TECH EDGE: Accessible Vista

By John M. Williams

Three times within the past year, I have witnessed the new Microsoft Windows Vista‘s accessibility features being demonstrated. Each time increased my appreciation of the Windows upgrade, which is due for general release just after the New Year, and I now rate the new accessibility features higher than the original Windows accessibility features.

Windows Vista includes a new Ease of Access center (located in the Control Panel), where anyone can turn on accessibility settings and tools. Users can enter the Center by selecting Winkey (between the control and alt keys on PC keyboards) +U. A questionnaire helps users decide which accessibility settings or tools to use. Users answer questions about their experience performing routine tasks, such as reading a newspaper. Based on those answers, the program provides a personalized recommendation for accessibility tools and settings in the operating system that are likely to improve the user’s ability to see, hear, and use the computer. The Center replaces the Accessibility Wizard and Utilities Manager in previous versions of Windows.

Also in Windows Vista, Microsoft has added a new magnification layer to the graphics stack that is used to display the user interface (UI). Having this capability in the core of Windows significantly improves the quality of magnified screen images and improves the readability of scaled text for people with low vision.

To address this challenge, Microsoft identified the 18 core behaviors, called control patterns, which represent everything a person can do with UI elements used in applications and Web pages today. Because the architecture can be extended to expose new behaviors that may be introduced in the future, an AT product built using Microsoft UI Automation, a new accessibility and automated testing model, can support controls that have yet to be invented.

One of the most innovative aspects of Windows Vista, Microsoft UI Automation, can release development costs, not only for accessible and assistive technology (AT) developers, but also for application developers who make their software compatible with AT products, such as screen readers for people who are blind. I believe Microsoft is correct when it says its UI Automation improves product quality by providing increased testing support and a new way of doing automated UI testing for software developers.

Other accessibility models rely on a single interface that must serve dual purposes: exposing UI information about applications and collecting information needed by AT products. Microsoft’s UI Automation separates the two models, with one for application developers and another for AT developers. And Microsoft does a lot of work in the middle to streamline and package the information for easy consumption, which makes less work for developers and lowers their costs. Lower costs for developers, of course, should mean lower costs for consumers of AT products.

Another innovation in Microsoft UI Automation is a new and more efficient way for developers to incorporate UI commands and controls in their applications. With other accessibility models, developers have to gather information directly from individual buttons, menus, or other controls. Unfortunately, every control type comes in dozens of minor variations. So even though 10 variations of a pushbutton may all work the same way and perform the same function, AT developers are forced to treat each one as a unique control. Their product has no way of knowing these controls are functionally equivalent. Microsoft UI Automation eliminates this inefficiency.

Major accessibility improvements in the Ease of Access Center are state-of-the-art speech recognition and magnification capabilities. The Center provides a centralized location where users can get quick access to adjust accessibility settings and manage assistive technology programs. The accessibility settings and programs in Windows Vista are helpful to people with visual difficulties, hearing loss, pain in their hands or arms, or reasoning and cognitive issues.

Microsoft has improved the Narrator text-to-speech tool, built into Windows Vista. This feature reads Narrator menus without leaving the active window, and the voice in Narrator is a more pleasant, natural sounding voice.

Speech Recognition is integrated into Windows Vista and is built on top of the latest Microsoft speech technologies. It features state-of-the-art voice recognition accuracy that is designed to improve as people use it. Microsoft works closely with AT manufacturers through the Microsoft Assistive Technology Vendor Program (www.microsoft.com/enable/at/matvplist.aspx) to ensure that AT products are ready when Windows Vista is available. Many AT products, including multiple screen readers, will be available on Windows Vista when it is released early next year.

John M. Williams has been reporting on assistive technology for more than 25 years. He can be contacted at jmmaw@aol.com.