Making Software Accessible to the Blind and Disabled

by Donald Johnstone, Program Manager

When I’m preparing documentation, will those with disabilities be able to use it? How do those with disabilities deal with the information age? These are questions that I had not considered before the presentation by Celia Clark at our chapter meeting on February 7th.

Celia began her presentation by giving us a brief history of Digital Frog International (DGI). To use a quote from their website, “We are an innovative, enthusiastic, young software company, dedicated to creating high-quality educational, multimedia CD-ROMs with an ecological focus. Our corporate headquarters is a converted barn surrounded by frogs, dogs and bogs in rural Ontario, Canada.”

Next, Celia gave a tour of The Digital Field Trip to The Rainforest. The tour was full of graphics, links, interactive activities, and video. The software is multi-layered and can be used by students and teachers at many levels of study. The tour gave us an idea of the complexity of the software and of its visual nature.

Where the journey began...

Celia then recounted to us a pivotal incident which took place at a software event. A passerby named Karen was drawn to the sounds of the DGI presentation and had a discussion with Celia about software and the blind. This led, after a period of months, to DGI being approached by the Adaptive Technology Resource Centre (ATRC) at the University of Toronto. The ATRC website explains their mission as, “The ATRC works directly with information technology manufacturers and developers to influence the early design stages of tomorrow's computer based technology. The ATRC uses a user-centred design approach to model and create solutions that are commercially feasible, operationally effective, and universally accessible.”

Re-engineering for a different audience

The ATRC was willing to underwrite the development of DGI multimedia CD-ROMs for the disabled. This led DGI to consider the challenges of re-engineering their products for the disabled. One thing the DGI had to consider was the core values behind the development of their multimedia CD-ROMs, which DGI termed as their L.E.A.R.N.ing tools:

• Lure students into the subject.
• Encourage inquiry, exploration & discovery.
• Actively involve students in learning.
• Reinforce with positive feedback.
• Nourish a lifelong love of the natural sciences.

Any endeavor that DGI embarked upon would have to adhere to these core values. DGI broke down the challenges that they faced into conceptual and technical challenges.

Conceptual Challenges

The first issue that had to be resolved (Conceptual Challenge #1) was how to define accessibility. In the end, DGI decided that the central accessibility goals were:

• Integral text-to-speech
• Keyboard access for all information
• Descriptions for all images
• Text links for all buttons

After taking into consideration the DGI core values, they revised the accessibility goal to allow blind students to DO everything that sighted students can do. This had a number of additional benefits, which included:

• Making ALL activities accessible to ALL students.
• Providing an even better resource for ESL students and those with learning disabilities.

Additional challenges that the DGI team faced were:

• Conceptual Challenge #2 — What is a useful description?
• Conceptual Challenge #3 — How to ensure consistent terminology.
• Conceptual Challenge #4 — How to make ALL activities accessible to ALL students.
• Conceptual Challenge # 5 — How to make the interface intuitive and elegant.

Technical Challenges

Once the team had clarified the path that they wished to take, there were technical challenges to overcome. These included:

• Cross-platform text-to-speech issues
• Programming the interactivity and feedback without a mouse
• Testing, testing, testing

Members of the Canadian Institute for the Blind helped the DGI team with testing, which allowed them to evaluate their development from the users’ viewpoint. Also, Celia was able to present the multimedia software to persons with other disabilities; for instance, those who could use only one digit to type.

In the end...

Clearly, there were both conceptual and technical challenges that few of us in the world of technical communications have considered. In the end, this led to the final challenge—that of finances. The project was costing far more than anticipated.

In the end, DGI produced a multimedia CD-ROM that met the needs of the blind and disabled. The challenges were many, and the rewards were in the achievement of a laudable goal. I know that it made me think about the way in which we communicate in this technical age.

The Ultimate Challenge

Celia left us with one final challenge, perhaps the ultimate challenge:

To create learning tools that use the incredible power of today’s computers to help ALL students, especially those with limited access to more traditional learning material, AND get a return on investment!

The chapter would like to thank Peer Group and AMI Semi-Conductor for donating the door prizes for February. Congratulations to our lucky door prize winners!

About Donald Johnstone

Donald is our chapter’s Program Manager, and he’s travelled all over the world (even Africa!) to book the talent for the monthly STC meetings. He would like to do some more travelling, but our limited budget, and supporting his teenage son, currently prevents him from touring.

Donald’s background in programming and system analysis have provided him with a solid foundation in his career as technical writer…so far. He loves science fiction, history, photography, and his wife—not necessarily in that order.