[Nfb-web] Accessible NAS Systems

[Peter Donahue]

    Good afternoon everyone,

Although this is a "Border Line" post because it partly involves Web 
accessibility issues I decided to post it here to hopefully find blind users 
of network attached storage, (NAS)  solutions for storing large amounts of 
files in a central location and being able to access them locally or 
remotely with various devices. In addition to their file storage capability 
many NAS devices include such features as print servers, media servers, and 
even Web servers allowing you to create Web sites and run them right from 
the drive.

    Since the proper way to develop Web sites is on a local "Testing server" 
to be sure all components work as expected and for debugging purposes before 
moving them to the "Production Server" the host where the site will live 
permanently and be available to visitors having an in-house Web server can 
be very beneficial for a Web developer. Some NAS Web servers also include 
PHP and MYSQL allowing one to develop and test databases locally before 
deploying them to a production environment. Having a testing environment for 
sites under construction you can access from multiple locations is exciting! 
For this reason I felt it appropriate to post this request here in the hopes 
of finding other blind NAS users to get a better idea of which systems work 
well with screen readers and which do not.

    We have an external drive preparing to "Go south" on us and are in the 
market for its replacement. We could buy an external drive for a particular 
computer or choose the smarter choice to buy a NAS drive system so all of 
our files will be available to any computer we own. This makes more logical 
sense rather than having an external drive that will only service to store 
files for a particular unit.

    We're wanting to know if any of you have used NAS (Network Attached 
Storage) drives and which ones you have found to be the most accessible to 
blind computer users. A friend of ours said that products from "Buffalo 
Technology" are the best NAS storage products you can get. We're leaning in 
this direction. These systems have software you install to configure the 
drive and to make the NAS drive available to each node of your network 
including smart phones, iPad and iPods. Otherwise the NAS drive appears as 
another drive on each device connected to the network. Although Buffalo's 
products seem to hold promise further investigation revealed that in order 
to install the drive software and to perform drive management operations one 
must enter a captcha code (Not detectable by JAWS) to execute these 
procedures.

    Up until now we've been using a remote cloud storage solution which for 
the most part is serving us well though it does have a few quirks we would 
love to be rid of. Creating a "Private Cloud" could be a far better solution 
as it would allow us to store our files in-house and will allow us to 
eliminate some monthly expenses. Your feedback concerning NAS devices and 
their accessibility will be very much appreciated. All the best.

  Peter Donahue

 “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper.”
Isaiah 54:17

 “While for our princes they prepare
In caverns deep a burning snare,
He shot from heaven a piercing ray,
And the dark treachery brought to day.”
Anonymous