Chromelessness in Engage 0.3 presents an issue for Voiceover use

[Colin Clark]

Everett,

Great advice, and I agree with you on all counts.

As usual, your feedback is invaluable!

Colin

On 2010-02-03, at 5:53 PM, "E.J. Zufelt" <everett at zufelt.ca> wrote:

> 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
>>
>