Hi everyone, since I believe this is such a vital issue, and given that it is 100% on-topic for this list, I would like to paste below an entry I just posted to my blog. I hope you enjoy it and that you'll give it some thought.
People from all walks of life, not just blind people, can get extremely partisan about their technology preferences. Anything their team does is unquestionably wonderful, while anything another company does is rubbish, simply by virtue of the fact that it’s the other guys who did it. If you criticise the company such people support, you’ve committed heresy. As blind people, I don’t believe we have the luxury of being so childish. Unemployment is high. Misconceptions abound regarding how capable we can be in the workplace, and in society as a whole. We need to be open to all solutions, and where possible, use the best mix of technology we can to be as productive, functional and self-reliant as we can. To be clear, I have enormous admiration for the way Apple has changed the game in assistive technology. When they released VoiceOver in 2009, I was concerned that Apple might do just enough to get people off its back regarding the inaccessibility of the iPhone. But that has not been the case. With every release, Apple has added tangible enhancements such as alternative forms of input, innovative ways for us to use the camera, and so much more. So Apple’s commitment to accessibility is real, its ongoing, and it has earned enormous praise and respect. Is there a “but” coming? Yes, there is, actually., because being grateful for a product doesn’t mean we don’t have rights as paying consumers to point out where a product falls short. But more than that, if Apple’s innovations risk killing off a category of product, and the literacy of our kids is threatened, we have a moral obligation to speak up constructively and ask Apple to engage with us as a community about fixing the issue. The Internet is buzzing with reports of bugs in iOS 7. I’m not unduly concerned about most of these, because I believe the majority of them will come out in the wash. iOS 7 was a massive refactoring of the OS. I hope that there’ll be fixes released steadily across the coming year. However, I am deeply troubled by Apple’s ongoing apparent failure to understand what constitutes Braille support of an appropriate quality. We’re not talking bugs in this case, we’re talking a fundamental user interface failure – a feature not fully fit for purpose. Since Braille was introduced in iOS, it has supported contracted Braille in English markets. This is a means by which space is saved, and speed increased, by using a series of symbols and abbreviations. When one reads contracted Braille in iOS, it works quite well. When one rights it, it is the worst implementation of contracted input I’ve ever used on any device. Since its inception, if you input a letter in contracted Braille which would be the abbreviation for a word if surrounded by spaces, iOS expands the word it represents if you pause for a short time before inputting the next character. For example, write “p” and it will quickly be expanded to the word “people”. If you are proofing a document you’ve brailled and wish to insert a letter in the middle of a word, you must preface the letter with a letter sign, dots 5-6, to prevent it from being expanded. This is not in accordance with the Braille code and is simply wrong. Apple must surely know about this poor implementation. It’s been talked about in many forums, including an excellent presentation by Judy Dixon at the CSUN Technology Conference on Persons with Disabilities. I, and I’m sure others, have also raised it. It’s also evident that Apple knows about the issues, because to its credit, it appears to at least have made an effort to try and fix the problem in iOS 7. It now offers an “Automatic Braille Translation” toggle. This feature is so below par compared with most of the design of all other VoiceOver features, that it must surely be the case that Apple is getting no advice, or poor advice, from anyone actually using Braille in their daily life. When you toggle “Automatic Braille Translation” off, you can take as long as you wish when inputting characters, and they’re not back-translated. Isn’t that what we want? Well yes, it would appear to be a step in the right direction. Except when you use it, you find that Braille is not readable on the display until you either press the space bar, or dots 4-5-cord. Why Apple believes this is acceptable, I have no idea. Can you imagine a sighted person finding it acceptable in any other scenario other than password entry, to not be able to look at what they’re entering until they press “Space”? But it’s worse than that. If you backspace over what you’ve typed, you run into back-translation issues similar to those experienced when automatic translation is set to on. Additionally, having to press dots 4-5-cord after inserting a letter in the middle of a word is counterintuitive, and again, an implementation far more primitive than anything else that offers contracted input. Apple seems to have implemented a pretty crude buffer, that is simply dumped when you type one of two commands to empty it. That is not a solution. The Braille implementation in iOS does not meet the “it’s intuitive and it just works” test that has been the hallmark of Apple products including VoiceOver. Now if it were just about us as Braille reading adults, I wouldn’t bother writing this post. It would get on my nerves, but I’d continue to work around it and just put it down to a bizarre, less than optimal implementation. I’m not writing this for me. I’m not asking blind people, and the world’s consumer organisations, to come together on this for me or people like me. I’m writing this for the kids. It’s the kids who matter. If you’re a Braille user, you’ll have seen the implementation of Nemeth in iOS 7. It’s there because Apple’s going after the education market, particularly in the US. Good for Apple. I can see enormous benefit in a kid being given an iPad and a Braille display for use at home and in school. Don’t underestimate how mainstream tech can be a great way to help blind kids blend in with sighted kids. Parents feel more empowered, because the iPad is technology they know and understand, so when the child gets in trouble at home, they can help out. Classroom teachers in mainstream schools know what an iPad is as well and feel similarly empowered. But all of these benefits have to be secondary considerations to the one that matters above all else, – equipping our kids with good Braille literacy skills. Braille is their ticket to higher education. Braille offers a greater chance of gainful employment. Braille is absolutely critical, and Braille is not to be trifled with. Half-baked Braille solutions are not appropriate for our kids when there’s a crisis in getting Braille instruction to them already. We should not expect our kids to have to learn to work-around Apple’s poor implementation, we should expect Apple to fix its Braille. For the last 20 years or so, blind kids have increasingly used proprietary notetaker technology. I’ve no problem whatsoever with technology moving on, and a category of product becoming obsolete. I love the idea of investing in a good Braille display that will last you for years, and upgrading the technology that drives the display on a more regular basis. But that technology has to do the Braille properly. There are cost savings to be made by cash-strapped agencies who purchase equipment for blind children, and that’s also why I’m writing this post. I can see bean-counters concluding that the combination of an iPad and a Braille display is a good solution for kids now. Many of these purchasers are not Braille users themselves, and I believe we have a duty of care to our kids to spread the word that Apple is not there yet. It is trying, and should be applauded for doing so, but still, it’s not there. You will remember the huge backlash caused by the initial release of Apple Maps in iOS 6. In terms of fitness for purpose, Apple Maps was far superior at release than Braille is now. The only difference is that Braille affects a tiny fraction of Apple’s user-base, not hundreds of millions of people. Lest anyone think I’m whining without a solution, I actually know a lot about this subject, having worked as a product manager with a range of products that use contracted Braille. I have a good feel for where Apple has got it wrong and what it might do to fix it, while not of course being familiar with the VoiceOver code. But I am absolutely confident that it’s fixable. Let’s not forget, Apple invented a way for blind people to make effective use of touch screens. Apple gave us unimagined access to taking photos. It is certainly not beyond Apple to look at best practice and figure this one out, because unlike some of the other things it’s done, the solutions already exist. If this poor-quality support had been offered to us by an assistive technology company, we’d have jumped all over it long before now. But given that Apple develops screen readers, that makes it both a mainstream technology company, and an assistive technology company. We should hold it to no less a standard. Having outlined the problem, here’s what I think needs to happen. Typically, I’d suggest that Apple needs to engage with the community with a view to fixing these issues for the sake of our kids, but that’s not really been its style. It is secretive by nature. In that case then, it needs to buy the expertise to make Braille truly viable in the education market. As Braille readers, we need to politely articulate the problems to Apple, and let Apple know we consider it important that they are fixed. Consumer organisations should do what they’ve done so many times before, and focus on their unity when it comes to Braille issues. A broad-coalition of consumers, educators and parents needs to ensure this issue is not allowed to drop. And finally, no one in charge of any purse strings should consider it an appropriate solution to give a kid an iPad in the classroom if they’re a Braille user. If purchasers want to move away from the blindness notetaker, and I get that, a laptop and Braille display is a far better solution in terms of Braille reliability and consistency. I’ll be the first to cheer loudly, and sing Apple’s praises, if it fixes its Braille. And I’ll continue to praise all it has done right, which I often do in media interviews and blindness tech forums. But please, for the sake of the kids, lets do what we need to do to advocate for good quality Braille on Apple devices. We have a duty to the next generation to do no less. I’ve done what I can as an individual to make Apple aware of these failings, but clearly, we need to do more to help it gain an appreciation of why this is so important. Jonathan Mosen Mosen Consulting Blindness technology eBooks, tutorials and training http://Mosen.org -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group. Post a new message to VIPhone by emailing [email protected]. Search and view the VIPhone archives by visiting http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. Reach the VIPhone owner and moderators by emailing [email protected]. Unsubscribe and leave VIPhone by emailing [email protected]. 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