CD-ROM Access
The Way Things Work 2.0 Access Summary
Table of Contents
Product description
Screen magnification
Screen reader access
Recommendations for improvement
Details by assistive technology
Product description
With this program students can explore the inner workings of many of today's common machines and learn about the scientific principles behind their mechanisms. They can also read about the inventors of the featured machines.
Product name: The Way Things Work 2.0
Publisher: Dorling Kindersley and Houghton Mifflin
Platform (Windows, Macintosh, Multi): Multi
Copyright: 1996
Grade level: Upper elementary
Subject: Science
Intended use (reference, interaction, tool): Interaction/reference
Screen magnification
This CD-ROM uses many images and animations making access difficult for low vision users. Navigation is a challenge because the product's use of a nonstandard menu bar causes tracking problems for magnification software. However, the screen layout is consistent, which is helpful.
The text in the product is all displayed in graphics. It is of poor quality and does not enlarge well. The still images of the machines can be magnified but the animation of the machines in motion cannot be magnified, using LP Windows, which is disappointing.
Screen reader access
The Way Things Work 2.0 is impossible for speech users to explore. Screen reader use is hampered because all of the product's text is presented in graphics. The navigation buttons are not located by screen readers so the user can do nothing independently. In addition, the focus of the product is on the visual images of the machines and how they work. If audio or text descriptions of the machines and their movement was included, blind students would have some access to the information, and all users might find that the description helped to focus their attention on the way the machines work.
Recommendations for improvement
Access to text: Provide text in a standard font rather than as graphics.
Navigation improvements: Expose the menu bar and other navigational elements to assistive technologies so that magnifiers can locate the focus and screen readers can provide access to the choices. This can be done by using standard menus and controls or by providing information to assistive technologies using an API such as Microsoft Active Accessibility.
Animation magnification: Test with assistive technologies to determine why the animations cannot be magnified.
Image descriptions: Add descriptive text or narration for each image and animation so that blind students can learn about the appearance and mechanism of each machine.
Details by assistive technology
Click the links below for details on how a specific piece of access technology performed with ActivPhysics.
LPWindows version 6.1
JAWS for Windows95 version 2.0
outSPOKEN for Macintosh version 1.7.5
LPWindows version 6.1
- Extremely challenging to use with magnification. More accessible to people who only require low levels of magnification.
- Menus are on a slant which makes them difficult to read.
- All text is shown in graphics. The font is not crisp.
- The still image of each machine is visible with magnification but the animation of the machine working (an important part of this product) is not.
- Opening screen has a nonstandard menu bar; items don't highlight when selected leaving the magnifier with nothing to track.
- Content screen design generally helps with navigation as elements are consistently laid out.
- It is possible to locate interactive hot spots under magnification (the cursor becomes a pointing finger over hotspots) but the overall experience is not the same that one would have using this product without magnification.
- The selection screen in the product help is not usable. Text quality is poorer than the content screens. Product snapshots are used and these are clear.
JAWS for Windows95 version 2.0
TWTW2 is not at all usable with speech. There is no readable text in product and the graphics can't be recognized.
outSPOKEN for Macintosh version 1.7.5
This program cannot be used with outSPOKEN. The text is all presented as graphics. The navigation buttons on the menu bar cannot be located by the screen reader.
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