CD-ROM Access
Astro Algebra Access Summary

Table of Contents

Product description
Screen magnification
Screen reader access
Recommendations for improvement
Details by assistive technology

Product description

Astro Algebra is an animated program which teaches algebra concepts and problem-solving skills. It includes several interactive activities for practicing topics including functions and graphing, variables, expressions, equations, and inequalities, ratios and proportions, and fractions, decimals, and percents.

Publisher: Edmark
Platform: (Windows, Macintosh, Multi): multi
Copyright: 1997
Grade level: Secondary
Subject: Math - algebra
Intended use (reference, interaction, tool): Interaction

Screen magnification

Astro Algebra can be used with a screen magnifier, but problems are common. On the Macintosh, the combination of Astro Algebra and inLARGE is unstable and sometimes crashes. And on a Windows PC with LP Windows, the faster moving animated activities do not display well with magnification. Objects that are dragged with the mouse also distort the display. If the display is completely unreliable under magnification, consult Edmark technical support for information on how to prevent the program from resizing the screen when it loads. It may be conflicting with your magnifier.

Navigation through the program is difficult because there are no menus. All activity selections are made by clicking icons arranged around the screen. Locating and recognizing the icons under magnification is time consuming; using a menu to make the same selections would be more effective. Keyboard support for navigation and for using the activities would make Astro Algebra much easier to use with screen magnification since it would cut down on hunting around with the mouse. Currently, to use activities, the user must explore the screen in detail and then relocate important objects during play. There is a fair bit of on-screen text in the program, giving game instructions and in a reference guide called Astro Net. Text quality in Astro Net is poor when enlarged.

Screen reader access

Astro Algebra cannot be used with a screen reader. Navigation and completion of activities both rely on clicking hotspots and buttons that cannot be located by any screen reader tested. Help is available in audio, which might be useful if the activities described could be completed using the keyboard.

Making this product useful for a blind student would require adding a substantial keyboard interface and audio or text help to support it. Games requiring hand-eye coordination probably couldn't be adapted, but others, including building equations from symbols, using a calculator and function machine, and using algebra blocks might work well. A standard way to communicate math equations and symbols to a screen reader would also be needed.

Recommendations for improvement

• Standard navigation: Add standard menus with keyboard shortcuts to improve navigation.
• Keyboard interface: Add keyboard support for navigation and activities. This may range from a simple way to reach each activity in the product to a more complex set of keys for using various activities.
• Expose objects: Expose on-screen objects and hotspots so that screen readers can find and identify them.
• Magnifier incompatibility: Test with screen magnifiers to determine the cause of instability and poor graphics performance.
• Help: Enhance audio or text help to provide support to allow the activities to be completed using a screen reader and the keyboard.
• Mathematical equations: Use a standardized math markup language to permit access to equations by users of screen readers.

Details by assistive technology

Click the links below for details on how a specific piece of access technology performed with Astro Algebra.

LPWindows version 6.1
inLARGE version 2.1
JAWS for Windows95 version 2.0
ScreenPower for Windows version 3.0 revision C
outSPOKEN for Macintosh version 1.7.5

LPWindows version 6.1

• Astro Algebra worked moderately well with LP Windows.
• It has no conventional menu system which means the user must learn to locate and identify all elements of the program from scratch. Nearly all tools are abstract icons. Few have text labels which would be helpful. The cluttered design can be difficult to explore.
• Design of screens often make it necessary to move the mouse a great deal to complete a task. Key equivalents would be extremely helpful here.
• Help is in audio, represented as being the voices of the ship's computer and members of the crew.
• The graphics of this program are a real challenge to LPW running on a 486 DX4 computer. The screen frequently does not refresh itself and therefore does not display visual changes. This is a particular problem in one activity where one has to capture satellites that fly by. With enlargement turned on these are invisible. At times the pointer erases broad paths through the graphics as it is moved about. Items that have to be moved with the mouse have their images repeatedly rewritten as they are moved.
• Most text is of good quality. The exception was the "Astro Net" where text is of poorer quality.

inLARGE version 2.1

• Astro Algebra works reasonably well with inLARGE.
• It has no conventional menu system which means the user must learn to locate and identify all elements of the program from scratch. Nearly all tools are abstract icons. Few have text labels which would be helpful.
• Design of screens often makes it necessary to move the mouse a great deal to complete a task. Key equivalents would be extremely helpful here.
• Help is in audio, represented as being the voices of the ship's computer and members of the crew.
• The program crashed a good number of times

JAWS for Windows95 version 2.0

• This product cannot be used with JAWS for Windows 95.
• Initially, the product could not load, but this problem was solved with help from Edmark's tech support by changing a registry setting using an Edmark utility so that the product did not try to resize the screen.
• No text or graphics in the product are accessible to JAWS and therefore it would require an unbelievable number of coordinate position macros to be used.
• There are no menu bars. All navigation is by means of clicking on hotspots on the screen, none of which are apparent to JAWS.
• Help is given in audio, but to access it requires clicking a hotspot, and since the games can't be played the help is useless.
• There is also some windows standard help available within the adult options. Adult options are the only preferences available. They are accessed using a keyboard command documented in the print manual. The preferences are mostly a standard windows interface which is highly accessible. The exception is the slider for setting difficulty levels, which is graphical and can't be used. However, the preferences do not improve accessibility.

ScreenPower for Windows version 3.0 revision C

• This product is inaccessible. It is extremely animated, and a visually impaired person using ScreenPower is unable to locate any screen elements.
• The information provided by the sound component informs the user about the task to be accomplished and describes some important screen objects. It does not help the visually impaired user to accomplish the interaction required, however.

outSPOKEN for Macintosh version 1.7.5

• This product is unusable with outSPOKEN.
• Most on-screen text and graphics are not located for reading or labeling. Navigation is entirely by clicking hotspots, with no standard menus or buttons.
• Some interactive objects can be located by outSPOKEN as symbols once they have been clicked or dragged once. They sometimes are lost again, and at any rate are lost between sessions. This makes the games impossible to use even if sighted assistance is used to set up the labels.

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