Why do computers make life for blind living hell? Most major databases, when they generate a PDF file for download store the file as unsearchable images in a PDF. The result, screen readers for the blind don't work.

Why does this matter? Well a year ago I would have said it really didn't, but living next to a blind L.L.M. candidate made me think differently. I spent 4+ hours converting PDFs for him to a readable format so his screen reader would read the text to him. It ended up costing him $60.00 in software, 4+ hours of both of our time, and he now gets OCR'd text formats that a sighted person gets to read for free. However, $60.00 later there's still some major problems.

If you've ever read a legal treatise there's about half a page of text and then half a page of cites. The normal reader skips over the cites, but for my neighbor they get read to him by his screen reader and throw his comprehension off. The other big problem? The OCR software (the only one sub 500.00) didn't structure their menus to be navigated by keyboard, so the screen reader can't read off the menu items. The result, a sighted person has to convert all of the documents, because the blind can't use the software. Argh.

Over the years he's learned to kind of block out the citations, but it's a sad state of affairs. You honestly never consider how a blind person deals with software or data until you spend your entire night helping them out. No Superbowl, No homework done, No coding done, nothing... just 4+ hours spend making something readable for a friend. Seriously, for everyone who hates XML take a lesson from this. If the documents were sent out in a well formatted XML, the reader could be configured to ignore cites while reading, not generate UNREADABLE images (or at least provide text descriptions), and a billion other formats.

We as software developers really need to put more time into accessibility planning. I know it's a seemingly small percentage of users, but for the ones it impacts it really makes a huge difference. So in the future, turn off your screen, turn on a screen reader and see if you can navigate your software, read the data you’re pumping out, get around your website, if you can smile. If not, try again.

Cheers,
Tyler

P.S. Next project after CRUD updates and when I get free time (read: 2015ish) I'll add the RIFE/Accessibility framework

Ruby on rails, it's the new hot thing. I hate it. I hate it, because I hate Ruby Syntax. Why do I hate Ruby's syntax, easy it looks like Perl and I hate Perl's syntax. I also dislike the naming convention of Rails tables, bah. Ok, so I'm a script hater, I'll admit it. Scripts have their place, just not as the backbone of my projects.

However, I like what Ruby on Rails has to offer. The simple command line tools to generate basic elements, scaffold, it gets you a crappy looking prototype up in no time. I'm jealous I must admit. So, instead of learning to put up with Ruby's syntax, I took a syntax I prefer Java (no it's not my favorite syntax, but it'll do) and a tool I love RIFE/CRUD and added Admin generation based on a DB schema. Currently it's in a closed Alpha, but trust me it does work so far.

I hope to have full support for all primitive DB types tonight, and within a week full support for RIFE specific constraints. By next week, the eCalender demo ( http://www.rifers.org/theater/rifecrud_intro_tutorial ) should be generatable automatically by the new CRUD support. More importantly, it should be generatable in under 5 minutes. A full eCalender site with back end administration, in under 5 minutes (sweet). A blog demo in under 15 including the RIFE download, installation of RIFE, image support, comments, time to get a cup of coffee, would be more than possible by next week.

Keep an eye out for the new CRUD release, especially if you dislike Ruby, but love the prototyping abilities offered by Rails. One more thing, it auto handles schema updates too, just refresh your browser.

Cheers,
Tyler

P.S. My disdain for Ruby is not shared by other RIFE developers, they have and should have their own opinions.