Technology Review: Programmers try to keep disability access up to date with the Web's dynamic advances This is an interesting article on the hardships in making newer web functions accessible. I like the concept of calculating whether some data is 'polite', 'assertive', or 'rude' and controlling how often it is presented. For example, I have a Firefox extension that can tell me the current weather conditions and forecast. It will do a little pop-up every ten minutes or so showing the temperature. I don't have to really look at it if I'm not interested but if it spoke it out loud in the middle of reading an article I'd be annoyed. I'd also be annoyed if I have already heard about the Severe Weather Alert ten times already. I may just need to hear those things a few times at most per day but with an always on internet connection and computer the screen reader software would need to know whether I was there to hear it or not. What is a polite notice at one time may be rude at another.

Technology Review: Programmers try to keep disability access up to date with the Web's dynamic advances  ¶ 12:32 PM