Virus Listeners
Grüessechscht!
Just wanted to drop a warm HELLO to the listeners of VIRUS, the Swiss Youth Channel! I just got a CD from them and while on air, I was allowed to communicate the address of my blog!
So did anyone actually check it out after hearing me?
Let me know what you think. Any recommendations, especially considering visual style etc, would be apreciated! I know that I should translate everything
on here into DEUTSCH one day - but who knows if I ever will 
Hope you still stay tuned!!!
Love,
René
PS: Take a look at the WSIS Category for the mentioned Tunisia Diary!!!
Update: Oh, I forgot to say THANK YOU, Franziska!!! 
2006-01-221.15 pm at
hey jaun
i just heard about your blog on virus
i’m really impressed how you are able to deal with websites even if you can’t ’see’ it. how does it work?
greets, kafi
2006-01-221.26 pm at
Hey Kafi,
Good to have you here!
To answer your question: Blind people, like me, use actually normal computers (mine, for example, is an HP Notebook with Windows XP Home installed. In addition, you have to install a special software, named Screen Reader. As for me, I am using a product named JAWS For Windows. This software, as the name already makes you assume, READS the content of the screen outloud. So you get to hear what is written on internet sites, in emails and so on.
I also have a second device named Braille Display. This is connected to the computer (USB, Serial or even Bluetooth) and it displays one line of Braille writing and enables me to read the screen of my computer with my fingers.
I will have to put some explanatory pictures of that on here one day I guess. But until then, feel free to ask if you want me to clarify something
Best Wishes to you,
René
2006-01-221.43 pm at
Thank you for your answer!
You remind me to attach more importance increasing the accessibility of my websites again… *smile*
Cu, kafi
2006-01-225.49 pm at
@kafi
do you got reference sites for accessability yet? if not let me know
on my website under links you will find a part webaccessability, where i placed some links to sites dealing with that.
@rene
which i was so free to post a little answer to 
franziska gots a nice blog thread about dönner
hm, i haven’t listen to virus years ago. lets put it into my webradios bookmark ^^
2006-01-225.56 pm at
Greets Again,
Kafi, I would be glad also to assist you when it comes to acessible web sites. Let me know if you want me to test one
And Jose: Yep, Franziska does have a good blog. It is, though, not possible to write a comment when you are blind due to the graphical user verification: The Screen Reader does not recognize the code one has to enter;
this means: No comments on this blog from René, sad, sad, sad
2006-01-227.06 pm at
dear rene,
what a pitty! is there no way? you could mail me your text and i would post it for you? greets: franziska
2006-01-227.14 pm at
Hi Franziska!
Thanks for offering your assistance! I will be glad to do it that way. At the same time, it would of course be great if the Virus Blog Software could verify users without displaying the graphical code. I will have to think about that, there might be an alternative to it in general…
2006-01-227.14 pm at
i wonder what actually is the problem. missing alt and name tags?
2006-01-227.17 pm at
No. The problem is that the Screen Reading software is only able to reat text, which is defined as actual text. The ALT Tag of the graphic on the mentioned page says “Pleas enter the characters in this graphics for verification purposes” or something like that. One COULD of course write the code as plain text in the ALT Tag. The disadvantage of it would then be that, beside screen readers, also Spamming Computers could read the code and post their crap to it, which would mean: The security measurement would be broken.
Do you get it?
2006-01-227.22 pm at
well normally the alternative for blind is a audio file which gives a bunch of numbers out which you can type in.
you can find this for example when you are registrating yourself on phpBB fourms.
2006-01-227.28 pm at
@Jose: Ah really? id PHPBB introduce that too? I saw it working actually on Paypal - But only on the American Version. Great to know though that they have it in the OpenSource community!
2006-01-227.33 pm at
ah of corse… the picture… i forgot :$
does your screenreader play the sound of a flash-object? if yes, the picture could be loaded inside a flash-object which plays for every letter an audio file (every letter would be recorded in a file),
if it doesn’t, the audio file must be built server side, which is much more complicated i guess.
greets kafi
2006-01-227.39 pm at
Hmmm… Well - Flash used to be not accessible at all (it would make screen readers crash and stuff due to the animations). But one can build accessible Flash Objects these days, so your solutions sounds actualy not so bad! Are you into creating Flash Objects?
2006-01-227.54 pm at
my tip with phpBB was wrong. they really dont have a option for impaired people. rene was right. but mostly they don’t ask for the code.
i saw a version where the admin placed a email saying visual imparied may contact him by problems.
the adio file version i found for example by google mail registration:
https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount
@rene paypal don’t have a audio file version either. well paypal.de doesn’t.
2006-01-227.55 pm at
yes, i am. but i don’t know to make them accessible to screenreaders.
i think this is a interesting problem. so i thought about and found the following solution.
every letter’s sound is recorded in a .au file (audio buffer file). then you could simply merge them using the bash console. “cat a.au >> output.au”. then at the end, send the au file to the user. or you might convert it to mp3 first.
hm it doesn’t seem to be as difficult as i thought first. but this only works on linux. i would be lost on a windows webserver
2006-01-227.58 pm at
rene, i’m gonna ask our webmaster…
because as far as i know the virus-site should be blinden-tauglich. there should be a solution! i’ll let you know! f.
2006-01-228.10 pm at
aaaaaah, somehow i’m little bit confused today
google mail sems to display the same grafic in an popup. don’t know what that should help.
now i really found the sound file option.
at .net passport registration from microsoft.
http://www.passport.net
sorry for that
2006-01-228.16 pm at
OK, here are some replies:
@Franziska: Thanks for forwarding the issue to the responsible ones! I’m looking forward to seeing this solved
@Maverik: thanks for the links. It is indeed true that PayPal Germany doesn’t have the Audio Feature, although they use to promise me again and again that it should be implemented at any time…
You can see it working though on the .com (The ENGLISH) Version. Or is it gone meanwhile?
@Kafi: Well, if you have time to develop some kind of mini-application for that, let me know and I would be glad to direct some web masters (those telling me that “There Is No Way”) to you - I’m sure at least some of them have Linux Servers…
@All: Thanks for letting the comments flow. So this is how it feels to have a blog which is actually being visited?
2006-01-228.28 pm at
i could try. but i need an audio set of every character and number because my voice doesn’t sound clear and professional. what about franziska?
2006-01-228.38 pm at
@Kafi: It MUST not be clear. Because: If the letters are too clear, then one could use computers again and decode it with Voice Recognizing software. On PayPal.com, for example, you have to listen VERY carefully, even if you are human. Give it a try if you have time!
2006-01-228.49 pm at
… a secure system doen’t exist …
2006-01-2611.41 am at
hey kafi and rene - saw your posting right now. if you need some help because of the voice - let me know! greets! f.
2006-02-249.38 am at
Update: Franziska’s Blog, as well as probably all other Virus Blogs, are now equiped with an Audio Security Code - thanks everyone for insisting on that