CD-ROM Access
Project Prototypes
The CD-ROM Access Project has created two prototypes of accessible educational software. In building these prototypes we learned a lot about what is needed to make interactive software accessible to blind and visually impaired students. We also explored two popular authoring tools in depth: Macromedia Director and Java. Our prototypes are based on existing software sold to the mainstream market. With the permission of the original developers, we used their ideas, images, and sounds and we recreated the activities in different authoring tools with new accessibility features. We thank Sunburst Communications and LOGAL, Inc. for their assistance with this part of the project.
How the West Was One + Three x Four
Photosynthesis Explorer
How the West Was One + Three x Four
"How the West Was One + Three x Four" (published by Sunburst Communications) is a board game designed to encourage early elementary students to explore order of operations by making mathematical equations. The game has a wild west motif, and the goal is for each player to try to be the first to reach the end of a number line. We selected this product to prototype direct access for several reasons. First, in addition to providing students with valuable math skills, this product is a fun game to play. Blind and visually impaired kids don't often get to play computer games with their sighted classmates since the vast majority of software is inaccessible. Second, the product is a good example of how blind students can really excel with educational multimedia software if accessibility issues are addressed.
The original product uses audio to set the wild west atmosphere, with a locomotive that whistles and a stagecoach driver who calls "Giddyup!" But these fun sounds are not enough to make the program usable by a blind person. The original game screen is difficult to use under magnification; players can't track the game pieces as they animate and can lose sight of their piece even when it is still because of the decorative images along the number line. Screen readers cannot access the computer-generated numbers to build equations or assist the user in tracking game pieces.
To improve usability, we built an audio/keyboard interface which is the same on both the Macintosh and Windows platforms. A screen reader or magnifier is not required for effective use of this prototype. The audio is digitized, not synthetic speech. To enhance accessibility, the program announces the status of all radio buttons encountered in dialog boxes and orients the player to the game screen by announcing player positions and strategic options that originally were conveyed only visually. Directions on how to play the game can also be heard on request.
The product's use of the keyboard has been significantly enhanced with several key commands. In order to change the status of a radio button for example, a task normally performed with a mouse or screen reader keyboard command, the user simply types the first letter of the desired choice. Pressing the tab key will change the focus in dialogs and the audio will announce the item currently in focus. Commands are also available to toggle the accessibility features on and off, to read and edit the contents of an edit box, and to obtain on-screen information about player positions and game strategy. A dialog box titled "Accessibility" has been added to the Options menu to alert teachers, parents and students to the array of available access features.
Macromedia Director, a commonly used multimedia authoring tool, was used to build this prototype. During the building process we discovered limitations in addressing access with this authoring tool. First, screen readers cannot access controls implemented with this tool or navigate the custom menu bar. Our hope was to make this prototype screen reader accessible even though assistive technology is not required to play the game, but that wasn't possible. Another key concern is the ability to interrupt audio, stopping the audio in mid-stream, with a keyboard command. Although we were able to provide a designated key to use to interrupt the audio, we were not able to make it possible to interrupt one audio segment and move on to the next command simultaneously, which is an important feature for experienced users. Because of technical limitations in Director, developers would need to spend a significant amount of time and add a lot of complexity to their product's design to provide fully interruptable audio, making it likely that they would not offer this feature. In addition, the animations that are so easy to create in Director cannot be tracked by a screen magnifier, so students who are using one will still not be easily able to watch their game pieces move.
If you would like to receive a hybrid CD-ROM (Macintosh and Windows) of our prototype of "How the West Was One + Three x Four" please send email to madeleine_rothberg@wgbh.org and include your mailing address.
Photosynthesis Explorer
Our second prototype is based on a simulation of photosynthesis, part of a series of biology simulations from LOGAL, Inc. Photosynthesis Explorer is a simulation in which students vary the light, temperature, humidity, and other influences on a plant and observe the resulting amounts of sugar and oxygen produced by the plant. Diagrams show where different chemicals enter and leave a leaf and also present an abstract view of the chemical pathway of photosynthesis.
We chose to build this prototype in Java for several reasons. Java is a programming language designed for internet-based delivery but it is also useful for other kinds of distribution. Most importantly, Java is intended for cross-platform use, which means that programs can be written once and then run on different kinds of computers. This is crucial for educational software because some schools use Macintosh computers while others use Windows computers. Without Java software companies must create two versions of each product. Having a cross-platform language also means that accessibility solutions for Java can meet the needs of users on both platforms.
Building accessible applications in Java is possible because of the important work done by Sun Microsystems. The accessibility team at Sun worked to ensure that the Java language includes accessibility information in its core structures. They included access by default in the Swing user interface components so that when developers use those components all accessibility information is included automatically. More information on Sun's access work is available on their Enabling Technologies web site.
Once that accessibility information is available, users need tools to reach it. Work by IBM Special Needs Systems has led to the Self-Voicing Kit for Java (SVK). The SVK is a set of code that Java programmers can add to their applications to automatically enable a speech interface. It also allows for extensions to customize the audio interface using smaller programs called "perks."
Access to menus, navigation, buttons, and other controls in the Photosynthesis prototype is accomplished by passing information to the SVK which coordinates synthetic speech output. Although the original presentation of the material in Photosynthesis Explorer relies largely on visual displays for both input and output there is numeric information at the heart of the simulation. We exposed that information by using Swing controls which, through the SVK, provide numeric output in audio in addition to the visual displays. By making all six input variables standard sliders and by writing custom code to read the output as it changes, we created an audio interface to this simulation. This allows blind students to learn interactively about the factors needed for successful photosynthesis along side their sighted peers.
In addition to being available numerically, the output of the simulation is graphed on screen. The current prototype permits users to print out the graph. We are experimenting with ways of creating tactile graphs from that output.
The SVK's approach to providing access to software is a blend of direct and indirect methods. The automatic access to standard Swing controls is like that provided by a screen reader. But the ability to customize the presentation though the use of perks allows developers to provide direct access in those areas where it is needed. For example, in Photosynthesis Explorer we use the automatic SVK utilities to provide access to menus and pushbuttons. For those elements we simply created standard Java controls and the SVK did the rest. For the input sliders and the simulation output, however, we felt we could provide better access by using a perk, so we wrote one that provides precisely the audio output we wanted.
Our prototype demonstrates that a moderately complex interface can be easily adapted for use in a speech interface. It provides a real-world example of the usefulness of the SVK and has allowed us to provide feedback to the IBM developers as they continue to improve the SVK.
The subject matter of Photosynthesis Explorer suggests several other possible adaptations that could not be explored in the time available on this project. Audio graphs can provide a blind student with the quick overview that a visual graph provides for sighted students, while an interactive table can permit an in-depth investigation of the numbers. Description of the diagrams, in audio or text, would be helpful, although they should probably be accompanied by tactile diagrams for clearest understanding. Together, these techniques could provide appropriate adaptations to allow visually impaired students to participate in this simulation.
Our prototype of Photosynthesis Explorer is not yet available for distribution. We will update this page with information on how to try it out when it is available.
