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

[Gary Wunder]

Fantastic letter.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kevin Reeves" <lists at kevinreeves.net>
To: "'NFBnet NFBCS Mailing List'" <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, April 14, 2009 7:32 PM
Subject: [nfbcs] A letter I wrote to the folks who make wimpy player.


> 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
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