Comments on: Can RSS Improve Accessibility?

By: Ben Buchanan

Ben Buchanan — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 06:58:18 +0000

I’d be curious to find out if autodiscovery links work/are useful for screen reader users; or if they have to rely on in-page subscribe links/cues.

In a way, RSS is a text-only version in another guise… although you can’t rely on sites giving out full articles in feeds, you can at least skip tedious navigation.

I’ll be very interested in the results :)

By: Dave - Lifekludger

Dave - Lifekludger — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 01:34:20 +0000

I think you’re definitely in the right ball park regarding the potential of RSS for accessibility. Separation of form from content puts the data on a level playing field to begin with which then can be manipulated and presented in whatever way the end user’s abilities require. That decision, and the control of how that’s done, is rightly best left in the control of the end user.

Ben’s right though…getting full feeds out is an issue.

Dave
PS: Hi from Nick.

By: Scenario Girl

Scenario Girl — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 09:44:39 +0000

Hey Ben, that’s a good question. When I ran the Aus IT research there was a task that asked users to see if the site offered RSS and to find out a bit more about it. None of the participants mentioned anything about the auto discovery link.

I’m not even sure that it’s read out, but that’s something I’ll check on too. Interesting….! :)

Hi Dave ;)

Yes as you both say, publishing full feeds is definitely an issue, I think this is a matter of awareness on the publishers part…

Looking at articles published in a short format, the headings are usually the link to the full article, which often open in a new window. And that’s another problem there.

I do still think it has to be an easier format to work with…

I’ll get back to you.

By: Michael Koukoullis

Michael Koukoullis — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 04:02:48 +0000

Keen to see the outcomes of the research.

By: Wahoo

Wahoo — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 11:44:57 +0000

Thank you for sharing!

By: Daniel

Daniel — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 16:15:19 +0000

I have to say, that I could not agree with you in 100% regarding SS Improve Accessibility? at Scenario Girl, but it’s just my opinion, which could be wrong :)

By: Mike Seyfang

Mike Seyfang — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 01:52:34 +0000

I think good RSS can add true accessibility to a site - think about it, consumers can remix your information however they like.

Dave knows about this.

Fang

By: Lucy Buykx

Lucy Buykx — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 09:40:50 +0000

I think RSS feeds have great potential for accessibility and its not just for blind people. By eliminating the extraneous information around an article focus can remain clear on the content. That will help dyslexics, those with attention problems, slow readers as well as low visibility readers. They are also pretty much guaranteed to print nicely as well.

Of course this relies on the publishers actually publishing the whole article into the RSS feed and including suitable links. I feel one of the reasons that they don’t is that they need you to come to the site in order that you might accidentally click on an advert or make a spur of the moment purchase. Good clean and full RSS is anti-marketing in that sense.

I look forward to reading the results of your research.