You've probably encountered this during one of your web surfing sessions. You visit a large website, and you discover a control that offers to turn the page into audible text and read it aloud for those who cannot see the screen. If you're like me, this always leads to the question: If I am using a screen reader already, why would I want to have the site also read the page aloud?
Recently I spent some time researching this very question, and I learned that, for one company at least, the answer is: "We would actually prefer you use a screen reader instead of our text-to-speech when a user is comfortable with and acclimated to their device." This response came from Nathaniel Bradley, founder and chief innovation officer at AudioEye, an Arizona-based company that takes an innovative and potentially controversial approach to making the web accessible to all.
The Broken Web
In the early 2000s, Bradley's right eye developed keratoconus, a condition where the cornea becomes thin and stretched near its center, causing it to bulge forward into a conical shape and distorting his vision. "This raised my awareness of blindness and accessibility, and I became involved in several local organizations, including a local reading service," he recalls. "Often I would find myself looking over someone's shoulder as he or she used a screen reader to navigate the web, and I couldn't help but think, 'The Web is broken.' Developers were writing more and more code that was not accessible by current screen readers, either because the new features simply weren't accessible, due to technological limitations, or, more commonly, because the developer had little knowledge of how to format a site for accessibility."
Bradley, an early mobile marketing maven, developed the AudioEye technology, a server-side platform that untangles and reformats problematic webpages on the fly for screen reader and other accessible devices. The technology also provides websites that have adopted its technology with its AudioEye reader for users that are not using assistive technology but who need help accessing website content and utilities. AudioEye's reader technology provides screen reading capability that voices the content using text-to-speech technologies, along with other capabilities that enable individuals with disabilities to navigate, interact, and complete website tasks.
Bradley likens the tool to a wheelchair ramp. "A public building doesn't expect a wheelchair user to bring his own ramp. Accessibility is already there, installed and waiting to be used. The ability to access a website should be equally available."
The AudioEye Web Ally Management Platform
As Section508/WCAG standards became codified, AudioEye delved much further into web accessibility with the AudioEye Web Ally Management Platform.
"We use a combination of automatic and manual testing to audit a customer's web presence," explains Bradley. "Our automatic testing tools can flag many issues, and aid developers in fixing bad heading tags, unlabeled buttons, and other basic elements at the source. But we also test sites manually. It's the best way to locate and flag problems such as incorrect tab order, unlabeled advertisement frames, and keyboard traps—web forms you can't tab out of because the cursor keeps wrapping around to the top of the iframe."
There are dozens of companies and consultants who audit websites for accessibility compliance. Like many of these, AudioEye maintains a library of accessibility modules, sample code that customers can access via the company's Developer Portal. Unlike most other companies and consultants, however, AudioEye can also redress various access issues on the fly using Ally+, a web-based service that corrects problems and delivers an accessible web experience, without the user needing to download any special utilities, plugins, or second-class "text only" webpages.
An AudioEye Case Study
When the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established an online Consumer Complaints website, the agency began receiving complaints from access technology testers before it even launched. "They discovered and reported the complaint website itself was not accessible," says Bradley.
The FCC had outsourced their complaint desk service to a third party contractor, one that offers similar services across a wide number of governmental agencies and other web properties. Unfortunately, this third party platform was not accessible, and fixing it would take time, since the company used the same code base and servers for all its customers. Making fundamental changes to one site would require those same changes be tested, approved, and rolled out to hundreds of other sites as well. The FCC did not want to wait, however, so they engaged the services of AudioEye.
The AudioEye Ally Toolbar requires that a single line of Java script code be added to each webpage. "We've audited these pages and we know where the accessibility problems are," says Bradley. "We've shared our findings with the developers, and suggested repairs. In the meantime, the AudioEye JavaScript applies remedies to all the identified accessibility issues on the fly, ultimately presenting a webpage that we can certify as accessible with all needed fixes and optimizations in place. This ultimately ensures an accessible user experience for those accessing the website using their screen reader and also, through the application of the Reader, provides an enhanced user experience for those looking to engage the website in a more meaningful way, whether that means enlarging the font, changing the contrast or clicking on areas of the website to have those items read aloud to the site visitor. Consistently, we see 3 to 5 percent of users accessing the FCC site while engaging one of the AudioEye tools made available from the Ally+ Toolbar, which is in addition to those users benefiting from the screen reader optimizations applied throughout the web experience."
Visiting the FCC Consumer Complaints page, a screen reader user is now greeted with the message: "This website is AudioEye enabled and has been optimized for Accessibility. To Explore the AudioEye menu, press Ctrl + Shift + 1. To experience the AudioEye Reader, turn off your screen reader and press Spacebar. Accessibility and Compliance checks complete. Access technology optimizations are active. For Accessibility Statement, Press Ctrl + Shift + 4 Si."
Bradley is quick to note that this is the native webpage. "Screen reader users are not being shunted off to another version which may or may not be kept properly updated," he says. "We are delivering the very same page with the latest content changes. Except for the welcome message and a few screen reader tooltips, JAWS or NVDA users may not even realize these fixes are being applied, and they can move about the page using standard headings, lists, links, and other navigation keys."
Here is one of the FCC complaint site forms as it appears natively without AudioEye intervention.
For me, accessing this original TV complaint form with various screen readers led to various accessibility issues—from unlabeled links to accessing the dropdown menus to select my problem type—billing, loud commercials, etc.—along with naming my service provider and entering my account number.
Here is the same page as it would be delivered to a screen reader user, even if the auto-speak option is not used.
This corrected version had all of its links labeled. The mandatory fields were noted, and the combo boxes to select complaint issues were presented in an accessible combo box.
According to Bradley, AudioEye can monitor their contracted sites continuously for any new accessibility issues that might crop up, report them to the company and add them to their list of site fixes. Each AudioEye site also includes a Help Desk contact form where users can report problems. "We strive to have these issues resolved within 24 hours, and we contact the individual to let them know what happened," Bradley says.
If you're using a screen reader, you will probably not want to have the AudioEye Reader also speaking, but I was able to do both—use my screen reader and listen to the AudioEye spoken text, though I did need to press my screen reader's bypass key before pressing the Spacebar to begin the extra speech.
AudioEye also provides useful options for people with low vision, including font size and various contrast schemes. "Site videos can be closed caption or audio described," says Bradley. "Flashing background images and other distractions can also be removed for [those with cognitive impairments]."
AudioEye is currently rolling out an option to have webpages appear in a font that is easier for individuals with dyslexia to read. Future plans include voice commands and text dictation, along with a chat-based Help Desk. "If the job you want to apply for is closing in an hour, and you can't access the Submit button, you can't wait a day to have an issue resolved. Soon we'll be able to offer assistance with that unusable control immediately," says Bradley.
Summing Up
I explored several AudioEye-enabled websites, and found them quite accessible, both with and without my screen reader running. The webpages were equally accessible on my desktop computer and mobile devices. On the main company website, AudioEye, and onsome other AudioEye-enabled websites, the reader is also available in beta format, though the extra speech is rarely needed, since the pages are properly formatted for touch screen reader users. I found page formatting also accessible on desktop websites, using VoiceOver for the Mac, or one of several Windows screen readers, including NVDA, which is free. But as described above, the AudioEye Reader is only a small portion of what the service provides.
Basically, AudioEye is designed to offer web accessibility as a managed service provider (MSP), defined as a company that remotely manages some or all of a customer's IT infrastructure. Which leads to the question: If a company can outsource it, will they no longer feel the need to focus on accessibility from the ground up, choosing, instead, to fix those things they can at a later date and rely on their outsource provider to do the rest? Or will web accessibility actually improve, because it doesn't really matter where the accessibility comes from, so long as it is there and available?
What do you think? We'd love to hear from you.
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