PUBLIC MARKS with search testing

There is some controversy about the idea of sighted web designers and developers using screenreading software to test web sites for accessibility. Some people suggest one must use a screenreader to test their sites. Others believe it is counter productive. I think that very few sighted people can get the correct results by using screenreaders to test a website. I further think that too many people think that the accessibility testing is complete once they’ve used a screenreader on their website.

"Facebook's programmers are experimenting with new features and are testing them out on the live site without, in this case at least, the code being properly reviewed with privacy in mind," Cluley said.

There has been much discussion, and some arguments, about how to determine the accessibility of websites. Unfortunately, this is often polarised around two simplistic choices: A compliance/conformance based approach that usually involves a checklist of criteria; or, some form of user testing by people who have different disabilities and/or who rely on different assistive technologies. Both approaches have their strength and limitations, and neither can provide a reliable declaration about the accessibility of a site on its own.

To be in Silicon Valley is to be completely immersed in technology. The building, the pushing, the hacking, the designing, the iterating, the testing, the acquisitions, the funding — it is everywhere and wholly inescapable. Here is a culture and place that emerged seemingly from nothing, and yet over the last 50 years it has developed a mythology deep and inspiring and all its own.