Last February I circulated materials concerning our screen
review program evaluation project. They included a set of
guidelines for reviewers to follow.
At the time, we made the decision not to tackle Microsoft
Windows access products at this time. This was primarily a
manpower thing, or should I say "person power." Anyway, Dr.
Jernigan has approved the spending of some money to enlist Mr.
Frank DiPalermo to assist with this project. As many of you will
know, Frank worked for IBM for many years and is now a private
consultant. He was the planner for Screen Reader/2, among other
things, and did a fine job.
He is now a part of this mailing list, so is reading all of
this. As an aside, (some of you may be interested,) Frank will
also be doing some part-time work for IBM on their project to
make AIX, their version of graphical Unix, accessible, so we will
finally see some movement on that front.
Anyway, we need to develop a set of standards for the
evaluation of graphically-based software access products. I hope
that some of you will have some input, ideas, etc., via this
mailing list.
Below is the original text I wrote about the evaluation of
DOS-based screen access products. At its conclusion I will
discuss what Frank and I have planned to date, then I will seek
your input.
The draft reviews are due on June 1, 1994, and should be
from five to eight print pages in length. The reviews should be
written in a narrative style and should cover the following
points/criteria:
1. General description: How does the program work? How are
commands laid out? What is the logic? Description?
2. What speech synthesizers are supported? Is indexing
supported and how well does it work? Does it shut up the
synthesizer efficiently and quickly?
3. Requirements: Are there any hardware and/or software
requirements? Version of DOS, etc.?
4. Installation: How do you install it? Is it easy? Do you
need sighted assistance? Can you do it if you don't already have
some speech up?
5. Memory requirements: How much memory does it take? Can it
be moved high? Can it run in expanded or extended memory? Can
you reduce the memory footprint? Can you remove it from memory?
6. Navigation: How do you navigate around the screen? Discuss
reading units, character, word, sentence, line, paragraph,
screen, entire document, etc. Review Mode? Audio cursor? Can
you route the real cursor or the review/audio cursor?
7. Settings: How do you set things: speech rate, tone, pitch,
punctuation level, capitalization alert, etc.?
8. Configuring: Do you need to configure? How do you do it?
How difficult is it? How do you define windows, silent areas,
monitors etc.?
9. Monitoring: Can it monitor different areas of the screen and
notify you of changes? How do you set it up? How well does it
work? What options are there, beeping, chaining windows, etc.?
10. Alternative cursors: Can the program track an alternate
cursor, highlight bar, ASCII character, soft cursor, etc.? How
do you set it up? How well does it work?
11. Attributes: How do you identify attributes: background and
foreground color, extended ASCII characters, highlighted text,
bold and/or underlined text, etc.? How can you use this
information?
12. Searching: Can you search for things on the screen,
character strings, attributes, etc.? How well does it work?
What can you do with it?
13. Keyboard: How is the key response? Are there keyboard
conflicts and how can you get around them? Is there a pass-
through key? Can you tell if the caps lock key is down? Can you
find out the status of other toggle keys?
14. Macros: Does the program have built-in macro capability?
If so, describe. Is there provision for macros from an external
program?
15. Pre-defined configurations: Does the program come with pre-
defined configurations for popular software packages? If so, how
many and what? Are there other configurations available via the
company, dealers, or a BBS? How well do any available
configurations work?
16. Autoloading: Does the program autoload configurations? If
so, how does it work, and how well does it work? If not, what
other provision is there?
17. Pronunciation: Can you change how things are pronounced?
Is there an exceptions dictionary? If so, how does it work, and
how well does it work?
18. Responsiveness: How responsive is the software? Does it
require a fast machine? Does it eat up lots of CPU cycles? Does
it adversely affect other applications? Can it run with a
multitasker such as Double DOS or DESQVIEW?
19. Support for sighted people: Do the menus appear on the
screen, or just in speech? How well does it help a sighted
assistant, highlighting review cursor, etc.? Can it easily be
shut up if a sighted person must use your computer?
20. Documentation: How is the documentation? What formats does
it come in? How good is it?
21. On-line help: Is there on-line help? How does it work?
How good is it? Is it context sensitive?
22. Technical support: Is there technical support and help
available from the company? Is it toll-free? How good is it?
If I have left anything out, please let me know.
Sincerely,
David Andrews, Director
International Braille and Technology
Center for the Blind
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
Among other things, we will be evaluating how Slimware
Window Bridge, ProTalk for Windows, WinVision, Windows Master and
Screen Reader/2 work with the best-selling Windows applications.
We have purchased the following software packages:
1. Lotus SmartSuite for Windows, (Ami Pro, Lotus 1-2-3, ec.)
2. Describe for OS/2
3. Microsoft Office Professional, (Microsoft Word, Excel, etc.)
4. Procomm for Windows
5. WordScan Plus for Windows Version 2 (Calera Recognition
Systems)
6. Borland Office 2.0 (WordPerfect for Windows, Quattro Pro,
Paradox, etc.)
8. Quicken for Windows
9. Money for Windows: Microsoft
10. CompuServe Windows Kit
This should give us plenty of the top-selling Windows software to
evaluate access products with.
The above software, access products, and a 486 computer have
been loaned, and sent to Frank DiPalermo. He is going to set up
the application software and familiarize himself with it, without
using any access products. This will give him a baseline of
comparison.
Below are my thoughts on changing the review criteria to
work for graphical interfaces.
1. General description: How does the program work? How are
commands laid out? What is the logic? Description?
This item needs no changes.
2. What speech synthesizers are supported? Is indexing
supported and how well does it work? Does it shut up the
synthesizer efficiently and quickly?
This item needs no changes.
3. Requirements: Are there any hardware and/or software
requirements? Version of DOS, etc.?
This item needs no changes.
4. Installation: How do you install it? Is it easy? Do you
need sighted assistance? Can you do it if you don't already have
some speech up?
Additiona questions: Do you need to have Microsoft Windows pre-
installed? Can you use the access package to install Windows?
5. Memory requirements: How much memory does it take? Can it
be moved high? Can it run in expanded or extended memory? Can
you reduce the memory footprint? Can you remove it from memory?
This question may be partially irrelavant, as Windows handles
much memory stuff automatically. However, it may not completely
be so, as the screen review program may affect your DOS use.
6. Navigation: How do you navigate around the screen? Discuss
reading units, character, word, sentence, line, paragraph,
screen, entire document, etc. Review Mode? Audio cursor? Can
you route the real cursor or the review/audio cursor?
We would need to add information about the Mouse Pointer here.
Do you use it? How do you find it? Can you move it, etc.?
7. Settings: How do you set things: speech rate, tone, pitch,
punctuation level, capitalization alert, etc.?
There are probably no changes needed in this item.
8. Configuring: Do you need to configure? How do you do it?
How difficult is it? How do you define windows, silent areas,
monitors etc.?
We will need to add things about defining unknown icons and other
graphical objects? Also, the need to configure for Windows
applications, etc.?
9. Monitoring: Can it monitor different areas of the screen and
notify you of changes? How do you set it up? How well does it
work? What options are there, beeping, chaining windows, etc.?
Some of this is going to be unimportant in Windows. However,
additions could include, does it read dialog boxes automatically,
other messages, wizzards and other text items that appear on
screen at different places?
10. Alternative cursors: Can the program track an alternate
cursor, highlight bar, ASCII character, soft cursor, etc.? How
do you set it up? How well does it work?
We will need to add Mouse Pointer, insertion bar, and possibly
other graphical indicators here.
11. Attributes: How do you identify attributes: background and
foreground color, extended ASCII characters, highlighted text,
bold and/or underlined text, etc.? How can you use this
information?
We will need to add font information to the list. Thge question
arrises with this and other items, is it still as important in
Windows and/or OS/2?
12. Searching: Can you search for things on the screen,
character strings, attributes, etc.? How well does it work?
What can you do with it?
There is probably no change needed here.
13. Keyboard: How is the key response? Are there keyboard
conflicts and how can you get around them? Is there a pass-
through key? Can you tell if the caps lock key is down? Can you
find out the status of other toggle keys?
No Change needed here.
14. Macros: Does the program have built-in macro capability?
If so, describe. Is there provision for macros from an external
program?
No change needed here.
15. Pre-defined configurations: Does the program come with pre-
defined configurations for popular software packages? If so, how
many and what? Are there other configurations available via the
company, dealers, or a BBS? How well do any available
configurations work?
No change needed here.
16. Autoloading: Does the program autoload configurations? If
so, how does it work, and how well does it work? If not, what
other provision is there?
No change needed here.
17. Pronunciation: Can you change how things are pronounced?
Is there an exceptions dictionary? If so, how does it work, and
how well does it work?
No change needed here.
18. Responsiveness: How responsive is the software? Does it
require a fast machine? Does it eat up lots of CPU cycles? Does
it adversely affect other applications? Can it run with a
multitasker such as Double DOS or DESQVIEW?
No change needed except that the last question is irrelavant.
19. Support for sighted people: Do the menus appear on the
screen, or just in speech? How well does it help a sighted
assistant, highlighting review cursor, etc.? Can it easily be
shut up if a sighted person must use your computer?
No change needed here.
20. Documentation: How is the documentation? What formats does
it come in? How good is it?
No change needed here.
21. On-line help: Is there on-line help? How does it work?
How good is it? Is it context sensitive?
No change needed here.
22. Technical support: Is there technical support and help
available from the company? Is it toll-free? How good is it?
We will also need to add some stuff.
23. How does the program work with DOS applications? Do you
have to or need to load a DOS screen reader first? Does it
support full DOS aplications itself? Does it work with DOS stuff
without loading Windows?
24. How well does the access product work with the leading
Windows software? How well does it work with applications for
which there is not a specific confkguration? Does it keep the
focus, or does it ever get lost? Does it work with the Windows
and/or OS/2 applets?
Please feel free to comment and add things I have left out.
This is just a starting place.
David Andrews
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