AFB
TECH PRODUCT EVALUATIONS: DISPLAY SCREENS, VIDEO MAGNIFIERS, COPY MACHINES,
CELL PHONES
Presenter(s)
Mark Uslan, Director
American Foundation for the Blind (AFB
TECH)
Phone: (304) 523-8651
Email: muslan@afb.net
Presenter #2
Darren Burton, National Program Associate in
Technology
American Foundation for the Blind (AFB TECH)
Phone: (304) 523-8651
Email: dburton@afb.net
Presenter
#3
Lee Huffman, National Technology
Associate
American Foundation for the Blind
(AFB TECH)
Phone: (304) 523-8651
Email: lhuffman@afb.net
Presenter #4
Brad Hodges, National Technology
Associate
American Foundation for the Blind
(AFB TECH)
Phone: (304) 523-8651
Email: bhodges@afb.net
AFB TECH evaluates the accessibility of products
for use by blind and visually impaired persons. This presentation will report
on findings on four projects: Visual Display Standards, Video Magnifiers, Cell
Phones, and Copy Machines
Developing Research-based Guidelines for
Improving Access to Small Screen Visual Displays
Today, devices that use small-screen visual
displays are prevalent in all areas of our daily lives. These displays can be
found in many consumer devices and appliances including phones, office
equipment, point of sale devices, and home-use medical devices. The American
Foundation for the Blind (AFB) is involved in a three phase research effort to
develop usability standards for small screen visual displays.
The objective of the first phase of the study is
to review the literature on existing standards and guidelines and measure key
visual characteristics of the displays of a test group of consumer devices.
Current visual display design practices are based on human factors and
disability literature, but to date, no research-based guidelines have been
found in this literature. In regard to key visual characteristics, vision
experts and ergonomics experts alike agree that the most important
characteristics of a display are font size (and type), contrast, luminance,
glare and hue. Using measurement standards of the Video Electronics Standards
Association, AFB and
In phase two, data will be gathered on a wider
subset of small screen visual displays. In phase three, a clinical study
will be conducted to define optimal small screen visual display parameters for
visually impaired subjects. Ultimately this research is designed to provide the
manufacturer with specifications for designing small screen visual displays to
be as readable as possible by visually impaired persons. These specifications
will also assist all other end users who require a visual interface.
Video Magnifiers
Included in AFB Tech’s product evaluations of
video magnifiers in 2005 were the myReader buy Humanware and the MagniLink S
Student by Low Vision International. Both of these products were chosen
for evaluation because they are fairly new to the market and offer alternatives
to the traditional desktop video magnifier, or CCTV.
In the beginning of 2005, Humanware
launched and began shipping the myReader, which it
calls “the world’s first low vision auto-reader.” The myReader
combines full page document capture, navigation without an x-y table,
rearranged text layout, automatic scrolling, full color viewing, and auto focus
into a twenty pound, transportable video magnifier.
The MagniLink S
Student is a portable video magnifier system for connection to a laptop or
desktop computer. Its rotating camera provides both close and distant
viewing making it usable in a classroom, office, or home setting. This
device has no x-y table, and due to its “L” shaped design, takes up very little
desk space. The MagniLink S Student also has
the capability of taking a snapshot of an image from the camera and storing it
on the computer. At a later time, this image can be reviewed on the
screen or printed onto paper.
AFB TECH conducted thorough evaluations of myReader and MagniLink S Student
taking into consideration their ease of assembly, their user manuals and their
description of product features and functions, the accessibility of their
accompanying documentation, their user interface, and all of their magnification
and text formatting functions. As with all new products of every kind,
there is some room for improvement in both of these video magnifiers. AFB
TECH will discuss our product evaluation results and conclusions for both
products in our presentation.
Copy Machines
In the summer of 2005, AFB TECH began a project
to evaluate the accessibility of commonly used office equipment. In order
to choose which office equipment products to evaluate, a survey of small
businesses was conducted to determine what office equipment they use and expect
new employees to be able to operate. As a result of this survey, we chose to
evaluate large multi-purpose copy machines as well as smaller, less expensive
desktop multi-purpose printers in the 2005 phase of the project.
The large copy machines we evaluated were the
expensive, copy center style systems that a business might locate in a common
area and have available for all employees to use. These machines can cost
several thousand dollars and are often leased. They can be networked to
everyone's PC work station for printing purposes, or users can operate the
machines directly for copy, fax, scanning, e-mail and
fax purposes.
In our evaluation lab, we examined the
accessibility of the interface of three of these systems, one manufactured by
Pitney-Bowes, one by Sharp, and one by Xerox. We also researched many
other systems over the Internet to see if other systems used similar user
interfaces.
All three of these systems, as well as the
overwhelming majority of the systems researched over the Internet use similar
user interfaces featuring a series of control buttons and a touch screen
display. Because the printing functions are controlled by the user's PC,
there are no accessibility barriers as long as the user has equipped his or her
PC with the appropriate assistive technology such as screen reader or screen
magnifier software. The basic function of making one or multiple copies
of an original document is also accessible. However, nearly all of the
other features and functions of these systems are not accessible to people who
are blind or visually impaired. This is because none of these systems
feature speech output, and because nearly all of the features and functions are
controlled by the inaccessible menus on the touch screen interface. Also,
the visual characteristics of the touch screen interface, such as font size and
contrast, are not designed to be eas!
ily
viewed by people with low vision.
The Xerox system, however, can be connected to a
separate PC equipped with a screen reader and screen magnifier to provide an
accessible interface for blind or visually impaired users. Although this
is the only system available on the market with an accessible interface, it
does add extra cost, and is susceptible to common crash problems associated
with PCs.
The smaller, less
expensive desktop multi-purpose printers evaluated included a Hewlett-Packard
and an Epson system. These desktop systems are much less expensive than
the larger copy center systems, costing between $100 and $200. They can
print, copy, scan and fax, but they are designed for personal use and are not
designed to carry the heavy workload that the larger systems can.
These systems also present accessibility
barriers, but the barriers are not as significant as those presented by the
large copy center systems. Although these systems also do not feature
speech output and have small screen displays that have not been designed to be
easily viewed by people with low vision, they do not feature inaccessible touch
screen controls. Instead, these systems have tactilely discernable
buttons to control their features and functions.
Cell Phones
For the past four years, AFB TECH has been tracking the evolving trends in the accessibility
of cell phones. We have evaluated several cell phones on the market to
determine accessibility for blind or visually impaired users, and to see what
cell phone manufacturers and service providers are doing to comply with what is
commonly referred to as Section 255. Section 255 of the Communications
Act, as amended by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, requires that cell phone
manufacturers and service providers do all that is "readily
achievable" to make each product or service accessible.
Our presentation will provide an overview of
what is currently available on the market for blind and visually impaired cell
phone users, including phones with built-in accessibility features as well as
phones that are compatible with screen reader and screen magnifier software.
We will also discuss our evaluation results and demonstrate some of the
models and their accessibility features.
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