2007 PhD Thesis Final Revised.pdf - Curtin University

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When providing accessibility tools, all of the corporations’ representatives indicated that products go above and beyond the legal requirement for accessibility. The representative from Microsoft indicated that the corporation has a policy regarding accessibility development. The policy states that “…as our operating system and applications evolve, (they) will become more accessible. Every Microsoft employer must deliver on that commitment.” The Apple representative indicated that the company only took six months to two years into the future for accessibility development, but believes its recent accessibility efforts with Mac OS 10.x reflect the effectiveness of this method of development. However, the reality is that some corporations only provide minimal accessibility to comply with Section 508. Microsoft, which provides the world’s leading OS, acknowledges that it has only put in minimal support so that the AT vendors can provide a fully-fledged product. The Magnifier program built into Windows XP, for example, provides a message: Magnifier is intended to provide a minimum level of functionality for users with slight visual impairments. Most users with visual impairments will need a magnification utility program with higher functionality for daily use. The Narrator program contains a similar message. The Microsoft representative indicated that this is necessary due to its close relationship with the AT providers. Sapey (2000) views this type of collusion between the manufactures, the assistive technology providers and welfare agencies who distribute the technology as a significant part of the problem. This chain allows for organisations at every level to maintain control and profit from people with disabilities. In addition, the provision of comprehensive accessibility tools is extremely important when computers are being used in public places, such as libraries, where there are no opportunities to install custom AT products. Microsoft in particular has been in some legal difficulties in recent times over its perceived inaction in delivering effective accessibility tools in its OS. Microsoft was widely criticised in 1998 by welfare agencies for releasing Internet Explore 4.0 which was inaccessible with most AT products. This was rectified shortly after with the introduction of version 4.01 (Barrett & LeDuc, 1998). Furthermore, at the time 121
of writing, Microsoft is being sued by US lobby groups because of fundamental accessibility flaws in its OS which are believed to be not Section 508 compliant. Microsoft accessibility director Madelyn Bryant acknowledged the oversight, which is particularly significant to people with vision disabilities and has vowed to rectify the problem (Royal National Institute of the Blind, 2003a). On occasions when accessibility tools are effectively provided in operating systems, such as the change in mouse arrow size or colour scheme in most GUI environments, they provide a significant level of functionality to people with disabilities. As such it is interesting to note that there have been some significant movements in recent times in improving the accessibility tools within operating systems. Apple, for example, has introduced many new accessibility tools to its OS. Its fully featured screen magnification and recent text-to-speech programs have stirred much interest amongst blind and vision impaired people because it removes the need to purchase expensive AT equipment. Although Microsoft’s accessibility tools have remained unchanged for a number of years, the development team for the next version of Windows, to be known as Windows Vista, has mentioned that there has been a recent move to improve the accessibility of the API modules which is a promising sign for people with disabilities. In terms of the UNIX-style OS, the text-based interface can be made easily accessible, but the lack of support for the GUI interface, on which the OS is becoming increasingly dependent, means that UNIX could potentially become largely inaccessible. As a result it can be observed that the OS development process itself also has a bearing on the level of accessibility. The policy of Microsoft Windows is very restrictive in allowing programmers access to the source code of the OS. The policy of Linux, on the other hand, has very few restrictions on access to the source code. The policy of Apple is a combination of the two approaches. It maintains propriety control on certain elements of the OS but allows open source development for much of the OS because of the UNIX-based nature of the product. 122
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Faculty of Media, Society and Cultu
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ABSTRACT People with disabilities,
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3.0 ELEMENTS OF THE DISABILITY DIVI
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APPENDIX A: PERSONAL INTERVIEWS....
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The following orga
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INTRODUCTION Purpose of the study A
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! Are computing and Internet-relate
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disabilities in the workforce. As a
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entertainment package and, at worst
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Chapter 6, The provision of operati
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Australia, approximately four milli
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which people with disabilities perc
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dependence (J. Wilson & Wilson, 200
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economic model complements the righ
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ole of people with disabilities, go
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time. Policy and resulting legislat
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improved, funds were now available
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United Nations (UN) during the Inte
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actions and participation is connec
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occasional struggle for people with
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lindness within society also create
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communication. This chapter contrib
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seen as applicable to the developme
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Although clear-path and object-anal
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easily interpret text, making the A
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interface in their next OS release.
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networks so that there is exchange
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of information largely inaccessible
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again become sufficiently accessibl
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Figure 3.1 Household Computer or In
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of tertiary education compound the
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desire to repair the inferior body
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computing firms seemed to take issu
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an operating environment which was
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accessible and compatible with AT p
Page 71 and 72: cater for the needs of this group.
Page 73 and 74: 4.2 Methodology for personal interv
Page 75 and 76: ! Steger, John. Senior Consultant,
Page 77 and 78: All of these points were used with
Page 79 and 80: ates improved significantly due to
Page 81 and 82: (f) to assist in achieving positive
Page 83 and 84: disability-related discrimination i
Page 85 and 86: was that Section 508 only applied t
Page 87 and 88: in order to combat the disability d
Page 89 and 90: Such views again highlight the inco
Page 91 and 92: vision disabilities must rely on US
Page 93 and 94: 5.0 THE PROVISION OF ONLINE INFORMA
Page 95 and 96: exist but not how to resolve the pr
Page 97 and 98: ace information for the Sydney 2000
Page 99 and 100: Essentially, the SOCOG case present
Page 101 and 102: In terms of finding out what people
Page 103 and 104: devices. The study concluded that t
Page 105 and 106: 6.0 THE PROVISION OF OPERATING SYST
Page 107 and 108: networking infrastructure market, w
Page 109 and 110: Internet were accessible, it could
Page 111 and 112: developer conferences as a good way
Page 113 and 114: 6.3 Disability-specific product ven
Page 115 and 116: company which tries to do everythin
Page 117 and 118: user through to large networks and
Page 119 and 120: with low vision was the addition of
Page 121: The UNIX platform has faced a diffi
Page 125 and 126: character containing two dots. Brai
Page 127 and 128: Figure 6.7 Vario 80 Refreshable Bra
Page 129 and 130: Figure 6.10 Omni Phantom (SensAble
Page 131 and 132: addition there are other input-base
Page 133 and 134: HP, Cisco and IBM have all contribu
Page 135 and 136: ‘upper-echelons’ of users would
Page 137 and 138: such as Vision Australia located at
Page 139 and 140: internal policies reflect the need
Page 141 and 142: arely given the chance to voice the
Page 143 and 144: 1. to demonstrate the ways in which
Page 145 and 146: Section B focused on the use of com
Page 147 and 148: question was to determine the exten
Page 149 and 150: defined opinions in this study. The
Page 151 and 152: the type and significance of an ind
Page 153 and 154: The print and Braille formats were
Page 155 and 156: with 23 telephone interviews and 3
Page 157 and 158: Frequency 100 80 60 40 20 0 Valid 1
Page 159 and 160: Valid Male Female Total Gender Freq
Page 161 and 162: Frequency 200 150 100 50 0 Valid Fu
Page 163 and 164: Valid Degenerative Stable Total Vis
Page 165 and 166: Frequency 100 80 60 40 20 0 Valid M
Page 167 and 168: 7.4.2 Computing and assistive techn
Page 169 and 170: Frequency 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Kno
Page 171 and 172: Frequency 100 80 60 40 20 0 Ability
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Frequency 150 120 90 60 30 0 Valid
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Frequency 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0
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N Valid Missing Familiarity of Inte
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Frequency 125 100 75 50 25 0 Valid
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Frequency 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Val
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Frequency 100 80 60 40 20 0 Valid D
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Internet session will contain a var
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Frequency 250 200 150 100 50 0 Vali
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Frequency 250 200 150 100 50 0 Vali
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Frequency 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Dis
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Frequency 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Gov
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Frequency 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0
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Frequency 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Des
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Frequency 100 80 60 40 20 0 Valid I
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7.4.5 Open-ended comments The Comme
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There were also a number of comment
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8.0 ANALYSIS OF FINDINGS 8.1 Introd
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levels of the working population. A
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the colour scheme question received
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Respondents were fairly evenly spre
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esult indicated that it is likely t
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able to interact with computing and
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Count Ability to Understand and Use
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Ability to Understand and Use a Com
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that knowledge of IT did not necess
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impaired people were not associated
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Count Income Total Income * Cost of
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8.3.5 Disability-specific issues fo
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The final comparison focused on the
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CONCLUSION Addressing the research
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with vision disabilities until the
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ole of this policy, in terms of inf
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een largely resolved in recent time
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vision disabilities perceived the I
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In essence, this study has revealed
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! the creation and implementation o
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Australian Federal Government. (200
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Galitz, W. (2002). Essential Guide
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Lindlif, T. R., & Shatzer, M. J. (1
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Stubbins, J. (1977). Social and Psy
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Zakon, R. (2002, 1 April). Hobbes'
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ETHICS APPROVAL: products and servi
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Name: _ Signature: Date: authorizat
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13. In the United States, the Rehab
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8. Do you perceive that people with
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Title: Department: Organisation: Ye
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18. In your opinion, are educationa
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e found at http://www.vipsurvey.org
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[ ] 2 Living in shared accommodatio
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[ ] 1 Screen magnification software
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24. My ability to use the Internet
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process which I mastered by myself:
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! 5.2 For data tables that have two
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! 10.5 Until user agents (including
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IBM International Business Machines
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