Lectorra + 508 + JAWS = Disapointment

Andrew,I will attempt to address your concerns. Thanks to CDC_Joe for his responses. We have worked with him regularly to help him create 508 compliant content.- buttons being read as visited when they aren'tWe are aware of this issue and are working to resolve it- buttons (and images with onclick actions) not reacting to the Enter keyThis is a JAWS bug, and is out of our control. Please see http://community.trivantis.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=3770&PN=1 for more information. - no real way to have a button which when clicked on resizes all the textYes, this is true. However, there is no specific requirement within Section 508: 1194.22 Web-based intranet and internet information and applications, that requires this.- no way to add access keysLectora supports the creation of keystroke actions. As Joe pointed out, JAWS automatically disables these keystroke actions, however, JAWS can be configured to accept them by:1) Start JAWS2) Open Internet Explorer3) Hit INSERT+6 This should open the IE.JCS file.4) Click "Set Options"5) Select "Keyboard Options"6) Under "Navigation Quick Keys" change it from "On" to "Off"7) Save and close.- rudimentary table supportYes, this is true. We can only support very basic tables with a single header row. Once you have created a table in Lectora, highlight the row to be labeled as the header row, right click, select table, select header row. This will satisfy 1194.22(g). However, we cannot currently support 1194.22(h). But, with the use of an external HTML object of type "Other", you can manually write the html for more complex tables, and place it on the page. External HTML object of type other are simply published to the page within the page content, inside of

blocks. Any free form HTML can be added in this way.- no way to add HTML "accessibility" tags to elementsYou are correct, we do not support tags such as acronym, scope, etc.- focus not being given to the actual window content without users having to tab past IE's chrome- no external stylesheets that users can replace with their ownYes, this is true. The majority of our users have no desire or need to edit or replace style sheets. The lack of style sheets does not affect the ability to produce 508-compliant content.- Lectora inexplicable use of fixed font sizesLectora is designed as a WYSIWYG application. We render the font to the size chosen. There is no 508 requirement for web-based content to be able to resize text. I am aware that this is a requirement within other sections of 508, but it does not apply to web-based intranet and internet information and applications: Section 1194.22. If you are using Lectora to create actual .exe applications, and are subject to the requirements set forth in Section 1194.21 for Software applications and operating systems, then yes this would violate requirement (f).- having to jump through hoops to add "skip to content" functionalityThere really aren't a lot of "hoops" to jump through here. We have a single action - Go To, Current Page, with the ability to select a Scroll To point that can easily be defined as a "Skip to Main Content" link. This was a new feature added in 2007 to support 508 compliance. - generally, only being able to define a tabbing sequence by the actual relative location of the iconsThe tabbing sequence, as well as the order that a screen reader will read information on the page is defined entirely by the order of items in the left hand pane. Please see the additional post: http://community.trivantis.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=3274&PN=1 - how HTML published pages get a title (in the browser's title bar) that matches the actual file name rather than what was set for the project.Yes, I suppose this is an inconvenience. We render page names in the following manner: chapter_name_section_name_page_name.html Perhaps this is something we should reconsider.I certainly understand some of your frustrations. However, many of the points you made do not actually affect Lectora's ability to create 508-compliant content. For example, you are correct, we do not support the "longdesc" tag for non-textual elements. However, we do support alt tags, and we do allow the creation of text blocks that can be used as captions for the images, or that can be placed under the images, and still read by a screen reader.There are some definite limitations. We cannot support keyboard functionality for our menu object, drag and drop or matching questions. However, if you are capable of writing the appropriate html code for creating accessible equivalents, then we do support the addition of your code.I hope you will reconsider your opinions regarding Lectora. We have made many improvements to the product with 508 in mind. While there may still be some changes necessary for a more user-friendly experience, I firmly believe that we are not doing anything that blatantly violates 508.