LYNX-DEV speech-friendly and speech-hostile documentation

[BLINUX Documentation Project]

this day-old, postponed post may have already been superseded by my last
post to lynx-dev, but here goes anyway...

aloha, y'all!

al opined, in a post with the subject line Re: LYNX-DEV Lynx 2.7 Release:
>> I would like to see the H)elp files distributed with 2.7 re-formatted a
>> little to make them more speech-friendly.

to which ismael replied:
>I think that task should be taken by someone directly involved with
>speech-friendliness. He/she/them would get the Lynx help files and make them
>speech-friendly. Then he/she/them would submit it to Foteos or you or
>someone else involved with Lynx to check them for any Lynx- or
>visual-unfriendliness.

i have already started the process:

        http://leb.net/blinux/blynx

for you speech users that's:

h t t p colon slash slash l e b dot n e t slash b l i n u x slash
b l y n x

right now, there is little there other than a speech friendly top help
page

        http://leb.net/blinux/blynx/lynx_help_main.html

a speech-specific navigation tutorial:

        http://leb.net/blinux/blynx/help.html

a speech-specific line editor page:

        http://leb.net/blinux/blynx/edit_help.html

a lot of pages-in-progress, and a speech-specific Supported URL page:

        http://leb.net/blinux/blynx/lynx_url_support.html

(and if you don't think that is necessary, dial up

        http://www.crl.com/~subir/lynx/lynx_help/lynx_url_support.html

have someone blindfold you, and try to make sense of what you hear as
they read the screens in a robotic monotone)

which brings me to another of your (ismael's) points:
>That "policy commitment" reminds me of another "PC", "politically correct",
>and that annoys me very much. Are Lynx help files _really_
>speech-unfriendly? I don't remember having seen people here complaining
>about that.

there is nothing politically correct about equal access...  and, _YES_, 
a signficicant portion of the lynx help files are _really_ speech-hostile...

so why haven't you heard from a lot of blind users?

a) this list is not very well known to the general lynx-using public,
especially since a lot of them are still stuck with versions of lynx as 
old as 2.3, all of which point to ukans for help

b) this list is oft extremely technical, and always extremely high
volume...

c) the first line of assistance to which a blind person turns is a
blindness specific emailing list (and there are a hell of a lot of
'em--check out http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/blist.html), and not a list
where they are likely to be told to RTFM (and before anyone protesteth to
much, i've witnessed a few instances of ex cathedra-ism on lynx-dev)

but that is besides the point...  significant portions of the pages are
extremely speech unfriendly, and some are downright speech-hostile...
the lynx_help_pages are rife with visually-oriented layout (i.e. the
way the lists are compressed on the top-level help page to fit all of the
info on one screen or, even more egregious, from a speech-user's point of
view, Lynx_users_guide.html#6, which is an excellent helpfile if you are
using a monitor, but which is completely incomprehensible if you are using
speech or even a refreshable braille display...)

i know that the intent behind the current layout of the Lynx Help! page 
is to present all of the help links so that they are rendered on one 
lynx-sized screen, but the default layout is problematic for speech 
users, especially those who are using lynx for the first time and who do 
not know that they can force lynx to display numbered links...  to the 
speech-using novice net navigator, the multiple links sound like a single 
link, leading to confusion and frustration--and believe me, when you have 
to listen to every damn character on every damn page on the web, your 
frustration level drops dramatically (as if you hadn't already noticed)...

whenever you consider speech users--and when you are talking about lynx 
documentation, you should--try to keep the following fact firmly in 
mind: a speech or braille user cannot "scan" a page to quickly locate 
pertinent information--he or she has to listen to or tactilely read (on a 
18 to 80 cell refreshable braille display pad) the entire page to locate
whatever it is he or she loaded the page to find...

i welcome and encourage aesthetic input on the visual appeal of the 
reformatted pages...  however, i do think the speech-friendly approach
lends itself well to a graceful, orderly, and intuative presentation of
the documentation...  this is particularly true of the top level help page
at BLYNX,

h t t p colon slash slash l e b dot n e t slash b l i n u x slash b l y n
x slash l y n x underscore h e l p underscore main dot h t m l

which separates the basic from the advanced help on the first screen,
provides pointers to related materials on the second, and points to
reformatted, speech-friendly search engine submission forms on the third
screen...

i think that the current drafts at BLYNX amply demonstrate that the
re-styling required to enhance speech-friendliness is not, in any wise, 
incompatible with sighted use...  however, since i am not sighted,
i am open to suggestions, comments, and criticism on that count...

i will not, however, allow aesthetic effect to compromise the aural 
effectiveness of the reformats...  (if you are intersted in what exactly 
i mean, you will shortly be able to consult "An Introduction to
Speech-Access Realities for Sighted Internauts,"

        http://leb.net/blinux/blynx/sarsi.html

so, in conclusion, i'm prepared to do the re-drafting and to maintain the
speech-enhanced documentation pages indefinitely, working off the
distribution and the update patches/mods, in order to keep the
speech-enhanced documentation current...

and i fully intend to have the reformat of Lynx_users_guide.html finished
by valentine's day (which should give me enough time to field comments,
criticism, and suggestions from both blind, low vision, and fully sighted
users)

        gregory.

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