Application availability for visually impaired users
Probably, many, having met a blind person or having heard about him, wonder: “How do people with visual impairments use the telephone, find the information they need on the Internet, read e-books and communicate in social networks?”
Very few people know that there are screen access programs (screen readers) that sound whatever action is being performed, any object under the mouse cursor, any key that is pressed using a speech synthesizer. Recently, the press has been trying to cover this issue, but in all cases one screen access program is mentioned - “JAWS for windows”, which has modest features and a high price.
In fact, there are many similar programs on a non-commercial basis, the functionality of which sometimes even exceeds the capabilities of paid analogs. However, this article is not about this, but about how various gadgets help people with visual impairments and the availability of many applications and services for screen access programs.
When the first computers appeared, no one thought about how they would be used by the blind. The computer was a device for the elite, demanded serious training, a huge knowledge base and skills. But when computers became available to the average user and began to appear in the homes of every third, the question arose of how, without seeing the screen, to use all the features of the device. Two answers immediately come to mind: by ear and touch. And both of these options were implemented. At the hearing, it became possible to use a computer with the help of those screen-access programs, and touch it with the help of the so-called “Braille displays”. This name in itself can be incomprehensible to many, because not everyone knows what Braille is. This is a font in which each character corresponds to a combination of one or several (up to six, and in a computer version - up to ten) points. But braille displays are rather cumbersome and require specific drivers, so they are often used on computers in specialized institutions for people with visual impairments. But screen readers work almost everywhere, and do not require a powerful processor or drivers. We’ll finish the story with this and move on to the main problem, the headache of all blind people - accessibility of applications for screen access programs.
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Those who participated in creating at least one GUI application know that there are, in fact, two ways to display content on the screen: using the environment in which the program runs (Windows Forms on Windows, XML and HTML on Android, .. .) and displaying information using the program’s own resources. If the first option is fully supported by screen access programs, as they use system metadata, then the second method is absolutely unavailable for screen readers. For them, the screen remains pristine clean, because the virtual cursor of the screen reader cannot find a single object, the description of which can be obtained.
But, unfortunately, many developers follow the second path. This happens for various reasons: someone wants to make their application more comfortable visually, which is not always possible to achieve by system methods, someone wants to minimize the use of platform-specific code.
Take a few programs from different categories.
A blind person needs to be able to move independently around the city: go grocery shopping, come to visit friends, visit museums, etc. Having learned to use a smartphone, he immediately tries to download a high-quality navigator with the most detailed information about the route.
The first two applications in the Play Market for the query “Navigator” are Yandex Navigator and CityGuide. Put both.
Open to start Yandex Navigator. Visually, everything is very convenient: a comfortable menu, beautiful icons, a nice looking map. For a blind person who does not see all this, the main screen of the application is a search string, not even signed as a “search”, and an obscure button, also not named.
Ok, open CityGuide. In general, all the same: a convenient, nice looking application. However, for the blind, this application is a completely blank screen. If Yandex Navigator at least allows you to try to enter an address, then in CityGuide it is impossible.
As a result, for a visually impaired person, two applications with a very mediocre pedestrian mode remain: Google Maps and OsmAnd.
Everyone wants to communicate, and the blind are no exception.
The standard VK client was quite convenient, both visually and for the blind, but the last major update reduced its availability to almost zero. The main menu, caused by a swipe from the left edge of the screen, a news menu or wall posts, caused by a swipe from a certain point on the right edge of the screen (this point needs to be seen), cause difficulties. In general, you have to use the third-party application "Kate Mobile", the developer of which is very sensitive to accessibility from the very beginning, and now hears advice from the blind.
The web version of VK, by the way, is not bad framed in terms of readability by screen speakers, and here I personally have no complaints.
Not everyone uses it, but almost everyone has heard of it. Positions itself as one of the most comfortable social networks for communication. But with the availability is quite a disaster. The web version is unreadable by more than two-thirds of screen readers. Mobile apps for iOS and Android are even less accessible. The main menu is read in one container, the entire main page and the chat page are also read as a single text, from which you simply do not select the desired line.
Many thanks to the developer WhatsApp, availability at the height. Even the majority of emoticons are voiced. Viber is almost as available.
Both of these applications are made in the same way and have the same problems: too frequent and meaningless screen updates, knocking down and causing the virtual cursor of the screen reader to hang, and incorrect signatures on some buttons. You can use it, but there are difficulties.
Until the last major update, everything was terrible: crazy hangs, with or without a screen reader, frequent and meaningless screen updates, unsigned buttons ... But after the update, everything became much better. Nothing slows down, everything is read, and even the most uncomfortable, opening right over the chat menu now also read.
The Windows version of the application is available at about 95%, which is good news. But the Linux version has huge availability issues.
WeChat
An application with many features and almost zero availability. The problems are the same as for Skype and Facebook.
Koreans on top. The application even has an accessibility mode, in which everything that is not available in standard ways, the program itself sends directly to the screen reader. Probably the most comfortable communication app after “Kate Mobile”.
By themselves, browsers scold or praise almost no sense. Chrome and Firefox on Android, Safari on iOS, Firefox on Windows are fully available. Chrome for Windows is also almost completely voiced, but it has known problems that no one hurries to fix.
Here it is necessary, rather, to pay attention to the availability of individual sites. For example, the portal "State Services" in terms of accessibility is almost zero. You can work with him, but there are problems, but when it comes to documents and money, I really do not want to press something wrong. In fact, the sites of many private companies, online games, large and even small manufacturers are announced many times better than the state resource.
Yes, there are programmers among the blind too, and they also want to work comfortably. Such a well-known development environment, like Visual Studio, is accessible by no more than 50%. Another popular editor, QT Creator, is only voiced by 10%, with only the menu and some buttons available.
Microsoft office is fully adapted for screen access programs, and there are no complaints about it. But on Android and iOS, everything is sad. Polaris office is not available at all, other programs from completely different developers also do not sound. I'm not talking about writing huge texts and advanced formatting, but just reading the document is also unrealistic.
Let's sum up. Smartphones and computers greatly help blind people in life, expand their capabilities. But developers of many famous applications should pay attention to the availability of their products for screen access programs.
Very few people know that there are screen access programs (screen readers) that sound whatever action is being performed, any object under the mouse cursor, any key that is pressed using a speech synthesizer. Recently, the press has been trying to cover this issue, but in all cases one screen access program is mentioned - “JAWS for windows”, which has modest features and a high price.
In fact, there are many similar programs on a non-commercial basis, the functionality of which sometimes even exceeds the capabilities of paid analogs. However, this article is not about this, but about how various gadgets help people with visual impairments and the availability of many applications and services for screen access programs.
A bit of history
When the first computers appeared, no one thought about how they would be used by the blind. The computer was a device for the elite, demanded serious training, a huge knowledge base and skills. But when computers became available to the average user and began to appear in the homes of every third, the question arose of how, without seeing the screen, to use all the features of the device. Two answers immediately come to mind: by ear and touch. And both of these options were implemented. At the hearing, it became possible to use a computer with the help of those screen-access programs, and touch it with the help of the so-called “Braille displays”. This name in itself can be incomprehensible to many, because not everyone knows what Braille is. This is a font in which each character corresponds to a combination of one or several (up to six, and in a computer version - up to ten) points. But braille displays are rather cumbersome and require specific drivers, so they are often used on computers in specialized institutions for people with visual impairments. But screen readers work almost everywhere, and do not require a powerful processor or drivers. We’ll finish the story with this and move on to the main problem, the headache of all blind people - accessibility of applications for screen access programs.
')
A little bit about how to display information
Those who participated in creating at least one GUI application know that there are, in fact, two ways to display content on the screen: using the environment in which the program runs (Windows Forms on Windows, XML and HTML on Android, .. .) and displaying information using the program’s own resources. If the first option is fully supported by screen access programs, as they use system metadata, then the second method is absolutely unavailable for screen readers. For them, the screen remains pristine clean, because the virtual cursor of the screen reader cannot find a single object, the description of which can be obtained.
But, unfortunately, many developers follow the second path. This happens for various reasons: someone wants to make their application more comfortable visually, which is not always possible to achieve by system methods, someone wants to minimize the use of platform-specific code.
More specifics
Take a few programs from different categories.
Navigator
A blind person needs to be able to move independently around the city: go grocery shopping, come to visit friends, visit museums, etc. Having learned to use a smartphone, he immediately tries to download a high-quality navigator with the most detailed information about the route.
The first two applications in the Play Market for the query “Navigator” are Yandex Navigator and CityGuide. Put both.
Open to start Yandex Navigator. Visually, everything is very convenient: a comfortable menu, beautiful icons, a nice looking map. For a blind person who does not see all this, the main screen of the application is a search string, not even signed as a “search”, and an obscure button, also not named.
Ok, open CityGuide. In general, all the same: a convenient, nice looking application. However, for the blind, this application is a completely blank screen. If Yandex Navigator at least allows you to try to enter an address, then in CityGuide it is impossible.
As a result, for a visually impaired person, two applications with a very mediocre pedestrian mode remain: Google Maps and OsmAnd.
Social Network Clients
Everyone wants to communicate, and the blind are no exception.
In contact with
The standard VK client was quite convenient, both visually and for the blind, but the last major update reduced its availability to almost zero. The main menu, caused by a swipe from the left edge of the screen, a news menu or wall posts, caused by a swipe from a certain point on the right edge of the screen (this point needs to be seen), cause difficulties. In general, you have to use the third-party application "Kate Mobile", the developer of which is very sensitive to accessibility from the very beginning, and now hears advice from the blind.
The web version of VK, by the way, is not bad framed in terms of readability by screen speakers, and here I personally have no complaints.
Telegram
Not everyone uses it, but almost everyone has heard of it. Positions itself as one of the most comfortable social networks for communication. But with the availability is quite a disaster. The web version is unreadable by more than two-thirds of screen readers. Mobile apps for iOS and Android are even less accessible. The main menu is read in one container, the entire main page and the chat page are also read as a single text, from which you simply do not select the desired line.
Whatsapp and viber
Many thanks to the developer WhatsApp, availability at the height. Even the majority of emoticons are voiced. Viber is almost as available.
Facebook and Facebook Messenger
Both of these applications are made in the same way and have the same problems: too frequent and meaningless screen updates, knocking down and causing the virtual cursor of the screen reader to hang, and incorrect signatures on some buttons. You can use it, but there are difficulties.
Skype
Until the last major update, everything was terrible: crazy hangs, with or without a screen reader, frequent and meaningless screen updates, unsigned buttons ... But after the update, everything became much better. Nothing slows down, everything is read, and even the most uncomfortable, opening right over the chat menu now also read.
The Windows version of the application is available at about 95%, which is good news. But the Linux version has huge availability issues.
An application with many features and almost zero availability. The problems are the same as for Skype and Facebook.
KakaoTalk
Koreans on top. The application even has an accessibility mode, in which everything that is not available in standard ways, the program itself sends directly to the screen reader. Probably the most comfortable communication app after “Kate Mobile”.
Browsers
By themselves, browsers scold or praise almost no sense. Chrome and Firefox on Android, Safari on iOS, Firefox on Windows are fully available. Chrome for Windows is also almost completely voiced, but it has known problems that no one hurries to fix.
Here it is necessary, rather, to pay attention to the availability of individual sites. For example, the portal "State Services" in terms of accessibility is almost zero. You can work with him, but there are problems, but when it comes to documents and money, I really do not want to press something wrong. In fact, the sites of many private companies, online games, large and even small manufacturers are announced many times better than the state resource.
Administration and programming
Yes, there are programmers among the blind too, and they also want to work comfortably. Such a well-known development environment, like Visual Studio, is accessible by no more than 50%. Another popular editor, QT Creator, is only voiced by 10%, with only the menu and some buttons available.
Text editors
Microsoft office is fully adapted for screen access programs, and there are no complaints about it. But on Android and iOS, everything is sad. Polaris office is not available at all, other programs from completely different developers also do not sound. I'm not talking about writing huge texts and advanced formatting, but just reading the document is also unrealistic.
Results
Let's sum up. Smartphones and computers greatly help blind people in life, expand their capabilities. But developers of many famous applications should pay attention to the availability of their products for screen access programs.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/334982/
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