Clutter on Websites

Category: Geeks r Us

Post 1 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Wednesday, 22-Jul-2015 14:27:35

Over the past few years, I have noticed constant clutter on sites, particularly those with news or opinion articles on them. This ranges from links to share the article on social networking sites (I don't know why people can't simply copy and paste the url), to things saying "link link link link", to embedded objects, to wiziwigs. Is there any way that I can strip all of this nonsense so that I can simply read the stories? I don't mind if there are videos to go along with them, as improvements have made some of them accessible, but this is really getting ridiculous! For the record, I use the latest versions of NVDA with Firefox, but would be willing to change my browser if there are no truly useful ad-ons for Firefox to address this problem. Thanks.

Post 2 by write away (The Zone's Blunt Object) on Wednesday, 22-Jul-2015 14:51:24

in today's click and go society, the twitter, facebook, sharing, liking, etc. buttons are prefered and they are actually known to increase traffic and readership for said sites. Visually, they are very appealing and wanted, so I suggest you get used to them. They aren't going anywhere soon. lol. your only option in terms of avoiding them may be to see if the site has a text-only version, but most don't. Which sucks for someone who doesnt' want these links. Best of luck though. Maybe someone else has a better solution.

Post 3 by Imprecator (The Zone's Spelling Nazi) on Wednesday, 22-Jul-2015 15:22:43

Here we go yet again.

Post 4 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Wednesday, 22-Jul-2015 15:55:47

I know that I mentioned this on the post about using browsers other than firefox, but I don't think I ever created a thread specifically dealing with this issue. If I did, then my apologies. Still, I would like to find an accessible solution to this problem, regardless of which browser I use, as it is very annoying.

Post 5 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Wednesday, 22-Jul-2015 16:18:32

Someone just recommended this to me, but I am not sure how accessible it would be, especially since they talk about clicking hovering, and triangles.

http://www.svb-design.com/web-declutter/index.html

This made no sense to me at all

"To install Web Declutter/Quick Web Declutter either right click the buttons below and select “Add To Favorites…”, or drag the buttons onto your Favorites or Bookmarks toolbar or panel."

I saw no buttons, only two links. I first hit applications on the Web Declutter link and nothing happened. I then tried hitting enter on it, as I would on a normal link, and got an unreadable dialogue box. I hit "okay", but nothing seemed to happen. Maybe, this is only for Internet Explorer? Usually, there is a link that says "Add to Firefox", and then, the new program shows up under add-ons. I once tried something called Web Developer, but I don't remember how well it eliminated these things. I do, however, remember that it kept giving me strange errors with codes on certain sites.

Post 6 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Wednesday, 22-Jul-2015 16:26:11

Here's one for Firefox, and it has keyboard shoartcuts as well! Apparently, even some sighted people don't like all the junk on webpages!

http://www.accessfirefox.org/Reader.php

Post 7 by margorp (I've got the gold prolific poster award, now is there a gold cup for me?) on Wednesday, 22-Jul-2015 20:51:28

Okay, as someone who often designs websites I have to say that the like buttons and such are the way of the future. That's just the way it is.

Post 8 by ADVOCATOR! (Finally getting on board!) on Wednesday, 22-Jul-2015 20:56:26

I agree. Both that the clicks and that will be the future. But, Eleni's right. They're annoying as a third arm.
Blessings!

Post 9 by margorp (I've got the gold prolific poster award, now is there a gold cup for me?) on Wednesday, 22-Jul-2015 20:59:39

The truth is you get used to them. It's one of those things you just learn to work around.

Post 10 by forereel (Just posting.) on Wednesday, 22-Jul-2015 22:28:24

Web design is extremely visual. We have to sort of feel our way through a page.
If you used a mouse, you can simply move to the story, or scroll with your eyes.
You have more stuff on a web page then you are picking up with your screen reader actually.
I the later versions of Jaws, you can bookmark a page, so you can go to that section faster.
So, if you have a favorite page you read, you can set up your page so it goes where you want when you get their.

Post 11 by rdfreak (THE ONE AND ONLY TRUE-BLUE KANGA-KICKIN AUSIE) on Wednesday, 22-Jul-2015 23:11:23

If you use jaws, you can filter these buttons and frames out with flexible Web that was introduced several releases ago. If you go to the FS cast page on freedomscientific.com, one of the podcast a while back demonstrates how to use it.
Hope this helps.

Post 12 by kool_turk (This site is so "educational") on Thursday, 23-Jul-2015 0:25:13

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the reader view.

I'm not sure what version of firefox you're using, I know it's in the latest stable release.
Go to view and enter reader view.

It doesn't work on every website, It works here on this site surprisingly, and to exit just do the same only it'll be close reader view.

The last time I used a stable version of firefox it worked and that was a few weeks ago.

I'm currently using nightly builds so I haven't tested it for a couple of weeks.

Post 13 by forereel (Just posting.) on Friday, 24-Jul-2015 14:57:23

I like to see the clutter, so.
We miss so much on webpages, I am interested in seeing all I can to a point. Lol

Post 14 by margorp (I've got the gold prolific poster award, now is there a gold cup for me?) on Friday, 24-Jul-2015 15:48:23

That's actually an interesting point.

Post 15 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Friday, 24-Jul-2015 18:38:04

rdfreak, I haven't really used JFW since 4.5. I switched to Hal many years ago, and stopped at version 7, before switching to NVDA, which is what I use now. But thanks. I would love to see something like that implemented in NVDA. kool_turk, thanks for the suggestion! I'll try it! *smile* When I posted this on Facebook, my friends all agreed with me, and all were sighted. These are not people who just yes me to death either. All found such things annoying and wanted to get rid of them.

Post 16 by Shepherdwolf (I've now got the bronze prolific poster award! now going for the silver award!) on Saturday, 25-Jul-2015 0:34:05

Well, they aren't going away. I think they're annoying too, but unfortunately most of them contribute to the culture of hitting a single button in order to like, share, retweet or otherwise pass info along. In fact, it's so easy now that people do it without thinking, which is absolutely what people want when they're trying to spread their message. I just skim past them and hope there's no interactive clutter, such as flash or aria or whatnot.

Post 17 by kool_turk (This site is so "educational") on Saturday, 25-Jul-2015 2:23:43

It's not perfect, it tends to not work very well on websites like wiki how, but for news articles it works for the most part.

I think it doesn't show everything when there are ads in the middle of the articles.

Post 18 by margorp (I've got the gold prolific poster award, now is there a gold cup for me?) on Saturday, 25-Jul-2015 15:01:55

You won't be able to fully avoid the share buttons and such.

Post 19 by Senior (I've now got the bronze prolific poster award! now going for the silver award!) on Wednesday, 29-Jul-2015 8:24:18

Whhat version of Firefoxx does the feature being discussed in appear? I can't find it in 39.

Post 20 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Thursday, 30-Jul-2015 21:46:27

I'm running version 39, and it appears under the view menu.

Post 21 by JH_Radio (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Friday, 31-Jul-2015 19:47:30

This is why I prefer to read any news articals on iOS. the share butten is at the end after the article. Microsoft Edge browser is suppose to have a reader view too though I haven't upgraded anything to Windows `10 to try that out on.