CD-ROM Access
SimAnt Access Summary
Table of Contents
Product description
Screen magnification
Screen reader access
Recommendations for improvement
Details by assistive technology
Product description
SimAnt is an interactive simulation designed to demonstrate the workings of an ant colony. The user is expected to manipulate individual ants and groups of ants to accomplish the goals of the product, which are to attack other ant colonies and invade a house.
The interface is entirely visual. There are two areas of display on the screen. The left side is a close-up of a portion of the selected action area consisting of the nest, yard, or house. On the right side is a complete view of the selected action area. There is also a moveable box on the right which allows the user to choose which portion of the action area appears in close-up on the left. Scattered around the screen are various controls used for setting the ants' behaviors. While the simulation is running, pop-up boxes appear which alert the user to the status of their colony's food supply, etc.
Publisher: Maxis
Platform (Windows, Macintosh, Multi): Multi
Copyright: 1996
Grade level: Secondary
Subject: Science
Intended use (reference, interaction, tool): Interaction
Screen magnification
Even though all product features function under magnification, it is unlikely a student in the target age range for this product will possess the necessary skills to operate their magnifier in order to independently and effectively take advantage of SimAnt as a learning tool. One's success with SimAnt depends largely on the level of magnification required. Ease of use decreases as the level of magnification increases. On both the Macintosh and Windows platform, tracking and poor contrast appear to cause the most difficulty. SimAnt's screen layout is very scattered and when viewed under all levels of magnification, the screen becomes fragmented -- look at the ants and you can't see the tool bar. Basic tasks like digging can be accomplished with ease but as the activity level increases (attacks by ants and other insects for example), tracking becomes a challenge, slowing down the user considerably. Poor contrast makes it difficult to find ants or other essential controls.
SimAnt has an "auto tracking" feature which is extremely helpful to visually impaired users. When this feature is enabled, the yellow ant which represents the user always appears in the center of the screen, and the screen then follows the ant as it digs or is moved. Another useful feature included in SimAnt is the ability to slow down the animations. This feature significantly improves usability of this product with a magnifier.
Screen reader access
Product design prevents blind students from achieving the intended goals of this simulation. Because graphics can't be identified, vital controls are inaccessible, and the user can't manipulate the ants. On-screen text is also inaccessible.
Recommendations for improvement
Enhanced keyboard access: A keyboard interface is essential in order for a blind student to freely use SimAnt. Currently the manipulation of the ants and their surroundings involves tasks which are easily performed with a mouse. Screen readers provide the capability to perform mouse clicks but this feature often becomes unreliable inside simulations and can cause unintended interactions.
Expose all on-screen controls: A blind user of this product must be able to access all simulation controls in order for the educational goals of this product to be realized. Currently, none of the simulation controls in this product can be identified by a screen reader. There are some readily available solutions such as Microsoft's Active Accessibility (MSAA). Additional work in this area is now underway. See the Possible Solutions page for more information.
Improved contrast: Currently users of screen magnifiers experience difficulty tracking the ants while the simulation is in progress. Better contrast would help. One way to make this easier would be to provide a preference to customize color choice. Another option is to add a feature to enable the product to display information in the system colors defined by the user.
Standard presentation of text: Virtually all of the on-screen text throughout the product is inaccessible to screen readers. Most likely this is a result of the developer's use of bitmapped text. Exposing text in a standard manner would vastly improve usability of specific elements of SimAnt, especially the various pop-up boxes that appear during the simulation. Some color combinations also cause problems for low vision users. Text should be presented in a high-contrast color scheme.
Details by assistive technology
Click the links below for details on how a specific piece of access technology performed with SimAnt.
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
This product performs reasonably well with LPWindows. Pop-up boxes containing information about the simulation appear in bright blue on a gray background which can be problematic for some low vision users. When LPWindows reverse display mode is activated, these boxes become even more unreadable. The box used to change which portion of a selected action area will appear in close-up on the left side of the screen is difficult to manipulate. Under magnification the user clicks on the box as though to drag and drop it. When the mouse pointer moves, the box remains static, forcing the user to guess where the box will land when the mouse button is released.
inLARGE version 2.1
Effectively using inLARGE with SimAnt will require some very well developed navigation skills. The lack of any keyboard commands on the Macintosh version of this product forces the user to locate the desired feature on the toolbar or menu bar which, under magnification, significantly slows down one's ability to make choices and carry out tasks.
JAWS for Windows95 version 2.0
Independent use of this product is not possible with JAWS. Although some graphics could be labeled, the fast changing nature of the animations prevents the user from accurately labeling graphics. SimAnt implements a standard windows menu bar, but this does little to improve access. SimAnt's toolbar is graphical and JAWS can only recognize half of the available buttons.
ScreenPower for Windows version 3.0 revision C
SimAnt is not usable with ScreenPower. The standard windows menu bar is accessible, but text and graphics throughout the rest of the product cannot be accessed.
outSPOKEN for Macintosh version 1.7.5
SimAnt is not usable with outSPOKEN. The standard Macintosh menu bar is accessible, but this does not improve usability. Text and graphics throughout the rest of the product cannot be accessed.
Return to the CD-ROM Access Analysis Findings page
Return to the CD-ROM Access Project home page
