[Accessibleweb] Minutes: AccessibleWeb@U meeting, September 20, 2007

[Rick Ells]

Minutes: Accessibleweb at U September 20, 2007
-  Present: Dan Comden, Pace Arko, Harry Hayward, Ryan Becker, Melody
    Winkle, Rita Johnson, Rick Ells, David Cox
-  Is iTunes keyboard navigable?
      -  Pretty much, with some inconsistencies
           -  Access the top menu items with ALT codes (i.e., Alt-F
              selects the File menu)
           -  Move back and forth among menu items (File, Edit,
              Controls, etc.) using the left and right arrow keys
           -  Move up and down within the menu item with up and down
              arrow keys
                -  Select an item by pressing Enter
           -  Jump to top of left menu by pressing ESC
           -  Some items in left menu spontaneously evoke pop-up windows
      -  A sighted person with disabilities or dexterity limitations
         should be able to use iTunes
-  Is iTunes accessible?
      -  ITunes itself does not seem to interact with standard adaptive
         technology for the blind such as JAWS
         (http://www.freedomscientific.com/fs_products/software_jaws.asp)
          and Window-Eyes (http://www.gwmicro.com/Window-Eyes/)
           -  Script libraries (such as J-Tunes described below) can
              provide a degree of interactivity
           -  Apple is not providing API hooks that adaptive technology
              can use to interact with the user interface
                -  Microsoft products generally use the Microsoft Active
                   Accessibility technology
                   (http://www.washington.edu/accessit?1147)  and
                   Microsoft User Interface Automation
                   (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms788733.asp
                   x)
                     -  JAWS and Window-Eyes can interact with MSAA and
                        MSUIA
                -  Apple seems to be simply transplanting their code
                   into a Windows application without providing for
                   interactivity with adaptive technology for the blind.
                -  Why would Apple ignore standard AT for the blind?
                     -  Apple may not want to use Windows methods
                     -  Extreme pressure for rapid product development
                          -  Groups within Apple developing products,
                             not sensitive to issues like accessibility
                          -  After product release, the product is
                             tweaked to deal with lower priority
                             customer needs and expectations ("launch
                             and fix")
           -  A blind person could learn procedures by rote, but is not
              getting any feedback that would allow more interaction
              with the iTunes interface
      -  ITunes has multiple interfaces
           -  "Cover flow" interface, iconically driven, visual
              navigation
                -  Good for some disabilities
           -  Apple generally going toward visual, iconic interfaces
-  Guest: Pace Arko (jsay at ngtvoice.com)
      -  Provides local support for J-Tunes Accessible Interface for
         JAWS scripts
      -  Company site: http://www.ngtvoice.com/
      -  J-Tunes access to iTunes with JAWS for Windows
           -  http://www.ngtvoice.com/products/software/tandt/jtunes.htm
           -  Scripts developed by T&T Consultancy in UK
              (http://www.tandt-consultancy.com/itunesscripts.html)
      -  J-Tunes uses scripts written to JAWS
           -  iTunes does not provide the hooks that J-Tunes can
              recognize
           -  Scripts based on what JAWS sees when it interacts with
              iTunes interface
                -  "I am here on screen, its blue, it must be the iTunes
                   library"
                -  J-Tunes is nvulnerable to iTunes updates that make
                   substantial changes in interface layout.
                -  Only works on specific, recent  versions of JAWS
           -  Short product upgrade cycles
      -  Demonstration of installation of J-Tunes showed some of the
         problems of such third-party aids
           -  Installation process is complicated.
           -  Heavy JAWS users often tweak the configuration as they
              move among applications
                -  Variations among applications mean JAWS users
                   constantly adjust JAWS configuration depending on the
                   character of each app interface
           -  Blind often define their own key stroke combinations for
              frequent tasks
           -  Configuration variation and key stroke combinations can
              easily conflict with scripting like J-Tunes.
      -  Emphasizes the value of Apple paying more attention to API
         hooks that adaptive technology can interact with
      -  J-Tunes does not "fix" iTunes
           -  Without API hooks, any scripting solution is a kludge
-  Content on iTunes: Captioning
      -  Problem with iTunes is anybody can do it
           -  May not see the value or have the budget for captioning
      -  Anyone who is creating video content for the Web needs to
         consider captioning
           -  Latest iPods support captioning - classic, nano, touch
      -  QuickTime can include captioning
      -  Providing an audio-only stream to required content, without
         captioning, is a problem
           -  Non-native English speakers rely on captioning
      -  Huge demand for on-the-fly speech recognition voice-to-text
           -  Dragon Naturally Speaking
              (http://www.nuance.com/naturallyspeaking/) guarantees
              80-90% accuracy
                -  To work well, sound quality must be good, minimal
                   background noise, and good consistent enunciation of
                   words
                     -  Get highest accuracy when you train a profile of
                        speaker's voice
                     -  Different subject matter has different
                        vocabularies
                -  Still want to have an editor go back and clean it up
           -  Bill Corrigan worked on captioning process for online
              courses, but did not have good results



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