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From: Hoffman, Allen
Date: Tue, Feb 22 2011 11:03AM
Subject: open vs. closed products or accessibility supported or not
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Question:
When is a system considered accessibility supported, or "open/closed"?.

If a system has available assistive technology, available accessibility
services for applications to utilize, but no inspection tools are
available to determine if indeed object information is being used, and
if so, is it accurate, is the platform considered accessibility
supported or open/closed?

So, for Apple platform what inspection tools are there?
So for Android, what inspection tools are there?
So, for Blackberry what inspection tools are there?
So, for WebOS what inspection tools are there, or for that matter what
accessibility services are there?

I know Linux and windows inspection tools exist.



Allen Hoffman

From: Paul.Adam
Date: Tue, Feb 22 2011 2:18PM
Subject: Re: open vs. closed products or accessibility supported or not
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Apple's Mac and iOS platforms are accessibility supported. They include accessibility features at no extra cost such as the VoiceOver screen reader, Zoom screen magnification, and White on Black reverse contrast mode. VoiceOver supports accessibility of native apps and web sites accessed through Safari.

Just like any other platform it is up to the developers of the app or website to include the necessary accessibility attributes to interface with Apple's Accessibility API and make their product sound great with VoiceOver.

To inspect for accessibility you can run the accessibility inspector on the app in the iOS device simulator. The Inspector will display in text what accessibility attributes are applied to each element clicked on.

You can also use VoiceOver on the physical iPhone or iPad device to test apps and websites for accessibility. I do it all the time. I love to use my iPhone and iPad as a web accessibility testing tool! It's also a great way to explain my job to people. ARIA works as well.

All I know about Android is that many features are accessible but not all their native apps are such as the mail and the browser which is a pretty big limitation. I hear they are working on it and hopefully one day it will be able to compete with iOS.

I know blackberry has a screen reader that they charge extra for unlike iOS or Android.

Don't know anything about WebOS. I hope they are working on it though with their HP TouchPad tablet coming out.

For the open/closed system question. You could say that Apple's app store is closed because they have special requirements to gain entry. Disappointingly though, accessibility is NOT required for entry. But their Safari browser is essentially an open system, if you don't count flash or other plug-ins. It's based on the open-source WebKit project that's used for
Android and Chrome too. So there are no special requirements to create a Web App for iOS.

Paul Adam
Accessibility Specialist
Center for Policy and Innovation
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =

From: Tim Harshbarger
Date: Tue, Feb 22 2011 2:27PM
Subject: Re: open vs. closed products or accessibility supported or not
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Looking at the WCAG 2.0 information about "accessibility supported", I
don't think the existence of inspection tools are necessary to consider
the technology accessibility supported.

It seems to me that as long as the technology allows an application to
pass information through an accessibility framework to user
agents/assistive technology and that information is then passed along to
the user, then the technology could be considered accessibility
supported.

If my understanding is correct, then I would think the only thing that
is necessary to determine if a technology is accessibility supported
would be to set up a series of test cases using the technology to see if
accessibility information is conveyed to the user. An inspection tool
would be useful in determining where any failures occur, but the test
case would just have to fail for the technology to be considered not
accessibility supported.

From: Sailesh Panchang
Date: Tue, Feb 22 2011 2:33PM
Subject: Re: open vs. closed products or accessibility supported or not
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Allen,
A closed system is a device to which nothing can be attached
externally to facilitate accessibility. So no AT can be attached or
loaded. The closed system may have built-in accessibility like a
screen reader, magnifier , voice input mechanism etc. so that all /
most features of the product are generally accessible to most
disability types. Such a product is certainly "assistive technology
supported" or "accdessibility enabled". To be so labeled, it is not
necessary for one to use an "inspector" type program to evaluate
accessibility. One simply has to use the product with the tools it
offers and test if one can accomplish all tasks reliably.
Thanks,
Sailesh Panchang


On 2/22/11, Hoffman, Allen < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Question:
> When is a system considered accessibility supported, or "open/closed"?.
>
> If a system has available assistive technology, available accessibility
> services for applications to utilize, but no inspection tools are
> available to determine if indeed object information is being used, and
> if so, is it accurate, is the platform considered accessibility
> supported or open/closed?
>
> So, for Apple platform what inspection tools are there?
> So for Android, what inspection tools are there?
> So, for Blackberry what inspection tools are there?
> So, for WebOS what inspection tools are there, or for that matter what
> accessibility services are there?
>
> I know Linux and windows inspection tools exist.
>
>
>
> Allen Hoffman
>

From: Daniel Tang (dtang)
Date: Tue, Feb 22 2011 5:06PM
Subject: Re: open vs. closed products or accessibility supported or not
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Paul:

Thank you for the info.

Daniel Tang

Accessibility Specialist

CDAN Global Co-Chair

From: Hoffman, Allen
Date: Wed, Feb 23 2011 12:39PM
Subject: Re: open vs. closed products or accessibility supported ornot
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So what if the AT has a bug and isn't picking up the information right?
Tests fail for this reason based on an AT vendor issue. Platforms where
accessibility services are provided should provide inspection tools so
this can be independently validated by developers, and acceptance and
quality assurance testers.

From: Tim Harshbarger
Date: Wed, Feb 23 2011 3:18PM
Subject: Re: open vs. closed products or accessibility supportedornot
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The way I am reading it, if the AT doesn't pick that information up and
convey it to the user and you deem that AT necessary for a technology to
be considered accessibility supported, then that technology is not
accessibility supported. The way I am understanding accessibility
supported, it means that all the pieces need to be in place and working.

If the situation is that the AT use to work, but now has a bug that
prevents it from working, then you probably need to decide if the issue
is just temporary, long term, or permanent.

My thought is that the benefit of an inspection tool is that it lets you
know where the problem is so that you can fix it and deem the technology
accessibility supported. or that the technology is being used in a
accessibility supported manner.

At least, that is my take on it.

Thanks!
Tim