Accessible

consumer

technologies

and the cloud

Dr Scott HollierVisAbility Tech Outlook 2014

The accessibility journey begins

• Assistive Technologies (AT) have provided effective access to computers for people who are blind and vision impaired for decades

• However it is the equation of AT + online accessibility that equals independence

• Let’s have a look at how we got here and where we’re going

1980s – dawn of software AT

• Hardware-based text-to-

speech showcased at

1981 International Year of

Disabled persons

• SAM (Software Automatic

Mouth) released in 1982

on various 8-bit systems

such as Commodore 64,

Atari and Apple

1980s – dawn of software AT

• Hardware-based text-to-

speech showcased at

1981 International Year of

Disabled persons

• SAM (Software Automatic

Mouth) released in 1982

on various 8-bit systems

such as Commodore 64,

Atari and Apple

1990s – Wintel and established AT

• As computing industry settled primarily

on Windows and Intel PCs, AT became

more stable and consistent

• JAWS released for MS-DOS in 1989 and

for Windows in 1995

• Zoomtext 1.0 in released in 1991

• However, many consumers unable to

afford software on top of high PC prices

1997 – W3C Web Accessibility Initiative

• While AT grew in popularity, had two fundamental problems: • Poor Application Programming Interface

(API) underpinnings • This new ‘world wide web’ had massive

potential for people with disabilities but AT was struggling with interface

• Solution: World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) started to develop guidelines to address these issues

1998 – USA Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Section 508

• Public procurement legislation introduced in the US was designed to get people with disabilities employed in the Federal public sector

• had two important requirements: • All ICT products sold to the government

needed to meet accessibility criteria • Government websites had to be made

accessible to work with AT, implementing draft WAI standard

1999 – W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0

• W3C WAI guidelines released

containing 65 checkpoints across

three priority levels: ‘A’, ‘AA’ and

‘AAA’

• Adopted quickly due to early Section

508 lead in many countries…

• …but not ours: ad-hoc approach in

Australia

2000 – Narrator in Windows 2000

• Barely functional screen reader whose inclusion is likely to be due to Section 508

• Even came with warning message that blind users should get something else However, it did mark the start of established AT being included in mainstream OS and improved API support

2005 – VoiceOver and Zoom in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger

• While Apple likely included accessibility features for same reason as Microsoft, they took the attitude “if you’re going to do it, let’s do it well”

• Full-screen zoom introduced first, then VoiceOver screen reader designed to be effective for blind users out-of-the-box

2006 – NVDA screen reader

• Screen readers on Windows were

great, but expensive

• Non-Visual Desktop Access created

to provide high quality screen reader

for free

2008 – W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0

• Web had changed a lot since 1999 and original WCAG 1.0 became quickly outdated

• New WCAG 2.0 designed to provide 12 key things to make AT work with the web and more tech-neutral in approach

• This time Australia did get on board with NTS

2009 – Apple iPhone 3GS

• First commercially successful mainstream touchscreen device to support people who are blind or vision impaired

• Featured cut-down zoom and VoiceOver from OS X

2012 – Google Android 4.2

• Google Android evolves to include full screen magnifier and better integrated TalkBack screen reader

• Important milestone due to affordability with sub-$100 tablets containing accessibility features now available

2012 – Windows 8

• While radically different, Windows 8 was the first OS to provide effective dual interfaces to accessibility features in equal measure, allowing users to operate via keyboard/mouse or touchscreen

• Even Narrator got an upgrade after 12 years

2014 – Where are we now?

• Great choice in devices

• Bigger screen mobile trend helpful for

people with low vision

• Affordability has never been better

• Web accessibility improving thanks to

WCAG 2.0 and NTS

2015 and beyond - cloud accessibility

• Cloud + access represents huge potential in addressing issues

• Key initiative: Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure (GPII) • AT preferences stored on the cloud• After identification, device automatically

gets your preferences and configures itself• Same interface layout and AT across all

devices: mobile, desktop, tablet, TV • Voting case study resolved!

Consumer benefits of cloud accessibility

• Device independence

• Real-time customisation

• Consistency in assistive technology

support

• Less training

• Global rollout of updates reduces

local ICT costs

Consumer issues of cloud accessibility

• Security

• Privacy

• Lack of infrastructure such as

broadband

• Localised device accessibility issues

• GPII-style setup, training and support

requires high level of support from

government and industry

The future is now

• Microsoft is the only company storing accessibility preferences in the cloud

• In Windows 8+ if you log into multiple machines with the same account, accessibility preferences automatically synchronised in real time

• Includes themes, preferences on boot and preferences on login

Other MAA projects

Professional Certificate in Web

Accessibility Compliance• Six week training course

• Delivered by UniSA and MAA

• For ICT professionals to integrate web

accessibility into work practices

• www.mediaaccess.org.au/learn

• Additional accessibility info available

on Access iQ www.accessiq.org

Further information

• E-mail:

scott.hollier@mediaaccess.org.au

• Telephone: (08) 9311 8230

• Website: www.mediaaccess.org.au

• Twitter: @mediaaccessaus