Chromelessness in Engage 0.3 presents an issue for Voiceover use

[E.J. Zufelt]

Good evening,

On 3-Feb-10, at 4:02 PM, Colin Clark wrote:

> Hi Sam,
>
> This is a pretty interesting issue. I really don't know whether it  
> represents a "serious issue" or just a different idiom. I'd be  
> curious to hear Everett's opinion here.
>
* I tried the Engage Exhibitions page as a home screen app.  I can  
confirm sames observations.  The other thing that I noticed is that  
even when I got the correct information on the page that I still had  
some inconsistent, and difficult to describe, behaviour with  
VoiceOver.  Without knowing much about how the technical side of this  
works on the iPhone, I would say that the problem would be an iPhone /  
VoiceOver bug.  I recommend reporting to accessibility at apple.com .   
The Apple accessibility people, in my experience, actually respond to  
messages reasonably quickly and may be able to give some information  
to assist.  You might ask if there is a dev mailing list where you can  
ask more questions on this problem.

I would say that the issue isn't to significant, as long as users have  
the ability to access the app through Safari.  That is, I wouldn't  
spend time trying to find a work around for this, since a work around  
already exists.

Thanks,
Everett


> Some thoughts:
>
> It's my understanding that a home screen icon is intended to mimic  
> App-style behaviour. I imagine that VoiceOver doesn't announce that  
> the "Web page loaded" when a new screen appears in a native iPhone  
> app, so in some sense the behaviour you're seeing is consistent with  
> that style of interaction. On the other hand, I can see how it could  
> also be a less awesome experience.
>
> The issue of having to bring focus back to the page is a very  
> interesting one, and more of a clear-cut problem.
>
> Both of these issues are unlikely to be easily addressable. The good  
> news is that Engage works equally well in Safari and as a home  
> screen icon, so users of Voice Over can simply choose to not view it  
> chromelessly.
>
> Colin
>
>
> On 2010-02-03, at 2:48 PM, Sambhavi Chandrashekar wrote:
>
>> I started using Engage on iPhone through Safari to overcome the  
>> navigation problem. I have described below an  observation I made  
>> comparing this with the chromeless version, which might present a  
>> significant usability issue for Voiceover users:
>>
>> On Safari, upon a successful page transition in Engage, Voiceover  
>> automatically announces 'Web page loaded' and speaks out the title  
>> of the new page (which is vital for Voiceover users to know whether  
>> (a) their action was successful (b) page load is complete and (c)  
>> the desired page has loaded (assuming page titles are given  
>> appropriately). On the chromeless version, there is no feedback  
>> through Voiceover that a new page has loaded although visually I  
>> can see the new page. More interestingly, I am required to tap on  
>> the screen to bring Voiceover focus to the new page. If, without  
>> tapping, I just flick one finger down to read element by element or  
>> two fingers down to read continuously, Voiceover reads the previous  
>> page. If I were not visually looking at the new page, I would have  
>> been led to believe that my action to load a new page has not  
>> succeeded.
>>
>> The fact that Voiceover does automatically announce new Engage  
>> pages on Safari might provide clues to those who know how to  
>> address this issue (I don't ;))
>
> ---
> Colin Clark
> Technical Lead, Fluid Project
> http://fluidproject.org
>