CD-ROM Access
CD-ROM Software Selection Guidelines
by Madeleine Rothberg and Tom Wlodkowski
Whenever possible, try software with the access technology you will be using. Before you make a purchase, consider these questions:
- Does the program use standard menus? Can your access technology track the cursor as you use these menus.
- Does the program provide keyboard commands for important features.
- Are there preferences, options, or settings that make the product easier to use with assistive technology.
- Is all essential text on the screen read by your screen reader or smoothly enlarged by your screen magnifier? Can the text size be made larger in the product preferences.
- Are interactive activities usable with a keyboard? Or, for magnifier users, are icons and objects clear enough and screen layout simple enough that mouse navigation is possible with the magnification level the user requires.
- Do photos or other visual elements enlarge well.
- If essential information is conveyed in audio, is it also available visually, for example as captions, visual alerts, or written instructions.
- Is the product's help accessible? Does it give information about how to use the product in language appropriate for the user.
- Does the user have sufficient mastery of the assistive technology to use it with this software? Or does this software require skills that will take more time to acquire?
