Author Archives: Alasdair King
WebbIE 4.2 – response to feedback
I’ve had some great feedback on WebbIE 4 – thank you all. This has resulted in two things: First, it turns out that the USB stick versions of WebbIE have some strong supporters who use them in various teaching and … Continue reading
Switch to WebbIE 4
I’ve had various reports of problems with users of Windows XP with ASDL modems that WebbIE 3 doesn’t start up. Also, Google search is broken. I’ve seized the opportunity to tell people who’ve mailed me to use the new WebbIE … Continue reading
New versions of PDF Reader and BBC iPlayer Radio
As part of the massive WebbIE re-write into .Net, I now have online new versions of PDF Reader and BBC iPlayer Radio. These are pretty much the same as the existing programs, of course. PDF Reader uses a different third-party … Continue reading
New WebbIE Development
Over the last two years I have been working to move the WebbIE programs from the old programming language they have been written in (Visual Basic 6) to the newer .Net. Users of NVDA and Thunder will find that the … Continue reading
Guidelines for building accessible video games
Gamers with a disability often lack support in popular video games. If you’re a gamer designer you may not be able to address every potential user, but if you know how to make things easier or more playable then you … Continue reading
ChromeVox browser extension
ChromeVox is a self-voicing browser extension (add-in) for Google’s Chrome browser. It’s designed by T.V. Ramen, the guy behind emacspeak. It’s optimised for Chrome OS, at present (Google’s operating system that basically just gives you the Chrome browser as your … Continue reading
Keyboard traps and Javascript’s preventDefault
Nomensa has a good article on their blog about Keyboard Traps, or “I don’t use a mouse and the Javascript on a web page is stopping me tabbing past an item.” Here’s the theory. If you use Javascript events and … Continue reading
Alt Tag HTML Tip: If you swap out your image, does the text still work?
If you’re a good web designer (or just one who cares about his Google ranking) then you’re populating your IMG elements with the alt attribute (tag). Sometimes this is easy, like when you’re describing a picture in a new story. … Continue reading
Microsoft UI Accessibility Checker 2.0
I’ve been doing some application building in the last few days, and I’ve found Microsoft’s (newish) free AccChecker program enormously helpful. In some ways it’s much like the old MSAA tools AccExplorer32.exe and inspect32.exe. You can navigate around the MSAA … Continue reading
Windows 7 UI structure and shortcut keys for screenreader and switch users
Many people using assistive technology have to learn ways of doing things quite different from the “see, move mouse, click” paradigm most users can employ. For (blind) screenreader users it’s vital to know shortcut keys, and for both screenreader and … Continue reading