So, here I am sitting at a friend’s PC, riding out the down-time between my year-long travels and Christmas/returning to work. A bit of casual browsing later reveals a little gem that just begged to be posted here …
Over at Standards-Schmandards (love the name!) is an interesting project by the name of Fangs that deserves a look. The author of this tool has created an extension for Firefox that aims to mimic the output that would be generated (audibly) by screen readers such as Jaws. Given how pricey a full copy of Jaws is, this looks like a promising option for the developer who cares about standards/accessibility but does not need to use a screen reader a huge amount (and hence justify paying for it). In addition, unlike Jaws, this is cross-platform - if you have Firefox 1.0, this *should* work. The ’should’ part needs emphasising because the extension is still in development. However, the author is definitely after feedback and is also sharing the source code. Give it a try and see if you can help out.
Try the archives on the site for more Fangs news.