CD-ROM Access
Minitab Access Summary

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

Product description

Minitab is a statistical analysis program. It provides both basic statistics and advanced data analysis tools with graphing abilities. It is intended for use by scientists, engineers, quality professionals, product and marketing managers, and others.

Publisher: Minitab
Platform (Windows, Macintosh, Multi): Both, separate versions
Copyright: 1996
Version: Release 10 Xtra (for Mac); Release 11 (for Windows)
Grade level: Post-secondary and professional
Subject: Statistics
Intended use (reference, interaction, tool): Tool

Screen magnification

Minitab works very well under screen magnification. The program uses standard Mac and Windows interface elements, including the menu bar. Text quality is good overall, except for the Help text on the Macintosh, which did not enlarge clearly. The graphs produced by analyzing data are clear and magnify well. Making each graph window as large as possible on the screen enhances readability. Users will have difficulty comparing two graphs visually if they need a high level of magnification. Both magnifiers were able to track the data entry cursor in the spreadsheet.

Screen reader access

Minitab is somewhat usable with a screen reader, but has problems common to the use of tables of data with screen readers. Most importantly, there is no way to know what cell the cursor is in. This makes it difficult to create and edit data sets and ensure proper data entry. Working from an existing data set, the standard menus and dialog boxes make it possible to perform an analysis. The text of the results can be read, but again it is difficult to understand the table structure in which they appear. Easier to read is the single column of text which is displayed with each graph. Using this information, results could be read without confusion. One drawback to using the graph windows to read data is that when you generate several graphs at once every window has the same title, making it more difficult to find the one with the data you want. It would be helpful to have window titles that reflect the data within that window.

Presumably a blind statistician would be accustomed to using the numeric data rather than the graphs and would find that the data they needed was provided. A student learning statistics for the first time would probably need some assistance beyond that needed by their sighted classmates in reading statistical output because of the difficulties in using tables.

Recommendations for improvement

Help text quality: Improve text quality in the Macintosh help program to match the rest of the program.

Help navigation: Expose navigation buttons in the Macintosh help program so that screen reader users can navigate through information.

Cell tracking: Expose the location of the highlighted cell in the spreadsheet in addition to the text entry cursor so that assistive technologies can track it.

Header information: Provide a way to access the row and column heading information for each cell without navigating out of the cell. This could be exposed to assistive technologies without being available to other users, or it could be made available in a small on-screen display like those in standard spreadsheets to show the cell coordinates.

Graph titles: Provide unique titles for graph windows that reflect the data within the window.

Details by assistive technology

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

• Minitab works very well under screen magnification. The program adheres closely to the Windows standard interface with functions accessed from a menu bar. In addition there is a tool bar that includes many of the most commonly used functions.
• The text quality throughout is very good.
• Displaying a large number of graphs at the same time is difficult to view. However this is simply a function of the quantity of data being shown in a limited area. Graphs could be made to occupy most of the screen and stand up well when magnified.
• LPW tracks the data entry cursor.

inLARGE version 2.1

• Minitab works very well under screen magnification. The program adheres closely to the Mac standard interface with functions accessed from a menu bar.
• The text quality except for the help feature is quite good.
• Display of graphs is adequate when they are allowed to occupy the majority of the screen area. The graphs themselves stand up well when magnified.
• inLARGE tracks the data entry cursor.

JAWS for Windows95 version 2.0

• Entering or opening data files and editing them, then generating statistical output from the data can be accomplished, with some difficulties, using the keyboard, menus and the screen reader.
• Standard Windows Help is available.
• Data input and editing is inefficient because it is difficult to determine what cell of the Data window the user is in.
• Results of statistical analyses are given in graphs and also in numeric tables. The tables are difficult to read but may become easier with practice. In addition some commands provide simpler numeric output next to each graph, essentially providing single columns of data rather than a 2D or 3D table.

ScreenPower for Windows version 3.0 revision C

• Although this product initially appeared to be very accessible using ScreenPower, it is actually not possible to use it effectively.
• Most important problem is that there is no way to determine which cell is currently active. This could be easily resolved by having a small window which displays the coordinates of the active cell. The screen reader can be told to announce or display the contents of this window each time the cell pointer is moved. If this type of output was added to Minitab, an environment could be developed to provide this information.
• Second, any data in the active cell is neither spoken nor displayed in Braille. It may be possible to resolve this problem using Screen Power's advanced customization options. If the manufacturer provided active cell indication options such as color or highlight selections, this might give the screen reader a better chance of tracking the active cell.

outSPOKEN for Macintosh version 1.7.5

• Lack of efficient navigation through large tables of data, both input and output.
• Entering or opening data files and editing them, then generating statistical output from the data can be accomplished, with some difficulties, using the keyboard, menus and the screen reader.
• Help information can be read but is difficult to navigate through. Some help information is in tables which cannot be fully read.
• Data input and editing is inefficient because it is difficult to determine what cell of the Data window the user is in. Also, the highlighted cell cannot be tracked.
• Results of statistical analyses are given in graphs and also in numeric tables. The tables are difficult to read but may become easier with practice. In addition some commands provide simpler numeric output next to each graph, essentially providing single columns of data rather than a 2D or 3D table.

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