Yesterday I discovered that Mozilla add-on hosting has improved a lot so in the future you will find Fangs there. It should make updating a lot simpler. Version 1.06 adds compatibility with Firefox 3.6.

See Fangs screen reader emulator add-on over at Mozilla.org.

A big thank you to Stuart Middleton who showed me the necessary steps to get rid of the annoying security warning that Firefox 3 displays for unsigned extensions.

I finally managed to get some spare time to update and re-package Fangs to work with Firefox 1.5. If you feel that Fangs is useful for you, please do not hesitate to check out some of the ads that appear on this page.

The new version can be downloaded from the Sourceforge project page.

Please note that you manually have to uninstall the previous version and install the new version from your local disk.

Update: If you didn’t have Fangs installed earlier you will not see any output until you add the following preferences strings:

• extensions.fangs.output.defaultlang, with the value “en” (remove quotes).
• extensions.fangs.output.style, with the value “default” (remove quotes).

To edit Firefox preferences type about:config into the browser address bar and press enter.

Update 2:There is also a version for Firefox 2 at the Sourceforge download page. In the future I won’t be writing a blog post for every new Fangs release.

An update to make Fangs compatible with Firefox 1.5 is in the works. It almost works, but Firefox 1.5 broke the default setting for how developers can access the document object in javascript. I will try to update it as soon as possible. To receive a notification when the new version is available, please sign up to the Fangs mailing list over at the Sourceforge project page.

For those who are adventurous I can report that if you manually recompile the Fangs extension XPI and update the maximum allowed Firefox version number you will get an almost working version (you will have to click the Fangs reload button every time).

Thank you for all the encouraging emails. If you want to support the development of Fangs, please take a while to look at my Google ads (maybe you find something interesting you want to click on…) or please consider making a donation via PayPal.

The new version of Fangs (version 0.9.3) contains the following changes:

• Refactoring of the renderer to support localization.
• Language change in source document displayed. The original screen reader comes with voices for english, french and spanish and will use the appropriate voice if the markup is using the lang attribute.
• Minor bug fixes and tweaks.
• Help and tutorial added. A help icon is displayed in the top right corner. It links to the Fangs help page which explains how to use Fangs and what to look for in the output. My ambition is to add more information on how to fix common problems.

As usual, the new version can be downloaded from the Sourceforge project page.

Help with translation

I would be very happy for help with localization. The user interface and help page can now be translated (the UI uses DTD files in the extension locale directory). The renderer is prepared for translation but the original screen reader actually reads announcements (e.g. “Heading level one…”) in english. Input from JAWS users in Spain and France is appreciated. If you can provide translation help, please contact me at pete at standards-schmandards.com.

Python source formatter

This is completely unrelated to Fangs. While doing some work in Pyhton I needed a way to output Python source in HTML. A few tools were already available, but none of them output HTML according to spec. Therefore I modified the MoinMoin source colorizer to output XHTML instead. For sample output see source of colorize.py itself or download the script and default CSS in a zip file. You can modify the ouput by making changes to the colorize.css file.

I have set up a page for Fangs to make it easier for you to get the latest release news. During the coming weeks I will create more test cases and iron out the last bugs in the renderer, making it ready for release 1.0.

You can help out! If you have access to Jaws I would be very grateful if you report any discrepancies between Fangs output and Jaws.

For more details about version 0.70 please visit the Fangs page.

Update: For information about Fangs see the new Fangs information page.

First of all I would like to thank everyone who has helped out with testing Fangs. Many of you have also made valuable suggestions for future development. I have been overwhelmed by the amount of emails and positive support.

I have received many emails with questions that make me wonder if I have made the purpose of Fangs clear enough. The purpose of Fangs is to be a tool for web developers to quickly get an idea of how a particular page would be read by a modern screen reader using default settings.

The purpose of Fangs is not:

• to be an accessibility tool for vision-impaired users using Firefox.
• to act as a screen reader. I have received a lot of emails from people that want to feed the Fangs output to a speech synthesizer. If you need to hear the output use the real thing instead.
• to replace real testing of websites with real users and real screen readers. Most screen readers have tons of options which will never be accounted for in Fangs.

Also, I have recieved a lot of emails complaining that Fangs does not read tbody elements, abbreviations or elements with a style of display:none. Well, neither does the emulated screen reader with the default settings. There is a huge gap between the percieved accessibility of web standards and real-life scenarios. But, we have been through that before.

Enough whining from me. Let’s move on to the new release of Fangs.

Fangs release 0.54

I have made some adjustments based on feedback I have recieved from you. This release fixes the following bugs:

• Reload now works.
• Bug where fangs ouput was rendered twice is fixed (hack for mozilla bug).
• Various rendering bugs.

New features:

• Tabs are introduced. These will hold list of links and list of headings in the future.
• Context menu item is renamed and moved below the default items.
• Fangs window title now contains the name of the site. Easier to keep more than one window open.

The new version can be downloaded from SourceForge. Please note that you manually have to uninstall the previous version before the new one can be installed.

To be done

A lot of things remain to be done. I have received offers for help with translations. This will definitely be a priority as soon as the renderer has been stabilized. Both the interface and the renderer need to be translated. If you have access to JAWS with a local language pack for french, german, swedish or spanish, please drop me a note at fangs@standards-schmandards.com.

I have also received complaints about the Fangs logo (hey, it took five minutes) so if you are a decent graphic designer you are more than welcome with suggestions.

I am very grateful for feature requests and bug reports. Please submit them to the appropriate place at the SourceForge project page.

Happy browsing!

What does it do?

Fangs creates a textual representation of a web page similar to how the page would be read by one of the modern body-part named screen readers. Right-clicking a page and selecting Fangs from the Firefox context menu will open a popup window with the text representation of the page. The output looks like this.

If you install the extension you will find many things that remain to be done as well as some known bugs. However, if you have read my previous post on accessible title tag separators you may be interested in taking a look at your own website title.

How do I get it?

Before you download the extension please note that I accept no responsibility for the effects of this code. It may make your computer burst into flames for all I know.

The Firefox XPI file can be downloaded from here. Installation instructions:

1. Make sure you have Firefox version 1.0 or later (not the preview release).
2. Save the Fangs.XPI file to your hard drive.
3. Open the Fangs.XPI file from Firefox (File menu – Open).
4. Restart Firefox.
5. Done. Go to a web page, right-click and select Fangs from the context menu.

How can I help out?

Please report bugs and feature requests at the SourceForge project page. If you are too lazy to do that, drop me an e-mail at fangs@standards-schmandards.com.

For news about updates please subscribe to the fangs-release mailing list.

Please note that:

1. Using Fangs does not replace testing your pages with the real thing. If you haven’t bought a decent screen reader already you should do so immediately. It belongs to tools of the trade just like any other application you are using.
2. I have not set up the SourceForge CVS repository yet so I kindly ask you not to link directly to the XPI file here. In the future, new versions will likely be available from the SourceForge project page.