[nfbcs] A letter I wrote to the folks who make wimpy player.

[Kevin Reeves]

Hey folks. As you all are aware, more and more websites are employing
embeddable players for audio and video content. One of the most ubiquitous
player on the net right now is called the Wimpy Player,
http://www.wimpyplayer.com. Fortunately for us, these players are quite
accessible with Screen readers, allowing us to interact with all the buttons
and read the currently playing song or video. However, there are several
unlabeled buttons in the window, which Jaws arbitrarily assigns numbers too.
I wrote the company to make them aware of this and see if labeling these
buttons could be implemented on the application layer itself or implemented
in the development of a special skin. Below is my letter. I wanted to open
some dialogue about this and see what you guys thought. I'll keep you posted
as to their response.
 
Good afternoon. My name is Kevin Reeves. I'm a blind musician who will be
deploying wimpy player on my sites. I love it's ease of use and straight
ahead configurability. However, I do have one question. As a blind person, I
use special screen reading software such as Jaws for Windows. When viewing a
site and navigating the flash player, some of the buttons are nicely
labeled, and Jaws speaks them when they are encountered. Also, Jaws reads
the currently playing item in the playlist. However, there are several
buttons that are apparently not labeled in the standard fashion. Jaws
assigns an arbitrary number to said buttons. As the user encounters those
buttons, it reads like this. "13 button, 12 button, 10 button, etc." Are
these buttons labeled with bitmap images? Also, are buttons and other
control elements labeled at the application layer, or in the skin? If the
former, is there a way to incorporate said labels into an upcoming release?
If this were to be accomplished, your customers would be able to provide A
much more fulfilling web media experience to those who are blind or visually
impaired. Any help you could provide in this matter would be greatly
appreciated.
 
Kevin Reeves