Comments on: Accessible Synchronous Communication: Reloaded

By: Joe Clark

Joe Clark — Sat, 22 May 2004 20:38:09 +0000

The projection was for the convenience of the panel host, who could see. He selected questions to answer. The other text on the screen, while of interest, was not necessary to further the panel discussion.

Also, no, chat mode is not easy to make accessible to screen-reader users.

By: Jeff Coburn

Jeff Coburn — Tue, 30 Mar 2004 17:48:34 +0000

It seems like it would be cool if everyone was using a rendezvous enabled computer. Until then it seems like the best solution might be to use an IRC channel. I’m sure only a few flame wars would break out:)

By: Chirstopher Phillips

Chirstopher Phillips — Tue, 30 Mar 2004 17:26:37 +0000

Interesting conversation– the iChat conversation was n’t available to Dr. Slatin, but neither was it available to any PC users in the audience. I think that at the very least, other panel members should be consulted– as long as good questions are read aloud before being answered, it still might work– especially if a transcript of the chat session was made available.

However, I love the idea of being able to chat during a session. While it can occassionaly distract participants from teh presenter, it gives participants something to do when the presentation is boring and can facilitate more knowledge being shared among the audience than the presenter has time to give (and knowledge that he may not know).

By: Danielle

Danielle — Tue, 30 Mar 2004 17:19:30 +0000

Logically chat should be a very accessible technology, no? Deaf people use it to replace quick conversations with people who don’t use ASL. A screenreader can read the exchanges (I assume). Looks like the problem comes when you want to move a chat from two people’s individual computers to a full-room display.