Using Tools Other than Browsers to Make the Web Accessible

Jim Wantz
Office of the CIO/HPCC, HDQ
NWS

One of the problems with using speech software with a web browser is that the presentation is linear, the speech begins at the top of a page and continues to the end. Though modern screen readers do have a search function often the user does not have an idea of the name of the link that actually has the information they desire. Methods using the rebol scripting language, wget and curl to retrieve weather data will be demonstrated. Command line examples will be shown as well as wrapping the commands in C programs and manipulating the data to produce more readable output. Finally, a simple C program will be demonstrated that retrieves employee information from the NOAA locator.