At the Forum, you will find:

• The business case for providing accessible solutions to customer/constituents and employees
• Case studies from today’s leading corporations, government agencies, and educational institutions on successful accessibility integration strategies
• Targeted educational sessions for organization-wide solutions
• Access to 125+ assistive technology exhibitors
• Networking with IT and AT company accessibility executives and your peers.

I think this will be very interesting to see how accessibility is justified at the business case level.  I would present the topic from a web technology point of view.

• Simplified software development and productivity through the use of plain text and less dynamic scripts.
• Improved Web Search Engine Optimization and Marketing (SEO and SEM) through plain text
• Enhanced website usability via accessibility fratures.
• Improved traffic from being inclusive to disabled users.

Accessibility makes good busines sence.  I am looking forward to next year’s ATIA Leadership Forum

The Guild did have a thoughtful solution for their copyright concerns. The Authors Guild suggests, “The first step is to take advantage of a special exception to the Copyright Act known as the Chafee Amendment, which permits the blind and others with certified physical print disabilities access to special versions, including audio versions, of copyrighted books. Technology makes this step easy: certified users of existing Kindles could activate their devices online to enable access to voice-output versions of all e-books. This process could be ready to go within weeks.”

I don’t know about weeks.  I don’t know how serious The Authors Guild is about finding a solution when they accuse Amazon of a “rights grab”.  My company, DigitalChalk, values its partnership with Amazon and has found them to be very easy to work with and possessing the utmost of integrity. I have some questions for The Authors Guild:

1. Does the robotic voice of the Kindle threaten The Authors Guild professional book readers?  I would encourage the professional readers to show confidence in their skilled craft and not be afraid of the Kindle robotic voice.  No one wanting an audio book would find the Kindle text-to-speech entertaining or enjoyable to listen to.  Blind people find it necessary and are used to listening to less than optimal speech technologies.  I don’t think sighty would use the feature. Whatever you do keep the Zane Grey westerns coming with your so very talented readers that will entertain generations to come.
2. Should assistive technology not be allowed because of The Authors Guild rights?  Should all assistive technologies be eliminated because of copyright laws?  Amazon is not charging extra for the text-to-speech feature.  They are trying to make the text accessible.  I don’t see a rights grab.
3. Has the Kindle copied the audio books in intent, quality or packaging? Again, I would hope The Authors Guild products would have a higher quality reading for entertainment purposes.  If not, I would suggest that The Authors Guild find some new readers and not worry about copyright violations.
4. What is the process for certifying vision impaired users to use the text-to-speech feature of the Kindle?  Will the Kindle provide a retina scan, (I am being facecious),  or force me to electronically sign a legal agreement everytime I listen to a book?  Will I need a doctor’s note?

I would like to encourage The Authors Guild to think seriously about their litigation.  Please don’t do anything that would take this Amazon Kindle feature from the visually impaired.  I finally have a device that I can use to access text.  Thank you Amazon for caring about the blind!

iPhone Mail screen

Apple has not yet released any iPhone 3.0 accessibility information.  I love my iPhone, but I have some recommendations for improving the UI for low vision users.

1. In the Mail app, why not allow users to zoom the header of the e-mail message.  If a user needs to zoom the body, wouldn’t they need to zoom the header information?
2. In the settings, why not allow the user to set the font size for all applications?  Why only allow font size settings for just some of the applications?
3. Add text to speech.  It would be nice to have a screen reader.
4. The youTube application could use closed captioning.
5. The iPhone screen shuts off when close to your ear, (or face), when talking on the phone.  This makes it hard for low vision users to use other applications while talking on the phone.  I could plug in the ear phones to stop the screen from shutting off, but wouldn’t it be nice to have a setting to leave the screen on when using the phone?
6. The Notes application could use some navigation help for low vision users.
7. The Maps application could use a finger gesture magnifier, (like the one used to place the cursor in Mail).
8. Maps could use voice navigation.  You ask what for?  Blind people don’t drive!  (I have – it’s fun!)  Well I navigate for other drivers a lot.
9. I find the Blackberry text typing easier than with the iPhone.  The Blackberry has a superior user defined dictionary for text replacement.
10. There should be some application standards for button placement.  For example, I find the Calendar buttons to close together at the top of the screen.  I have trouble touching the “<” previous month button and the Calendars button. They are too close together.  In other applications, the buttons are too small.
11. Some of the application providers have selected low contrast UI elements.  Standards are needed for this as well.
12. It would be great if the App Store would designate applications as having met an “Accessibility” standard.   Apple could help WIA write this standard.

DigitalChalk, Hunter College and IBM completed a Federal Government Department of Education, National Institute for Disabilities and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) grant to automate translation of audio/video speech to text for web based learning.  This project used the speech to text software from IBM Research and the DigitalChalk learning platform to deliver closed captioning to the hard of hearing and cognitive learning disabled.  This project was a technical success, according to Dr. David Vandergoot of Hunter College.  Business issues remain a sticking point in bringing this technology to market.  Hopefully, this solution will be brought to market soon.

Using the FAE rule set, I am close.  Using the beta rule set, I am quite a ways from becoming accessible.  My appologies to anyone using my blog.  I will keep at it.  I think it would have been easier to start from scratch.  Here are my challenges for the remaining FAE rule set. I hope to have the blog accessible by December 1, 2008.  Hang in there with me!

FAE Rule Set Violation

1. Avoid horizontal white space between labels and entry fields.  Minimize the user’s movement with the mouse when filling out forms.  Keeping fields with labels is difficult when in zoom mode.
2. Place the buttons vertically right below the last input field.  Don’t make the user search way over to the left or right to find the input buttons.
3. Make the buttons lage and high contrast.  Help the user know what the buttons are used for and where the buttons are located.
4. Avoid multiple column input if possible.  Keep your forms in a clear vertical trajectory.  I have actually been in zoom mode and skipped the second column because I did not know it existed.
5. Keep your forms to one page if at all possible.  If you need more than one page, use a “continue” button and take them to a new page.  It is easier to go to the next page via a button than it is by scrolling the web page.
6. Number your input fields and tell them on each page exactly where they are.  e.g. “Entry fields 1 – 12 of 23, page 1 of 2″.  This helps tremendously.
7. Give immediate feedback on each page.  Place a high ontrast message by the field and ask them for what is needed.

These design tips improve usability for everyone, not just the visually impaired.

At first I was grumbling about relative fonts.  I spent wasted time debugging the unwanted results.  If you use relative fonts you should:

1. Let your users know not to use multiple zoom methods that do not mix well.
2. Make sure all of your fonts are relative.  Don’t mix relative with absolute font-sizes on your web pages.
3. Do not use font-sizes over 200%.  This starts to distort the page.
4. Use 85% to 100% for regular text font-sizes in order to avoid page distortion.
5. Use the Web Development Tool on Firefox to find all of your font-size settings.
6. Test your web pages on Firefox, IE and Safari to determine if you obtain the expected results.
7. Test your web pages with browser text zoom up to 4:1 ratio.  Your page should not be distorted within this range.
8. Use relative div and table sizes as well.  This will help when pages are manually resized with relative fonts.

Year after year, attendees of IDEAS gain skillsets through 508 focused agendas on issues such as electronic and information technology accessibility, 508 law and standards, website standards compliance, acquisitions, market research for accessible product and services, and more.

Also, IDEAS is a trusted venue for the latest exhibits of assistive technology products and services that help benefit employee service capability and reduce injury in the workplace. IDEAS helps forward the mission to enforce Section 508 across government agencies with the goal of promoting an electronic and information technology accessible government to people with and without disabilities.

IDEAS 2008 is the Federal government’s annual conference on Section 508, presented by the GSA.

Registration is FREE for government and industry and includes admission to all:

• Keynotes
• Educational Sessions
• Networking Events
• Technology Exhibit Showcase

ideas 2008 registration pdf

Don’t miss this practical, hands-on educational conference and technology showcase on Section 508!

]]> http://www.learningaccessibility.com/blog/ideas-2008/feed/ 0 http://www.learningaccessibility.com/blog/nice-feature-contrasting-information/ http://www.learningaccessibility.com/blog/nice-feature-contrasting-information/#comments Wed, 01 Oct 2008 16:41:20 +0000 admin http://www.learningaccessibility.com/blog/?p=100 Originally posted August 29, 2008

Using contrasting gray scale to contrast information is very helpful.  I like this use of contrasting color by the Safari browser team at Apple.  Notice that the search words are highlighted in white and the first word found is in yellow.  All other text has a gray background.  This helps put things in context and helps the user find the search word quickly.  This same feature could be used for other applications:

• Text editors – could use contrasting colors to help highlight the script construct being edited.
• Word processors – could use gray scale contrast to highlight the sentence and paragraph being edited or selected.
• Web Browsers – could highlight only the text or object being viewed, (as defined by the mouse pointer location).
• Photo editing software – could brighten the pixel area being edited and dim the rest of the photo.
• Code debuggers – could highlight the trace walk-back item and dim the other statements.

You get the idea.  This feature should be optional.  For many low vision users, contrast is a great way to pin-point something and make it obvious.

Apple support responded quickly to my Mac OS X requirement suggestions.  Some of their responses indicate to me that they are not standing still on making their magnifier a state of the art tool for low vision users.  Apple is a leader in OS accessibility and that is why I use a Mac.

• Provide text smooting. – Apple provides image smoothing but not text smoothing.  When text is magnified beyond 4x, the user can see “digital jag”.  The text has raged edges where the magnifier shows individual pixels.  This could be resolved.  Performance issues will have to be overcome.  Commercial magnifiers have this feature.  [Apple]: http://developer.apple.com/leopard/overview/ mentions Apple is already moving toward resolution independence which will ultimately enable on-screen elements to scale without jaggies.

• Provide a magnification spotlight. – This will allow the user to only magnify a small area of the screen.  This helps with context.  Windows allows the user to determine the size of the magnification rectangle.  All magnifiers need this feature.  The user should be able to toggle between full screen and spotlight quickly.   [Apple]: Apple includes a developer tool called Pixie, that provides “spotlight” magnification in a window up to 12x magnification.  (it’s on the Mac OS X DVD in case you didn’t install the developer tools on your Mac.)  It ships with every Mac.  Your thoughts on how it might be useful as an end-user application would be appreciated.
• Provide keyboard shortcuts.  -  Shortcuts should be one-handed.  Shortcuts are needed for; toggling magnification on/off, moving the magnification focus up/down/left/right, switching from full-screen/spotlight and increasing/decreasing magnification.  This would help with keeping magnified information in context.  Sighted users who are working with visually impaired users would GREATLY APPRECIATE  this support!  [Apple]: Mac OS X provides  shortcut keys for enabling and disabling zoom, changing magnification and smoothing, and provides for trackpad and mouse scrolling control of the magnification (press the Control key while dragging the trackpad or scrolling the mouse).  Zooming is also enabled by default in Mac OS X.

This is good news about the text smoothing support.  I will try the Pixie tool and report back on it.  It would be nice if the Pixie tool could be made part of OS X and integrated with the magnifier as described above.  Two magnifiers are not needed.  I will encourage Apple to include additional shortcuts as described above.  It is worth noting that Apple provides a real time magnifier that is ahead of competition.  We will report on Microsoft’s response.