Letter from Blindness Organizations to Gates

From: Paul Schroeder (pws@afb.org)
Date: Tue Nov 18 1997 - 15:31:03 PST


As many of you know, AFB sent a letter to Bill Gates back in October
outlining several steps that we thought Microsoft should commit to in
order to ensure accessibility. In an effort to both clarify those
recommendations and show widespread support within the blindness
community, several leading organizations representing the interests of
people who are blind or visually impaired have sent the following
letter to Mr. Gates. It also outlines ten recommendations as a
starting point to a dialog and focused accessibility effort.
Paul Schroeder
Director
National Technology Program
American Foundation for the Bllind
pws@afb.org
----------
American Foundation for the Blind Midwest
401 North Michigan Avenue
Suite 308
Chicago, IL 60611
Tel: 312.245.9961
Fax: 312.245.9965
E-mail: chicago@afb.org
November 17, 1997
Mr. William H. Gates III
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052
Dear Mr. Gates:
We appreciate the interest shown by your staff in our concerns
about accessibility of Microsoft products for people who are blind
or visually impaired. Microsoft has taken several important steps
toward accessibility, but there is no clear responsibility vested
in top management and evidence of access as a priority is scant.
The undersigned organizations representing the interests of people
who are blind or visually impaired urge Microsoft to adopt a
strategy that clearly denotes access as a priority with appropriate
short- and long-term goals. Accordingly, we recommend
implementation of the following steps.
1. Although Microsoft has established a laudable corporate policy
on access for people with disabilities, there is no clear authority
nor are their measurable outcomes connected to this policy.
Accordingly, we believe it is necessary to:
     a) implement and enforce a comprehensive and meaningful
corporate policy on accessibility, including goals, objectives and
timelines; and,
     b) assign responsibility to a top official who can deploy
resources and ensure that decisions affecting accessibility are
given high priority.
2. Microsoft must also ensure that the following short-term
accessibility goals are met:
     a) full implementation of MSAA, along with keyboard access to
all features in Internet Explorer 4.0 to ensure full accessibility
by December, 1997;
     b) ensure that MSAA is part of the standard or typical
installation of all future Microsoft operating systems, including
Windows NT, CE and the successor to Windows 95 (with respect to
Windows CE, we do not accept the shortsighted premise that the
platforms and capacity of this equipment will not enable screen
access alternatives); and,
     c) fully implement MSAA and ensure keyboard access to all
features in the next release of Microsoft Office. (We have had
discussions with members of the Office Team, and we appreciate
their interest in talking with us. It is apparent that the age and
complexity of many of the applications within Microsoft Office do
complicate accessibility. However, Office is one of the most
critical productivity tools on the market today and thus it
deserves special emphasis. Because screen reader developers are
focusing on MSAA, the development of a separate object model within
Office for accessibility purposes would be resource intensive, time
consuming and ultimately likely to fail. If an approach different
from MSAA is chosen, it must be done so with the acceptance of the
screen reader developers on whom the blindness community depends
for access and in a way that demands minimal resources from these
understaffed developers.)
3. Overall, products that contain full keyboard access to all
features and that rely on standard Windows classes or controls are
superior for accessibility with screen readers and thus are
preferred. In situations where custom classes, controls or methods
must be used, access must be provided through a consistent method
and MSAA appears to be accepted by most screen reader developers
for this purpose. In any event, all future releases and upgrades
of key Microsoft products beginning with business, reference,
education and home productivity products must include full keyboard
access for all functions and features, customizable display
appearance, and access to screen elements through standard controls
and classes or full implementation of MSAA.
4. While we are enthusiastic about the developments in speech
recognition and text-to-speech, especially because these techniques
are being pursued as a means of making computer products more
usable for everyone, user feedback from people who are blind or
visually impaired and screen reader developers will help to ensure
that people with disabilities achieve much greater built-in access
to mainstream computer technology.
5. Although we recognize that internal staffing decisions are best
made by those closest to the needs of the organization, it is
critical that the number of staff with responsibility for, and
training in, accessibility be increased across Microsoft product
lines, especially in key product areas such as Windows, Office, IE
and education.
6. Ensure that Microsoft's developer tools meet the needs of
individuals with disabilities as consumers and developers:
     a) Microsoft's developer tools must facilitate the
development of third party applications that are accessible through
inclusion of MSAA, keyboard equivalents and other accessibility
features; and
     b) the tools themselves must be accessible to and usable by
software developers who are blind or visually impaired through
support for MSAA and other Microsoft access features.
7. Work with organizations representing the interests of people
who are blind or visually impaired, to provide training about
access needs and concerns to Microsoft staff across all product
lines, including research staff.
8. Microsoft is in a position to substantially influence and
increase the interest in accessibility of computer technology for
people with disabilities. The following steps should be
undertaken:
     a) Strengthen the accessibility provisions of the Windows
logo program and make compliance and support of MSAA and other
access features a mandatory requirement for any application seeking
authentication as a Windows compliant application;
     b) Promote MSAA and other accessibility features through
developer meetings, official corporate communications and speeches
by top Microsoft officials.
9. Improve Microsoft's technical and other support provided to
screen reader developers, including solicitation of feedback on
accessibility issues and obstacles, comprehensive distribution of
early releases of Microsoft products to screen reader developers
and ongoing interaction between Microsoft staff and developers to
address design problems.
10. Explore staff incentives such as providing bonuses to
Microsoft employees who make significant contributions to a
product's accessibility.
Mr. Gates, when people who are blind or visually impaired use a
Microsoft product they want what other customers have: full access
to all features and benefits. In short, accessibility, means that
a Microsoft program can be used by a blind person independent of
sighted assistance. To accomplish this, Microsoft must work in
partnership with screen reader developers so that the operating
system and applications can be fully accessed and used by someone
depending on these screen readers. We present the above steps as
a starting point to an ongoing dialogue and effort to ensure the
accessibility of Microsoft Products for people who are blind or
visually impaired.
Respectfully,
American Council of the Blind
Brian Charlson
First Vice President
Tel: 617.332.9054
E-mail: charlsonb@delphi.com
American Foundation for the Blind
Paul W. Schroeder
Director, National Technology Programs
Tel: 312.245.9961
E-mail: pws@afb.org
Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and
Visually Impaired
Kathleen Megivern
Executive Director
Tel: 703.823.9690
E-mail: aernet@laser.net
National Council of State Agencies for the Blind
Charles Crawford
President
Tel: 617.727.5550 Ext. 4503
E-mail: ccrawford@state.ma.us
National Industries for the Blind
Patricia Beattie
Director, Public Policy
Tel: 703.578.6513
E-mail: pbeattie@igc.org
c: Paul Maritz, Group Vice President
     Platforms and Applications
     Microsoft Corporation



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