----------------------- Mail item text follows ---------------
To: Interested Persons
From: Curtis Chong
USIDS002 AT IBMMAIL
Internet: USIDS002@IBMMAIL.COM
Subject: Stuff from Gregg Vanderheiden
I received the following from Gregg Vanderheiden at the Trace Center. Comments
are appreciated. His Internet address is shown at the end of the material.
Thanks.
Excerpts Regarding
Access to Next Generation Information Systems
taken from a recent Trace Center proposal
..c.::3) Emerging Information Systems and Appliances
The third area of technology to which this RERC is directed is
one that exists now only in its infancy, but which will, as it
matures, emerge even more rapidly than did personal computers.
This is in part because the costs will be lower. Also, the
information systems will be designed to be very user-friendly,
they will address the information needs of daily living of a much
broader range of people, and, in some cases, will be delivered
directly into our homes. As a result, these technologies are
likely to affect the lives of a greater number of people with
disabilities, who currently do not access or use personal
computers in their daily lives.
Technologies encompassed by this area include public information
devices such as:
- automated teller machines which let you deposit and withdraw
money, pay bills, transfer money between accounts, or check
balances from locations which are convenient to your home, work,
or shopping;
- point-of-sale transaction systems such as those found at
your grocery store, which allow you to pay for your groceries
electronically without having to handle cash or write checks;
- electronic building directories, used more and more often as
a way for people to locate shops or offices in a large building;
- kiosks or information terminals at airports and elsewhere,
which allow you to do everything from purchasing tickets, to
booking reservations, to locating nearby hotels or restaurants,
to purchasing gifts and having them automatically sent to your
loved ones.
This category also includes an area which might be characterized
as "electronic information systems." These are not individual
electronic devices themselves, but rather national electronic
information systems which will be evolving in the near future
from a number of different existing and new technologies and
networks. These systems will be based on a network of inter-
related and inter-connected information sources and services.
The information/transaction systems will allow people to seek out
a very wide variety of information, as well as to carry out
transactions electronically. Like our telephone system, they
will allow people to connect from almost anywhere, and to access
information from an enormous variety of sources, as well as to
carry out transactions directly over the system. To get an idea
for what this might look like, and how it might operate, imagine
that every place where there is now a telephone, there will be a
"telephone" with a display screen. Using one of these
"information appliances" (in any location), you would be able to:
- Ask for the weather report for any location at any time;
- Get a listing of all of the movies playing in town, their
times, and locations;
- When travelling, find the location of the nearest restaurant
that serves a particular type of food, and book a reservation;
- Book flights on an airplane, including the ability to look
at the seating arrangement and pick out an empty seat;
- Find out if anybody in any near (or distant) town is selling
a particular make or model (or year or color) of car you'd like
to buy;
- Shop, compare prices, purchase and have food delivered to
your door;
- Pay all of your bills;
- Compose messages consisting of voice, text, or drawings, and
send them to anyone else (and have them receive the messages
wherever they are at the moment);
- Receive the latest news on the topic of your choice at any
time and at your convenience;
- Get reviews of movies, books, cars, appliances, or anything
else that you would like information about;
- Access any one of a million databases covering topics such
as products, services, funding information, "how-to" information,
self-help, advocacy, etc.;
- Make queries to experts on various topics.
It is quite evident that the potential for people with various
disabilities to be able to access all of these and other services
in an efficient manner would be of tremendous advantage. It
could allow them to much more efficiently carry out many of the
routine activities of daily living that currently occupy a much
greater portion of their time than that of their able-bodied
peers. It could also provide them with much greater
opportunities to access a wide variety of specialized information
dealing with disability, which in turn would help them to better
understand their options and take action to increase their
opportunities and ability to lead more independent and fulfilling
lives.
The fact that such information systems are just over the horizon
is not in question. Many of these capabilities already exist
through specialized information systems such as GEnie, Prodigy,
CompuServe, and America On-Line. To access them, however, you
currently need to use personal computers, modems, and
communication software. This leaves many of these services
beyond the reach of most consumers, who either do not have or do
not know how to operate such devices.
However, the next generation of information appliances (which are
already being prototyped) would allow access to all of this
information by people who have never touched a computer
(Vanderheiden, 1990). By using simple-to-use and "obvious"
interface and interaction strategies, it is possible to allow
people to access these information systems with about the same
amount of technical prowess as it takes to operate a television
set (and far less than it takes to operate the advanced functions
on a VCR).
One such system was demonstrated by a major telephone company at
a recent special session on telecommunications at the 1992 RESNA
conference. Unfortunately, all of this ease of use came at a
price. The system demonstrated would be inaccessible to anyone
who was blind, had low vision, or had a severe physical
impairment (see Figure 1). Other similar systems suffer from the
same problem (see Figure 2). Conversely, those systems that are
easily accessible to people with physical or sensory disabilities
tend to be difficult to use for anyone with a cognitive
impairment, or even less-than-average technical prowess. Those
that are easy to use and mass marketable have been inaccessible.
..Begin text description of Figure 1.
This is a series of three figures, each of which shows an actual
screen from a prototype simulation of a next-generation
information system generated by Southwestern Bell Corporation.
On each screen, there is a column on the left-hand side for
navigating within the system. At the top of this column is head-
and-shoulders picture of a man, which acts as an on-line guide
and agent to assist the user. Users can direct the agent to
screen incoming messages, search and monitor on-line databases
and electronic bulletin boards, and even negotiate purchase
prices of items sold through electronic marketplaces, among other
things. When the agent has information to pass on to the user,
it speaks in an animated way, as if having a conversation with
the user. Below the agent are buttons that will take the user to
the ELECTRONIC MARKETPLACE (where you can buy or sell anything
you can think of), VIDEO SERVICES (where you can preview movies,
read their reviews, and download them to view), NEWS SERVICES
(where you can get the latest news on any topics of interest),
TRAVEL MARKET (where you can handle all travel arrangements), and
a LIBRARY (where you have an electronic librarian and library at
your fingertips). Also included is a PERSONALIZE button to allow
you to set up the system to meet your needs, such as what news
stories the agent should alert the user to. Pressing one of
these buttons takes you immediately to that area of the
information service. The final button in the column is the EXIT
button.
Figures 1a and 1b show two screens from the TRAVEL MARKET.
Figure 1c shows a screen from the NEWS SERVICES.
..Begin text description of Figure 1a.
Figure 1a shows a view from within the TRAVEL MARKET. After you
tell the system where and when you want to fly, it will give you
a list of possible flights. When you choose one, it takes you to
this screen, where you select a seat. The screen shows a
schematic of an airplane, seen from overhead, showing all of the
seats, the exits, and which seats are smoking or non-smoking.
Information as to the type of plane, the flight number, and
departure and arrival times is shown underneath the schematic.
Seats that are already reserved are darkened. You can pick your
seat by simply pointing to the seat that you want, and then
pressing the ACCEPT button; that seat will be reserved for you.
A set of buttons to the left of the airplane schematic allow
direct access to a variety of travel-related information,
including Hot, Hot|| (for news on special opportunities, such as
last-minute openings on tours), World Map, Tour Packages,
Airlines, and Car Rental.
..End text description of Figure 1a.
..Begin text description of Figure 1b.
This screen is also one of the TRAVEL MARKET screens. It shows a
London street map. Hotels and sites of interest are marked on
the map. Clicking on any of the labels will give you more
information about the site or hotel represnted by the label.
Included are digital images of the tourist attraction or of the
hotel room, respectively. Reservations for the hotel rooms can
be made from this screen. You can ask for a 2-mile radius circle
to give a listing of sites of interest or hotels within 2 miles
of any point of interest you select. This screen also has the
set of buttons to the left of the map to allow direct access to a
variety of travel-related information, including Hot, Hot||,
World Map, Tour Packages, Airlines, and Car Rental.
..End text description of Figure 1b.
..Begin text description of Figure 1c.
This screen shows a view from within the NEWS SERVICES. In this
instance, the system has put together a custom newspaper based on
the kinds of news items the user (Bob) has told the service he
would like to read. The system will comb all of the news
services, pulling articles from them to construct the custom
newspaper. The custom newspaper is labelled "SBC Personalized
Press," with a 'masthead' indicated that it was prepared for Bob
(the user) on May 26, 1992. Four sections of the newspaper are
available: Technical, Business, Sports, and World Events. They
are shown as stacked on top of one another, with Technical on the
bottom and World Events on the top. Headlines for World Events
are listed, along with icons to indicate whether there is a
longer story or a motion picture clip to accompany the news
brief.
..End text description of Figure 1c.
..End text description of Figure 1.
..Begin text description of Figure 2.
Figure 2 consists of two screens from the Prodigy (tm) on-line
network. Figure 2a shows a weather screen; Figure 2b shows the
"Highlights" screen.
The caption for Figure 2a reads "This is a weather screen from
the popular Prodigy (TM) on-line network. It illustrates how
difficult access to these types of information services can be
for users who are blind. The map image includes some text, yet
cannot be interpreted by standard screen reading software since
the text is "painted" on the screen like a picture.
The caption for Figure 2b reads "In this case, there is a mix of
graphic and text information. As long as the text is code in a
standard format, standard screen reading strategies can be
applied and users who are blind can access the service. However,
the trend is toward more graphics and this does not bode well for
future access to these rapdily expanding information systems.
..end text description for Figure 2.
Since much of this new technology, especially that used in public
systems, will eventually take the form of a dedicated function
device or appliance (similar to a telephone or television), it
will share the characteristics of the first group of fixed-
function devices above. That is, they would normally be designed
with much less flexibility in both their input and output forms
than would the general-purpose computers and systems in
Category 2 (Vanderheiden, Andersen, Mendenhall, & Ford, 1992),
flexible/programmable devices. As a result, there is a
tremendous potential for these systems to be less than fully
accessible, especially for certain disability groups. This would
indeed be unfortunate, since access to these
information/transaction systems can be particularly beneficial
and equalizing for many of these groups, given effective
accessibility strategies. Providing this access, however, is not
just a function of implementing what we already know. In many
cases, we do not know of good mechanisms for providing access for
all types of disability simultaneously. As we noted above,
systems that tend to be more accessible for one type of
disability often tend to be less accessible for others. A
primary need in this area is therefore the development of a
multi-sensory, flexible input and control protocol which is
adaptable to a broad range of different information system
interface designs. This would need to be low-cost, flexible,
allow the use of graphics, and still support use by people with
low vision or blindness.
Fortunately, this new information system as it evolves will need
to be disseminated via common carrier networks, which fall under
the province of the FCC. The combination of this fact and the
existence of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) will
provide considerable leverage for implementing these access
interface strategies when they are finally developed. A lot of
work needs to be done, however, to develop such strategies, and
if we do not move swiftly and surely in this area, it is
genuinely possible that the infrastructure and initial systems
will be in manufacture prior to the rehabilitation field being
able to define and develop effective and efficient cross-
disability access strategies. It is also possible that the
Federal regulations will only cover the communication channels,
and may not entirely cover the human interface on the individual
communication appliances (which may vary in form and format as
much as telephones do today).
In summary, the new generation of information systems and
accompanying information access appliances will have tremendous
potential for facilitating the lives of people with disabilities
if they are accessible. The systems are rapidly heading toward
implementation, and we as a field have not yet developed, tested,
and proven any inter-disability compatible interface strategies
that are capable of being reliably and economically implemented
on a mass scale, and that would also be able to provide access to
people with a very wide variety of type, degree, and combination
of disability.
..c.::Seamless Access Project
Objective: The objective of this project is to create an
interface protocol (a defined way for the input and output
systems to behave) which can be used across a wide variety of
electronic information and transaction devices, and which will
support flexibility for input and output to allow individuals
with a wide range of disabilities to directly use the devices.
Requirements on this solution are many, and include:
1) The protocol must not interfere with the ability to make
systems attractive and easy to use by people without disabilities
(or it won't be accepted);
2) It must allow people with a very wide range of disabilities
to access and use the systems in basically the same way, and
including the same services, as people without disabilities;
3) It must not require that the person with a disability own
any particular assistive technology in order to operate the
systems they encounter.
Background: Over the next five to ten years, we are going to be
seeing a rapid proliferation of public and home information
systems/appliances. These will include a) kiosks in airports,
shopping malls, transportation centers, and other public
locations; b) increased use of information terminals in public
libraries, companies, and educational programs; c) advances in
the design, ease of use, and versatility of personal information
systems based on personal computers; and d) the introduction of
flexible, very easy-to-use personal information appliances in
conjunction with telephone or interactive television systems. At
the same time, software programs are going to be playing a larger
and larger role in educational and employment settings. There
will be hardly any subject taught which will not have lessons,
research, or supplemental material which is made available via
computers or information systems. This movement will begin
slowly at first, with a couple of fits and starts, and then will
pick up speed as the information base and presentation format
become practical and easy to use.
As this happens, those individuals who have disabilities will
either find this form of information gathering and presentation
much more accessible than previous forms (if these systems are
accessible) , or face additional barriers (if these systems are
inaccessible or only partially accessible).
The traditional approach for providing access to information
systems has generally been through the use of add-on adaptations
or assistive devices. This has been possible because the systems
were largely personal computers with hardware and software
architectures which allowed them to be easily patched or adapted.
Many of the new information/transaction systems, however, will be
public in nature, and will not afford the opportunity for
individuals to come up and patch in modifications to them to
access them. For these systems, some type of built-in
accessibility will need to be provided so that people with
disabilities (including blindness) can access the systems as they
encounter them.
Working with industry and other researchers, we have identified
individual strategies which will allow people with a wide range
of disabilities to access information systems. The objective of
the Seamless Interface Protocol project is to develop an
integrated cross-disability interface protocol which can adjust
to the needs of different users.
Although the principal need for the Seamless Interface Protocol
was seen as access to public or shared information systems by
people with disabilities, as we began to explore this area we
also found that the computer/operating system companies were
running into a similar need for their standard systems.
Progress to Date: This is an area we have just begun to explore.
It brings together much of the work and strategies that we have
been developing for computer access, but it presents a number of
new and unique problems as well. Among them are:
- The need to support access by individuals with a wide
variety of disabilities in some consistent fashion across
disabilities.
- The need for the protocol to be applicable across systems
with a wide variety of input forms (e.g,. keyboard, touchscreen,
etc.). (The goal is to have a protocol which will allow people
to approach many different kinds of information systems, some
with touchscreens, some with keyboards, etc., and have them all
operate in some fairly consistent and predictable fashion.)
- The need to support displays with heavy use of graphics, on-
screen buttons, etc., even by people who are blind.
- The need to allow individuals with low vision to access the
screens without having to constantly search (e.g., the system
protocol must provide some mechanism for allowing the individual
to easily determine and select from the options available at any
given time, without having to search or "pan" around to find
them).
- The protocol must support provisions which would minimize
cognitive load.
- It must be usable by individuals with impaired motor
systems.
- The overall mode for operating the system should be
essentially the same for all users, and provide full access to
all features of the system.
- The operation of the protocol should generalizable (e.g., an
individual who is blind and used a keyboard-based system which
followed the protocol should be able to access and use a
touchscreen-based system that also uses the protocol).
A key element in this approach is the seamlessness of the
protocol. We are referring to something as seamless if the
adaptations that are made are incremental and do not change the
basic way that the system operates, but simply change the way the
input or output device behaves to make them more compatible with
the individual's abilities. Perhaps the best way to exemplify a
seamless access method is to describe a system that is not.
Recently, there was an attempt to make touchscreen-based
automated teller machines accessible to people who are blind. In
this case, rather than providing a seamless approach which was
consistent with the normal operation of the terminal, a totally
different interface was developed for use by persons who are
blind. In the regular mode, the individuals using the terminal
would be presented with instructions and "pushbuttons" on the
screen which they could use to enter information: the amount they
would like to withdraw, etc. The blind mode, however, was quite
different. First, it divided the screen into four quadrants,
which the person who was blind would have to imagine, since there
were no tactile boundaries. The individual would then have to
memorize (from braille or taped instructions) what the four
choices were. Pressing one of the quadrants would cause the
individual to move to the next stage, where four more choices
were presented. Each time the individual went deeper into the
structure, a different number of beeps was emitted. When it came
time to enter the security code, the individual who was blind
would enter each digit of the code separately, tapping on the
screen the appropriate number of times for the first digit, then
pausing, then tapping on the screen the appropriate number of
times for the second digit, etc., for the full security code.
(This is also the method that was used for entering the dollar
amounts.) Although the strategy did meet one of its prime design
criteria (it did provide some way a blind person could use the
terminal without making any changes other than software),
1) it did not allow the individual who was blind to operate the
terminal in the same way as everyone else;
2) it did not allow the person who was blind to have the full
range of services that were available to others;
3) it required a much higher cognitive load, both in terms of
memory and processing to operate the device;
4) it was much less efficient;
5) it did not optimize presentation of information to match the
abilities of the person who was blind.
With the Seamless Interface Protocol, the person who was blind
would have been able to access and use the same screens of
information as the sighted person. No memorization of commands,
or their locations on the different screens, would have been
required, and access to the full services of the terminal would
have been available.
Status: Reaction from computer and information companies to our
preliminary work and discussions have been very positive. These
discussions, however, have also pointed out some of the
complexities that will be encountered in trying to accommodate
the very wide variety of input and display systems which are
expected. The basic underlying model, however, appears to be
sound, and it is believed (and hoped) that it is largely a matter
of carefully working out solutions for specific display
techniques, developing the standard protocols for various types
of information display, and working to identify which alternate
display conventions will in fact be most efficient for both
novice and experienced users with disabilities. The only way to
confirm this, however, will be to test the strategy by trying to
apply it across a broad range of programs and input and display
techniques. In addition, experiments need to be conducted to
determine which of the several alternate display techniques will
in fact be easier for users both with and without disabilities.
Gregg
Gregg Vanderheiden
Internet VANDERHE@vms.macc.wisc.edu
Cordially, Curtis Chong (CURTC)
Communication Software Support Group (CSSG) Phone: 612/671-2185
IDS Financial Services, IDS Tower-10, OP4/591
Minneapolis, MN 55440
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