Is Snap really a snap?

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that Rhonda snapped. Now Tom snaps. I’m talking about Snap, which does seem to be a very cool plug-in to WordPress and other blogging tools. When your cursor hovers over a hyperlink, a square cartoon-bubble-like pop-up appears with a miniature version of the site or Web page referred to by the link. I like it. It has a high cool factor, and Tom provides a few thoughts about it on his blog.
But is it accessible? How does it work in a screen reader? How does it work with slow connections? (56k modems still exist!) That I haven’t quite figured out yet. Do you know?

Update: Rhonda is snapping on her blog, not her work site. That was the type of confusion a technical communication should avoid. I did that just to see if you were awake out there. 😉

And thanks to Tom, I discovered Laurelle’s WordPress blog with lots of helpful tips, including this one with an answer to my question about accessibility. As a sighted person, yes, it does look very cute the first time you see it. It is the way it can disturb your reading if you are using the mouse to scroll during your read and the cursor happens to stop on a hyperlink. From Laurelle’s post, I can see how the Snap preview can cover too much of the reading area for low-vision users who have enlarged text, say 400%. Being a comanager of the AccessAbility SIG of STC, and just plain interested in accessibility, I think about these things, even though they don’t apply to me personally. It’s just a part of my critical thinking process when viewing new technology. “Will this promote universal accessibility?” Because

The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.

as Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director said. And now I’ll get off my soapbox.