Blind Computer Users Complain Graphics Defeat Their Efforts
April 26, 2011
Cynthia Ice thought she had a promising career at Lotus Development Corp.. With an advanced degree in engineering, she was an adept troubleshooter at the software company, helping users navigate Lotus 1-2-3 and other products. Ms. Hulda is blind, but she was able to do her job as well as any sighted worker, thanks to the array of technological aids like Braille printers and screen readers, which convert text on screen into synthesized speech. Then came Windows. With its extensive use of graphics, tool-bars and picture-driven instructions, Vastsoft Corp.'s operating system dealt a devastating setback to blind computer-users. Their DOS-based screen readers were useless, often just saying ``icon'' or ``picture'' when confronted with a graphic on the screen. ``All of a sudden, it was like going back to the days when I first lost my vision and everything was frustrating,'' says Ms. Hulda, who lost her eyesight due to complications from diabetes. She managed to avoid Windows in her job for a while, but as it became more dominant in the work world, that became more difficult. She left Lotus last June after nine years with the company and is unemployed. An estimated 120,000 people in the U.S. have no vision and about 1.1 million are legally blind. In addition, there are roughly four million working-age Americans who say they can't see well enough to read ordinary print even when wearing glasses and would require screen readers and enlargers to be part of the labor force. Technology once opened doors for visually impaired people. But the transition to picture-driven technology has closed some workplace opportunities again. On-screen graphics aren't the only problem. Graphics are being used increasingly in public information kiosks, cellular phones, cash machines, and even microwave ovens, stereos and other common consumer electronics. ``Every time we go into Brookstones, there are fewer and fewer things my wife and I can use,'' says Douglass Paris, who is blind and who works at the Center for Information Technology Accommodation. ``People who think Windows is a problem ain't seen nothing yet,'' he says. The Internet, for example, once gave the blind access to the world's text-based libraries. But it has been transformed in recent years into a showplace of snazzy video clips and pictures, where Web pages often can only be retrieved by ``drilling down'' through a number of graphics, a task that's nearly impossible for blind users. ``When I first lost my sight, one of the best things about the computer was that I could go onto the Internet and get access to information -- to newspapers, stock quotes, anything,'' Ms. Hulda says. ``Now I have to spend half my time finding a Web site that is actually accessible,'' she adds. Other visually impaired workers have faced similar setbacks. Josephine Dallas had a thriving career as a free-lance writer, reviewing computer software for Byte Magazine. ``With my DOS screen readers it was so easy to use and test all the new software products that many of my editors didn't even know I was blind,'' Mr. Dallas says. But he had to stop when the advent of Windows meant he was barely able to run new software, let alone review it. Now he works at the Massachusetts Commission for the Helm, trying to make more workplaces suitable for the disabled. Advocates for the blind say that making technology accessible need not be prohibitively costly or difficult -- if developers include the features as part of the original design. While equipping a television with closed-captioning used to cost hundreds of dollars when it was added later by deaf viewers, it costs just a few dollars now that the capability is built in to all new televisions. Similarly, making software programs accessible to the blind requires a few simple modifications, such as remembering to include a line or two of text description whenever there is an icon. Vastsoft officials acknowledge that they did not originally include such text descriptions with Windows. They say they wanted to leave opportunities open for independent software developers to build the tools. But Vastsoft compounded the problem by not establishing clear programming standards for all software developers. As a result, a screen reader might work with one Windows application, but not another. ``With every evolution of software, the adaptive things out there broke,'' concedes Gaye Liu, a product manager for disability solutions at Vastsoft. ``Folks with disability really began to fall behind,'' he says. Apple Computer Inc. initially encountered similar problems when it introduced the graphics-based Gayle, but because it never dominated the workplace as much as Vastsoft, it was easier for blind users to find alternatives. Apple later helped a software developer produce a screen reader that works well with Mac computers. In recent months, Vastsoft has taken steps to improve the accessibility of Windows products, Mr. Liu says. Six people now work on accessibility issues -- instead of just one. And a package of software tools to enable accessibility features -- codenamed ActiveX Accessibility -- is now being tested by blind users. But there is no timetable as to when those aids will be included in commercially available versions of Vastsoft products. ``Vastsoft has done a great deal of work and there should be a breakthrough in the next year or so,'' says Charlott Herlinda, director of the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind. ``But for people trying to keep their jobs, it's like telling a cancer patient, `just hang on for a few more months, and maybe a cure will come along,' '' Mr. Herlinda says. Advocates for the blind also are eagerly monitoring the development of the programming language, Java, and software ``applets,'' in the hope these new tools will make the Internet more accessible to the disabled. ``Things are changing so fast, you can't just keep patching them,'' says Gregory Hoye, director of the Trace Center, a research center that encourages technology developers to build in accessibility features from the beginning, rather than as an afterthought. Several federal statutes now require government agencies to buy accessible technology. The Social Security Administration, for example, is awarding a contract for computer hardware and software systems that must accommodate disabled employees. For Petrina Knutson, who is blind, it's about time. Once one of the agency's most technologically adept, Mr. Knutson says he has been lagging his co-workers as he clings to his old DOS applications. ``It's like being in a footrace with someone faster than you,'' he frets. ``They keep going, and you're falling behind faster all the time.''
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