[Web4lib] del.icio.us tags and bookmarking sites -- WHY DO IT?

[Elizabeth Thomsen]

>  Imagine how useless that would be for a blind user with a browser that
> reads the page out loud!

Accessibility for the visually impaired is an important issue, but these
tags displays are becoming a standard format, used not only by Flickr,
Furl and CiteUlike, but even Amazon.  But these tags aren't really
graphics, except in Jenny's mock-up, just lists of links, so JAWS and
other programs would just read them out alphabetically, not the worst
thing but losing the relative popularity.  Since the sizing is based on
numeric data, it wouldn't be too difficult to provide an alternative
version for the visually impaired.

And speaking of visually impaired users, Fangs is a great Firefox 
extension for seeing how JAWS would interpret a page: 
http://www.noblenet.org/firefox/fangs.html

-- 
Elizabeth Thomsen, Member Services Manager
NOBLE: North of Boston Library Exchange
Danvers MA 01923
et at noblenet.org