I've been working on a search engine for lectures (https://www.findlectures.com) and accessibility is an area I'd like to explore, but it's tough to know how to test something as an end user would see it.
This is really interesting. I've often thought about a browser extension that could describe a web page. I don't mean text, as screen readers are (usually) more than capable there. I mean a visual description like:
"The web site has a off white background with black text. There is a horizontal menu at the top that fills the screen 95% horizontally and 10% vertically. The horizontal menu has a navy blue background with white text. There is a logo on the left of the horizontal menu filling 25% of the screen horizontally and 5% vertically. There are five menu items to the right of the logo image in the horizontal menu."
That's probably a little more verbose than it needs to be. But it could be a combination of CV, tapping into the renderer and traversing the DOM in order to best describe a page. Then if my screen reader isn't cutting it and I'm feeling lost I can just have the current view described to me.
- Context in places where color is used to relay information but the designer failed to provide alternative means of gaining that context without sight. For instance, if a text field is "grayed out" to indicate a certain state on the field, but that state isn't independently communicated by a screen reader.
- The ability to more easily describe the page to a sighted person.
Also, some context for the blind person when designing their own pages. If they're aware that website X is considered to have a good design, they can get a description of it and know what colour schemes, positioning and placement, etc might work for them.
I know you can do that for blindness, but the challenge I see is gaining a good understanding of how people would actually navigate a site. For instance, perhaps someone who is legally blind might use a screen reader, or just magnification, depending on their preference.
From what I've read, screen readers are typically played at a very high speed (once you get used to it) - I don't know how you'd know things like that without advice from the people using them.
The second question is how you're supposed to navigate if you can't see the text well or at all - this might require adding features to the HTML to integrate with the screen reader.
I can visualize what my website looks like already, so if I shut my eyes I'd just be navigating it in my head.
Would you say there is a decent market for digital accessibility consultants in order to assist designers in this way? I know a blind person in IT who is actively looking for work like that, but is having trouble figuring out where to start.
I don't know if there's a market for this, but I'd be interested in exploring it. You or your friend can get in touch with me, my email is in my profile.