tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28342203878226990702012-01-05T13:41:19.957-08:00net-guide, accessibility, and anything else that captures my fancy...paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10410198551016962642noreply@blogger.comBlogger131100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834220387822699070.post-46219853661457128062009-11-30T14:25:00.000-08:002009-11-30T14:37:38.698-08:00

I know, I know it is ages since I posted. And it is with some regret that I'm posting about bad news - yes, just when some solutions to CAPTCHAs (those pesky images of words that are inaccessible to screen readers) are around, like the CAPTCHA killer, that work is underway on the next generation. And, reading this New Scientist article, it looks like these will be even more formidable barriers to

paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10410198551016962642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834220387822699070.post-74073007742572910932008-10-20T00:30:00.000-07:002008-10-20T00:57:34.949-07:00

Here's something I've not come across before. I went to The Ritzy Cinema in London at the weekend to see 'Read Before Burning' - for those interested, it's not bad, but not the Coen brothers at their finest, either. But, to get to the point, The Ritzy puts on autism-friendly events.As some people with autism have sensitivity to sound and light, for these shows the volume of the movies is turned

paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10410198551016962642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834220387822699070.post-53086876468757797262008-09-16T00:42:00.000-07:002008-09-16T00:52:43.777-07:00

I've not tried this myself, but I understand it is an interesting and fun survey on audio CAPTCHAs from WebInSight.CAPTCHAs are those images of letters designed to stop automatic spammers but that don't play well with screen reader software. Audio CAPTCHAs provide a good alternative for some people, but I'm personally hoping someone comes up with something completely different. A visual CAPTCHA

paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10410198551016962642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834220387822699070.post-14325828803440361912008-05-01T01:41:00.000-07:002008-05-01T01:51:27.142-07:00

Just a quick entry right now as time is not my friend today. But I had to mark Blogging against Disablism day.Organised by Diary of a Goldfish, today sees a number of bloggers writing about a wide variety of issues. I know from last year that many of these blogs are well worth a read, and can range from moving to insightful and hysterically funny - sometimes all three...If I get the chance to sit

paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10410198551016962642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834220387822699070.post-37591211164620702242008-04-30T17:25:00.000-07:002008-04-30T17:37:03.584-07:00

As if spam wasn't bad enough.I can't tell you how much time I spend clearing out fake reviews of websites on net-guide, because working it out would scare me about much time I spend doing it.Now net-guide has a health warning on Google, thanks to someone hacking the website to distribute badware.I've sorted the issue out, so feel free to browse without fear of infection. But net-guide will suffer

paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10410198551016962642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834220387822699070.post-5229445106301658602008-04-28T04:06:00.000-07:002008-04-30T17:37:34.330-07:00

BBC News is reporting an interesting story about a young man who has had his sight restored following gene therapy.This treatment is at a very early stage, and has only been tried with a total of three patients, of which only one has benefited from significant improvement to their sight.Gene therapy remains an exciting prospect however, precisely because it is at such an early stage of

paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10410198551016962642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834220387822699070.post-84021340800133682402008-04-25T01:41:00.000-07:002008-04-25T01:57:02.158-07:00

I discovered a new web-based screen reader today. This new program, called WebAnywhere, sounds like it could be quite exciting.Because WebAnywhere is browser based, no software needs to be installed on a computer. That means that a user isn't tied in to a specific computer. It can be used at a friends house or in an internet cafe - on any computer, so long as it has a sound card.There are similar

paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10410198551016962642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834220387822699070.post-85812543656278657852008-04-16T01:04:00.000-07:002008-04-16T01:26:38.752-07:00

Here is - at least in theory anyway - an interesting tool for bypassing CAPTCHAs.CAPTCHAs are images of words designed to block spam robots. The problem with CAPTCHAs is that they cannot be interpreted by screen reader software users, and so also block these people from registering with websites, commenting on blogs, and so on.CAPTCHA Killer attempts to process these images and give visually

paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10410198551016962642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834220387822699070.post-32511710149164159322008-04-09T02:32:00.000-07:002008-04-09T02:44:08.634-07:00

I'm happy to report that net-guide has been nominated for the Social Enterprise of the Year category in the Edge Upstarts Award 2008. Which is nice.You can take a look at the net-guide entry, and if you want to, make your thoughts known about about net-guide under the nomination.Take a look at some of the other enterprises whilst you are there as well. Competition looks tough, as there are some

paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10410198551016962642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834220387822699070.post-34462014615602776662008-04-08T03:08:00.000-07:002008-04-08T03:23:26.232-07:00

Some of you may have noticed that net-guide is a little different today. We've given it a bit of a face lift. We've re-designed it to be simpler, cleaner, and well, a bit prettier and more modern.Cosmetic changes aside, we have now introduced a range of colour schemes to make it easier to read for some people. There is a high contrast option for partially sighted visitors, as well as blue and

paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10410198551016962642noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834220387822699070.post-67924937551178480262008-04-05T07:56:00.000-07:002008-04-05T08:11:10.838-07:00

3.55 pm, Saturday 5th April; 20 minutes to go until the Grand National is underway. Like millions of others, I've stuck a pin in the form guide, and selected the three-legged donkey that will crash at the first fence taking my hopes with it. As it is April, I'm looking out the window at a hail storm. So I thought I'd place my bet over the interweb. When I tried to visit the website of one of the

paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10410198551016962642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834220387822699070.post-71054176501378077152008-04-01T15:48:00.001-07:002008-04-02T00:29:27.999-07:00

Have you seen all those ads in the UK by the broadcasters promoting the fact that they provide audio description? If you haven't, well, audio description is an extra narrative voice added to TV shows to help visually impaired viewers follow the visual action.There's always been two issues with audio description. Firstly, the lack of programmes that have it, and secondly, the prohibitive cost of

paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10410198551016962642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834220387822699070.post-14730936581766754552008-01-28T03:07:00.000-08:002008-02-04T08:24:42.687-08:00

Have you submitted your website to net-guide yet?Well, you should. In case you don't know, net-guide is an accessible search engine. Nothing all that exciting there - Google, for instance, is pretty accessible. But what about the websites returned in the results?net-guide provides an accessibility rating for each website in the database. That way users have a fair idea whether they can use a

paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10410198551016962642noreply@blogger.com0