CD-ROM Access
How the West Was One + Three x Four Access Summary
Table of Contents
Product description
Screen magnification
Screen reader access
Recommendations for improvement
Details by assistive technology
Product description
How the West Was One + Three x Four 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 the player's stagecoach to be the first to reach the end of the number line. During each turn, the player is given three numbers, and by applying the order of operations to them, creates an equation. If the answer is correct, the player's stagecoach moves along the number line. There are points on the number line which, if reached, allow the player to jump further along the line. The strategy is to try and reach these jumping points whenever possible. The game can either be played against the computer or a friend.
Product name: How the West Was One + Three x Four
Publisher: Sunburst
Platform (Windows, Macintosh, Multi): Multi
Copyright 1996
Grade level: Elementary
Subject: Math - order of operations
Intended use (reference, interaction, tool): Interaction
Screen magnification
This product performs reasonably well under magnification. There is a standard menu bar on both platforms (Windows and Macintosh). On-screen text is clear and readable. Tracking game pieces as they move along the number line is difficult, though Macintosh users are able to slowly track the game's progress by moving the mouse pointer.
Screen reader access
The required work arounds are too complex for the target age range of this product. The opening screen contains four buttons for selecting the type of game to be played. The only way to access these buttons is by building macros for your screen reader or memorizing relative screen position, which is not a viable solution for this age group. The command buttons on the opening screen ("quit," "load saved game," etc.) can be accessed however. The game board is not usable for several reasons: the number line and game pieces can't be identified, the numbers generated by the computer in order to create an equation are presented as graphics that need to be labeled, and the screen layout is scattered.
Recommendations for improvement
Enhanced digitized audio: This product has a lot of fun audio already included but the existing audio is intended to set the wild west atmosphere and really doesn't provide any useful information. Description of the game board and creative play-by-play description of the game piece movement would enable the student to track the progress of the game and help with strategizing their next move. The numbers to be played and the resulting equation also need to be voiced. Enhanced audio may also benefit students with learning disabilities.
Improve contrast: Currently users of screen magnifiers experience difficulty tracking the game pieces as they move along the number line. At times the user loses the game piece in the background of the countryside and towns that decorate the number line. Better contrast would help. One way to improve the contrast is to provide a preference to customize color choice. Another option is to use the system colors defined by the user.
Enhanced keyboard access: Add keyboard commands for navigation.
Expose on-screen text: Some of the text in the directions menu (product help) is inaccessible to screen reader users. Implementing standard methods of exposing on-screen text would enable a blind user to take advantage of this important feature.
Details by assistive technology
Click the links below for details on how a specific piece of access technology performed with How the West Was One + Three x Four.
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 program stands up quite well under magnification. Text is readable; more so when LPWindows' "smoothing" feature is activated. The game board is difficult to use especially when the game pieces encounter images of the town and countryside that decorate the number line. The one drawback is that LPWindows users miss out on some of the reward element of the game because the movement of the game pieces can't be tracked consistently under magnification. This problem most likely can be attributed to product design. It appears that the system caret is not moved while animations are in progress.
inLARGE version 2.1
This program stands up well under magnification. On-screen text is very readable and all features accept for the "top ten" feature could be accessed. The graphics on the game board are difficult to see under magnification. Tracking the game progress is slow but unlike the Windows version of this product, the user can move the pointer as animations are drawn.
JAWS for Windows95 version 2.0
The required work arounds are too complex for the target age group for this product. JAWS can access the standard Windows menu bar but this does little to improve access. Many of the essential controls (game selection buttons for example) cannot be identified so a macro would have to be built to reach them. The numbers appear as graphics and the selected and unselected version of the graphic would have to be labeled. Portions of the directions dialog boxes cannot be read and appear to be bitmapped text. The directions dialogs appear in layered windows and JAWS does not automatically fall into the active window.
ScreenPower for Windows version 3.0 revision C
The required work arounds are too complex for the target age group for this product. Game selection buttons on the opening screen could not be labeled requiring one to memorize relative screen position. The numbers on the game screen could be labeled, but the game board is inaccessible. The directions dialog boxes were accessible accept for sample equations. Screen Power automatically jumps to the active window when another direction dialog appears.
outSPOKEN for Macintosh version 1.7.5
Extensive screen reader knowledge is required for effective, independent use of this product. The opening screen contains two dialog boxes. The first contains game selection controls which outSPOKEN does not announce and can't label. The second dialog contains edit boxes for entering in players' names and a set of radio buttons to pick the voice for the engineer, and this box is usable with outSPOKEN. The game board is difficult to use even though outSPOKEN announces the presence of numbers. One problem is that the number line snakes along the game board causing rows of the numbers to be read in reverse order. The directions dialog boxes are partially accessible. Some text is bitmapped and thus cannot be read. outSPOKEN automatically falls into the active window as one steps through the product directions dialog boxes.
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