified.
>> >>
>> >> Arnold
>> >>
>> >> On Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 11:38 PM, Michael Hansen
<mhansen4 at gmail.com>
>> >> wrote:
>> >>
>> >>> The Sandbox is now up and running on our website. If you want to
play
>> >>> around with a drupal install and not have to worry about breaking
>> >>> something there is one there for you. If you want to experiment
with
>> >>> other things just create a sub directory off of the root and dorp
in
>> >>> your code. Complete login information is posted on our website.
>> >>>
>> >>> Let me know if you have questions.
>> >>>
>> >>> Mike
>> >>> ---
>> >>> Mike Hansen
>> >>>
>> >>> _______________________________________________
>> >>> Nfb-web mailing list
>> >>> Nfb-web at nfbnet.org
>> >>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-web_nfbnet.org
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ail.com
>> >>>
>> >> _______________________________________________
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>> >
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
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