Hey Steve, A great summary of the problem! I concur with everything that you said so well.
Let me raise two points about accessibility that will trouble us more and more. The ribbon is a good example. Microsoft spent big bucks researching it. It was clear to software developers that menus lost their usefulness when the number of options grew out of hand; the rivvon was implemented to cram more options in a visually simple format. In reality, most folks use a mere handful of rivvon options, like me, and the rivvon nnavigation tools mostly suffice. However the number of features and their options will continue to increase, and then what? I suspect, but do not know for sure, that Microsoft will have Cortana do more as Windows improves; so you could just state the option you want. There is another access crisis emerging. Within 10 years or so, about 20 percent of the population will be 65 years old and older, and, like us, they cannot see the multitude of displays on consumer appliances, cell phones, and so on. So, developers will need to find innovative ways to let users access a plethora of options in an efficient manner. Engineers are aware of the growing problem, but lack a unified solution currently. My wife bought me a book a few years ago entitled the "Laws of Simplicity" written by a frustrated MIT engineer, in which he said how he found new gadgets hard to learn and use. Progress will continue and so will are frustrations about it. Peter Duran -----Original Message----- From: Talk [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Steve Jacobson via Talk Sent: Friday, January 13, 2017 11:53 AM To: 'Window-Eyes Discussion List' Subject: RE: Going Backward in Accessibility? Peter and all, While I mostly agree with you, especially given that we have fairly good accessibility built into products that are much more complicated than those of fifteen or twenty years ago, I think we are often affected more by change than are sighted people. There needs to be some thought as to how this can be handled. While this can affect the ability of a new blind user to learn software, its greatest impact is on those who have used software for a long time and have become efficient in its use. For example, let's look at the Microsoft Ribbon. This was a major change to the way that options are displayed in Microsoft products. However, even though it can be frustrating for sighted users. It is usually possible to locate options by visually inspecting the ribbon and then moving the mouse directly to that item without serious delay. The act of moving the mouse to a given location and then clicking on it is a standard action that is not dependent on anything that is unique to the ribbon or Microsoft Office. The complaints I hear from sighted users are more along the line of how much space the ribbon takes, and there are even some workarounds for that. I don't read a lot of complaints about the ribbon any more in the general press although I suppose there are complaints out there yet. So why was the change to the ribbon difficult for us? The ribbon has pretty much always been accessible in a technical sense. In my opinion, it is because our greatest efficiency is achieved by our memory and our ability to repeat a sequence of actions reliably. When confronted with the ribbon rather than a typical menu system, our method of finding an item is to use the navigation that is built into Office to examine the ribbon sequentially. If that navigation is sluggish, it will slow our ability even beyond what we are already experiencing because of needing to look sequentially. Therefore, even when accessibility is implemented, we depend upon more levels of the software, operating system and specific software, to get the information we need. In addition, we are needing to access information sequentially rather than being able to take the shortest path to the desired item as can be done visually with the mouse. We do get around all this in time by learning keyboard shortcuts and accellerator keys. As a rule, though, keyboard shortcuts and accellerators are assigned to some degree by their locations in menus and ribbons. In menus, there were generally two keystrokes involved, the first to get to the pulldown and the second to choose the specific item. The order of the items in a menu affect the keystrokes assigned. Typing a letter will get one to the first item starting with that letter. If there is another item starting with the same letter, the next letter of the item not already assigned is used. In the end, we generally figure out how to do this efficiently, and we get these keystrokes reinforced by the menu system itself. So what about the ribbon. Pretty much all of the above approaches are implemented in the ribbon. In addition, there are keys to jump through the groups as well. However, many, if not most, of the accellerator key sequences have changed there. Rather than needing to look for a command or function for an extra second or two, we can spend a great deal of time working through the ribbon sequentially or trying keystrokes we think might work. The effect of the change on us is far greater than it is on people using these same products with vision even though accessibility exists technically. I've used the ribbon as an example because it is probably one of the more extreme examples and it is one we have often faced. However, this difference in how we access software is very true in other areas. For example, because of how accellerator keys are assigned, changing the order that items appear in a pulldown menu can change which keys access them. A change in the order may hardly be noticed by someone clicking with a mouse but needing to use different keystrokes to get there can have a much greater impact on us. It requires that we relearn a pattern while it requires only a minor adjustment for the person using a mouse. Moving an item out of a menu into a toolbar might make it more quickly identifiable visually while it might make it harder for us to find in some cases, especially if the item is moved to a deeper level in a menu because it is now on a toolbar. There are other examples as well but I've already gone on too long. The point is that although I agree with Peter that we are probably better off then we think regarding accessibility, there are things about efficient interfaces that are not really well understood. This is getting worse as software becomes more complex and developers struggle to make their applications easier to use visually. While there are basics that we can insist be implemented, it is really not easy to make all of the above clear to a developer. Even if we can, it's not always that simple to know what to do. For example, if we somehow kept the same accellerator keys active on the ribbon, it would make life easier for those who have used a product for a long time, but the keystrokes would make no sense to a new user trying to learn them. While we might be able to get large companies like Microsoft to understand this better, the ability to get all developers to think about this is very unlikely. While I am very encouraged by the innovations that have allowed us to use touch screens, efficiency is not really a consideration there. Again, we may well remember where something is on a touch screen and get good at activating it efficiently, but if the developer changes the screen, we are going to need to do a lot of searching to find out to where it was moved while the new location will be available quickly using vision. I am saying all of this for two reasons. First change means more adjusting for us, so as change comes faster and faster, it adds more overhead to our ability to access software efficiently. It is not all that surprising that we are going to whine some about change. Second, at some level, we are going to have to think about how screen readers can fill the gap between how we access software and how one accesses it visually. This is especially important for those of us using software in employment settings. It means that some of our feelings of frustration when things change are justified, but it also means that we have to keep looking for answers and the answers may not always be with those developing software. It is going to take people much smarter than me to find some of these answers. Best regards, Steve Jacobson -----Original Message----- From: Talk [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Peter Duran via Talk Sent: Friday, January 13, 2017 2:13 AM To: 'Window-Eyes Discussion List' <[email protected]> Subject: Going Backward in Accessibility? Hello All, There are different issues in play when discussing accessibility. Computer technology has changed rapidly and relentlessly since the first computer made its appearance. See the wonderful movie "Hidden Figures" currently in theaters about 3 African American women mathematicians who worked for NASA in the late fifties and beyond. They had to deal with racism, sexism, and rapid change in their jobs. Us blind folks, until Section 508 of the Accessibility law came into effect, had alike discrimination in the workplace. However, today,the major developers of software - Apple and Microsoft - build into their development efforts accessibility - perhaps not as fast as we would wish. The marketplace drives Web and Internet developments, and that development occurs rapidly and in unexpected ways. All of that makes it hard for developers of access technology to keep up. I have been in the access biz for forty years and my customers have feared being left behind with every marketplace innovation. The reality is, however, since Bill Gates of Microsoft made the commitment to accessibility, things have been really good for us. I have no doubt that progress will continue, yes in fits and starts, nevertheless forward. The core issue for us is whether third-party developers will disappear and access left to mainstream software manufacturers. Apple does a good job with its VoiceOver software, and tech support of disabled users is solid! iPhone technology has become the main communication tool for blind students in college and in professional job environments. It is dynosaurs like us old dudes that resist change. It took me lots of effort to get my wife to switch from a flip phone to an iPhone; she still refuses to learn more than she needs, but she now send text messages, pictures, cute visual effects, and so on. Sad to say, the older we get, the harder its is to change. (I have not as yet switched to Windows 10. It is good to wait until the bugs are under control, until access catches up, and until the need arises.) I did buy a Windows 10 HP laptop from QVC during their Christmas bash, and will get to it this Spring when I have time to write a tutorial for Windows 10. Microsoft, with the change of leadership a couple of years ago, rethought its overall corporate structure and switched to a "vertical model" where all development groups are required to incorporate alike software into core products to ensure uniformity of functionality. Last year, Microsoft created a new access group withsignificant powers to oversee accessibility issues. It is my personal guess that Narrator will become A significant screen reader within Windows 10 and will rival the accessibility features of VoiceOver of Apple and of Window-Eyes and JAWS. Let us all hope for the best access and let our dinosaur tendencies behind. Peter Duran _______________________________________________ Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Ai Squared. For membership options, visit http://lists.window-eyes.com/options.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com/steve.jacobson %40visi.com. For subscription options, visit http://lists.window-eyes.com/listinfo.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com List archives can be found at http://lists.window-eyes.com/private.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com _______________________________________________ Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Ai Squared. For membership options, visit http://lists.window-eyes.com/options.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com/peterduran2015 %40outlook.com. For subscription options, visit http://lists.window-eyes.com/listinfo.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com List archives can be found at http://lists.window-eyes.com/private.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com _______________________________________________ Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Ai Squared. For membership options, visit http://lists.window-eyes.com/options.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com/archive%40mail-archive.com. For subscription options, visit http://lists.window-eyes.com/listinfo.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com List archives can be found at http://lists.window-eyes.com/private.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com
