# Steps towards enhanced accessibility of computers and documents

Bart Simons

## Contents

1. About myself
2. Technical issues while looking for a job
3. Being able to use a computer
4. Being able to find information and fill out forms

## 1. About myself

Bart Simons, Belgium, 29 years old, blind since birth

Education: one year in school for the blind, rest in mainstream schools

Employed as accessibility expert: two years in commercial web design company, 4 years in blind care association

AnySurfer = quality mark for accessible websites in Belgium

Not only websites but also accessibility of documents is important.

Role within EBU: chairperson of the Access to Information commission

## 2. Technical issues while looking for a job

### 2.1. Finding vacancies

Newspaper:

- Often not available in alternative format so you need to find someone to read them to you.
- This causes a delay
- Difficult to make your selection

Internet:

- Being unemployed, one might not have access to an adapted computer and/or the internet
- Websites might be poorly accessible
- No delay: no need to wait for a reader or an adapted publication
- Filtering options help to make your choice
- Independency is a positive sign towards your future employer

Word-to-mouth:

- use your network
- tell everybody what kind of job you are looking for
- People already know you and your qualities
- It is easy and free

### 2.2. Applying

Writing a letter/CV:

- If you don't have access to a computer, you might find a type writer
- have the layout checked by a sighted person
- Sometimes hand writing is required. Explain why you can't.
- I always mentioned my visual handicap.

Filling in a standard form:

- If it comes on paper: request a digital format
- They are often poorly accessible
- have the final result checked by a sighted person

### 2.3. If you are invited to a test or interview

How to get there?

- Use an online route planner: Maporama has a pedestrian’s mode
- Find out public transport timetables
- If you don't know the way, use a taxi
- I avoid arriving with a guide

Test:

- arrange beforehand what it consists of and how it can be made accessible.
- If you have a laptop with assistive technologies you can propose to take it with you. They should be able to give you the questions on a thumb drive.
- If this is not possible, someone can read the questions to you

## 3. Being able to use a computer

Wouldn't it be great to use your screenreader or magnification software on any computer?

Situations:

- You don't have a computer of your own.
- It is your first day at work. There is a computer but no assistive technologies yet. You want to be productive in the meantime.
- Your office computer is broken and it can't be replaced immediately. Your colleague's computer is idle but you don't want to install software on it.
- A friend asks you for help with a computer problem. To solve it by yourself you need your screenreader.
- During an exam you are not allowed to use your own computer.
- On holiday you want to check your e-mails on a public computer.
- You have to give a presentation in an auditorium where they cannot connect your laptop to the beamer or no one is able to configure its internet connection. You have to use their computer for your presentation.

### 3.1. It all depends on the operating system

#### 3.1.1. VoiceOver for MacOs

Macintosh computers running version 10.5 or higher have a build-in screenreader, called VoiceOver. Simply press cmd+f5 on any Mac and you will have a screenreader at your disposal. USB braille displays can be connected plug and play. A high quality English voice called Alex is available by default. You can save your personal settings on a thumb drive. As soon as you plug it into a Mac it will launch VoiceOver and load your settings. In universal access you find also a full screen zoom functionality. More information: http://www.apple.com/accessibility/voiceover/

The only negative point is when you are using a non-English version of Mac operating system. Voices for other languages are available for reasonable prices from Assistiveware, Cepstral and http://www.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/ However, you won't find a voice for every language.

#### 3.1.2. Orca for linux

Linux is a free operating system that comes in a variety of distributions. Many of them contain a built-in screenreader, called Orca. Orca supports braille, speech and magnification. More information: http://live.gnome.org/Orca/

#### 3.1.3. Narrator for Windows

Narrator is shipped with Windows but cannot really be called a screenreader. Press windowskey+r to bring up the run dialog. Type narrator followed by enter. Windows also contains a build-in magnification function. The only voice is a very bad sounding English voice called Microsoft Sam. For some other languages free voices can be downloaded as well: http://www.htmlbible.com/MicrosoftSpeechComponents/index.htm

### 3.2. Screenreader on a USB key

Most likely you will be in a Windows environment. To which extent is it possible to move with your screenreader from one computer to the other?

#### Jaws

There is a thumb drive version of JAWS. To use it on a computer you need to install first a so-called video interceptor on the computer. To do this you need to have administrator rights.

#### Window Eyes

There is a mobile version of Window Eyes that you can copy on a USB key. To use it on a computer you need to install first a so-called video interceptor on the computer. To do this you need to have administrator rights.

#### Lunar/Hal/Supernova

The Dolphin pen allows to carry your assistive technologies from computer to computer. To use it the Dolphin interceptor must be installed. The pen contains your licence and you personal settings.

#### MyStick

Portable screenreader from Baum. No installation is required. Includes Eloquence speech synthesizer. Does not work on Windows Vista. Does not work with all applications. Works with Word and Excel but not with PowerPoint. Browsing the web only with Internet Explorer and installation of Webformator is recommended. MyStick costs around 300 Euro. http://www.my-stick.com

#### NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA)

Open source and free screenreader that can run from a USB drive without the need to install software. Works in Windows XP and Vista. Works among others with Word, Excel, Adobe Reader, Internet Explorer and Firefox. Does not work with PowerPoint.

Available in over 20 languages including: Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Portuguese, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Traditional Chinese, Vietnamese, Afrikaans, Galician, Croatian, Japanese, Polish, Russian, Thai and Ukrainian.

NVDA is bundled with eSpeak, a free, open-source, multi-lingual speech synthesizer. Additionally, NVDA can use both SAPI4 and SAPI5 speech engines to provide speech output.

Braille support is built in but a driver needs to be installed on the computer.

http://www.nvda-project.org/

#### Thunder

Free screenreader that can run from a USB key. Seems not to be shipped with a speech synthesizer and has no braille support. Runs in XP and Vista and supports Word, Excel and Internet explorer in combination with Webbie. http://www.screenreader.net

#### System access to go

Online screenreader providing speech, limited magnification and braille support. Works with many applications including PowerPoint but I had problems in Outlook Express. The easiest way to launch it is via windows+r to open the run dialog box. Type www.satogo.com and from now on you will be guided by speech. If you are on a non English computer the key strokes might not be those that SA to go tells you. If you create a free account Sa to go saves your settings. By default it uses the Dectalk voices but you can use voices that are installed on the computer as well. My Handytech braille display was detected automatically but there are no braille settings. Only the English braille code seems to be available.

## 4. Being able to find information and fill out forms

Of course it is important that documents and websites are made accessible. We keep reminding authors and web designers to take their responsibilities. However, sometimes you have no choice to use what exists or you are not in a position to wait for corrections. When you are applying for a job you are in a weak position if you tell them that you have problems to fill in the registration form.

Here are a few tips to help you to make the most out of inaccessible documents and websites.

### 4.1. Save as text

When you are having trouble to read a document it might help to save it in plain text or HTML.

Word documents with columns are much easier to read in notepad. Press f12 to bring up the "save as" dialog box.

Excel sheets are readable with a screenreader but it might take a lot of time to go through it from cell to cell. Saving it as text gives you the possibility to read it line by line. If you are familiar with reading tables in HTML this might also work faster for you.

PowerPoint documents can not be converted to plain text. In the save as dialog you can choose to save it as an outline which will result in an .rtf file that can be read in Word and many other programs.

PDF documents can almost always be saved as text as a direct option in the file menu of Adobe Reader.

### 4.2. PowerPoint

PowerPoint presentations are easier to read in presentation mode. Open the presentation and press f5. A new window will open showing slide 1. Press space bar to move to the next slide and backspace to move to the previous slide.

When a slide seems to contain no information it might contain a picture or a text box. If this is the case you will need to ask sighted assistance.

### 4.3. PDF

Don't be afraid of PDF. There are indeed PDF-documents that are completely inaccessible but don't give up immediately.

With a modern screenreader most PDF-files can be read directly in Adobe Reader. After installation of Adobe Reader it will detect automatically that you are a screenreader user and a wizard comes up to guide you through some settings you might want to change.

If you are using a modern screenreader and if the PDF is accessible you can navigate it like a webpage, e.g. use the h key to jump from heading to heading etc.

If the PDF-document is not designed with accessibility in mind, you might see strange characters, too many line breaks or missing spaces. In the worst case you don't see text at all.

PDF2TXT is a free and accessible program to convert PDF files to Text. For many documents the results are better than the save as text option in Adobe Reader. You can download it from http://EmpowermentZone.com/p2tsetup.exe

If you have an OCR software like Finereader, Omnipage or Kurzweil you can scan the PDF-file which often results in a well readable result.

When you don't have such OCR-software you can try your luck online: http://docmorph.nlm.nih.gov/docmorph/

If you don't have a screenreader it is good to know that Adobe Reader comes with a read outloud option. This only works well if your computer has a voice installed that is compatible with the language of the document.

### 4.4. Websites

A screenreader like JAWS allows you to improve the accessibility of the website with custom labels. A form field or graphical link that is not labelled correctly by the webmaster can be added by the user. In JAWS press ctrl+insert+tab on a graphic or link to enter the custm label. The drawback is that it is only helpful for websites that you use regularly and that don't change too often. Your custom labels can be shared with other users of other computers but it involves copying files which is not very smooth.

A better solution is Webvisum, a free add-on for the Firefox browser. Register on www.webvisum.com and download and install the add-on. Webvisum allows to modify a label for a form field, to give an alternative text to an image, to modify the title of a web page. You won't always know what the right alt-text should be so there is also an option to scan an image. Improvements that you make to a web page are also available for all other Webvisum users, including yourself if you work on two computers. You could ask a sighted friend to help you out with improving the website. Thanks to this system this friend does not need to be next to you; he can do that from his own computer.

Another nice feature of Webvisum is extremely handy: solving captcha codes. This works quite well.

### 4.5. Images

Invitations that are sent by e-mail come more and more in the form of images. No screenreader is able to read text in a jpg of other graphical file format. You can try to scan the image with Finereader, Omnipage or Kurzweil but success is not guaranteed. You can also try your luck at the before mentioned http://docmorph.nlm.nih.gov/docmorph/

### 4.6. Forms

Web forms are in my opinion the most accessible of all. Thanks to the forms mode of a screenreader you can easily toggle between reading the form and filling it out. If necessary use Webvisum to improve the accessibility of a form. You don't only help yourself but all other users that will come after you.

Forms in Word often cause problems. If they are not marked up correctly you often don't know where you should type your answers, it is not possible to use the tab key to jump from field to field and it is not clear how to use non standard checkboxes and the like. A form that is marked up with for fields has the disadvantage that the rest of the document is protected. This makes it inaccessible for the screenreader.

In order to not lose too much time with filling in a form in Word I save it as a text document and fill it out like this. The drawback is that the layout is lost but so far no one complained about that.

Recently I came across a form in PDF that could be filled out within the reader and then be printed as a filled out form. This worked great.

If you try to fill it in in Word or in PDF it is good to have it checked by a sighted person.