Greetings everyone. Well I’ll say one thing, there’s never a dull moment here at Top Tech Tidbits. Last week we were forced to make a pretty major change to the way that we deliver news to you each week, and plenty of blind readers had plenty to say about it. So as I found myself writing the same email approximately 10 times in a row, I decided it was time to put this feedback together for everyone to review. So let’s dive in. Below are the Top 5 reader feedback responses to the recent change.
TL; DR: If You Don’t Have Time To Read This Article, Please Read This Paragraph
We can no longer provide the entire newsletter inside of the email client each week due to ongoing issues with the way in which email clients and screen readers interpret HTML code. We test our code each week using the W3C HTML Markup Validation Service located at: https://validator.w3.org/. Feed any of our newsletter URLs into this tool and you will see that our HTML is 100% compliant. Yet that same HTML is interpreted differently by different screen readers in different email clients. This is not the case in the web browser. So that is where we have decided to serve readers. Again, same code, but a much better experience for users of assistive technology, who are the primary readers that we aim to serve each week.
Below are the general responses that we have received, and the subsequent responses that we have provided. There is lot of misunderstanding around this right now, especially among blind readers, that I hope to clear up by sharing this feedback and our responses.
📖️ READER FEEDBACK #1: You’ve ruined the newsletter! I have been reading this newsletter for years now and it’s just ruined! I hope you’re happy!
🖊️ PUBLISHER FEEDBACK #1:
The newsletter has simply moved online. Nothing else has changed. We have no desire to ruin the newsletter. Quite the opposite in fact. We’re trying to make the newsletter even more accessible, to even more readers, by providing it in an environment that we know supports screen readers much better than email clients. We realize this means a change in reading habits for some readers, and for that we apologize, but it is a small price to pay to allow access to so many more readers around the world.
📖️ READER FEEDBACK #2: I need to be able to access the newsletter without an internet connection. What am I going to do now?
🖊️ PUBLISHER FEEDBACK #2:
To address this concern, starting next week, with the 2/27 issue, we will provide a link to download each newsletter in Microsoft Word format as well. Directly within the email we send you. This way readers that need to access the newsletter in places without an active internet connection can easily do so.
📖️ READER FEEDBACK #3: I have been reading this newsletter fine for years and now it’s completely inaccessible? What the hell did you do? Fix this immediately!
🖊️ PUBLISHER FEEDBACK #3:
The newsletter is not inaccessible, it has simply been moved. We can no longer provide the entire newsletter inside of the email client each week due to ongoing issues with the way in which email clients and screen readers interpret HTML code. We test our code each week using the W3C HTML Markup Validation Service located at: https://validator.w3.org/. Feed any of our newsletter URLs into this tool and you will see that our HTML is 100% compliant. Yet that same HTML is interpreted differently by different screen readers in different email clients. This is not the case in the web browser. Again, same code, but a much better experience for users of assistive technology, who are the primary readers that we aim to serve each week.
📖️ READER FEEDBACK #4: I’m Blind. How Am I Supposed To Access The Newsletter Now?
🖊️ PUBLISHER FEEDBACK #4:
You will access the newsletter each week in the same way that you always have. By receiving our weekly email. Instead of reading that email right away, as you did before, you will first click on the link provided in the email to read the newsletter online. That’s all. That is all that has changed.
It’s only one click, but I know this still represents a substantial change for some readers. And for that I apologize, but it was necessary in order to provide blind readers especially with acceptable load times and always-available heading navigation. These new benefits await you as well. They were simply not benefits that we could provide to blind readers inside of an email client. So we moved the newsletter to the web where we could provide these features.
If you have used JAWS, NVDA or VoiceOver to read the newsletter in your email client in the past, I encourage you to try the same experience now by reading the newsletter in a web browser. I believe you will very quickly come to understand these issues. A load time of 60 to 90 seconds in the email client becomes instant in the web browser. Duplications of content read by screen readers in email clients disappear in the web browser. And most importantly, nested headings that are not properly interpreted by screen readers or email clients read the same heading structure just fine in a web browser.
Therefore, for the benefit of blind readers everywhere, we have moved the newsletter online.
📖️ READER FEEDBACK #5: I want to applaud you for making this change. I know it wasn’t easy. I am a long time blind reader of all of your newsletters and I was starting to become quite disheartened by the load time in Outlook. I would select the email and go make a cup of coffee. That’s how long it took to load. Now I just click and the newsletter loads instantly. Much better experience in my opinion.
🖊️ PUBLISHER FEEDBACK #5:
Thank you so very much for saying so. I wish I could share your name here, but in the interest of privacy, I cannot. It pleases all of us beyond words to have a blind reader of your caliber affirm this decision. It’s never easy to do what others have not. You’re never sure you did the right thing until you see the numbers. And the numbers always come long after the feedback. And I am very happy to report that the numbers do in fact confirm that far more readers are now able to receive and access the newsletter in this new format. Together we have sacrificed one extra click each week in order to bring the entire newsletter to nearly 29% more readers each week. That’s more than 10,000 blind readers, all over the world, that say, thank you.
