I'm writing this to Eric Oyen and anybody else interested in this...

How much does having <main></main> in the proper place help a blind
person? 

Same question for <header></header> and <footer></footer>.

Does using <nav></nav> instead of <div></div> with a special class help
those using screen readers and/or Braille machines?

Same question with <menu></menu>.

Eric, the reason I'm asking these questions is because in a 10/23/2015
PLUG email you mentioned that screen readers operate in a serial
fashion, and although there are some keyboard tricks to be able to skim
a page of information, its still serial. I'm hoping that in the 8 years
since you wrote this, screen readers have improved to the point where
they can read HTML code, parse into DOM, and be able to skip to <main>
or <nav> or <menu>, etc. Has there been such and improvement? 

Also, do Braille machines, which *can* be scanned rather than addressed
serially, still cost $6,000.00?

The reason I'm asking all of this is I'm formulating an HTML course
for technologists, and naturally there's a section on HTML techniques
to help people with disabilities read the material. It seems to me that
many of the new HTML5 elements' main benefits are for those with screen
readers or Braille machines. Before I recommend use of these new tags,
I'd like to verify that they're really helpful to blind people or
people with other disabilities.

If there's anyone reading this email who has either Red/Green color
blindness, Monochrome color blindness, or some other kind of color
blindness, please clue me in on the rules of the road beyond not using
color solely to distinguish between types of text.

Thanks everyone.

SteveT

Steve Litt 

Autumn 2023 featured book: Rapid Learning for the 21st Century
http://www.troubleshooters.com/rl21
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