[IxDA Discuss] 508 compliance

[Allison Bloodworth]

Folks may also be interested to know that you can download copies of the
screen reader software packages JAWS & Window Eyes and use them for free for
40 minutes every time you reboot your computer:
http://www.webaim.org/articles/screenreader_testing/. Though admittedly they
are difficult to learn and you won't get as good data by testing with them
yourself as you would testing real screen reader users (e.g. do the users
*really* use that keyboard shortcut that you think makes it easy to access
your content?), I've found it incredibly eye-opening to spend even a short
amount of time playing with them. Another way developers can see *what it's
really like* to use a screen reader (e.g. you have to find things on a web
page without being able to see it) is by using WebAIM's screen reader
simulator: http://www.webaim.org/simulations/screenreader

Allison Bloodworth
Principal Administrative Analyst
Technology Program Office
University of California, Berkeley
(415) 377-8243
abloodworth at berkeley.edu