Thread Subject: Re: BIOS Accessibility(TETIAC) - from within Windows- HP solution

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From: Peter Korn
Date: Fri, Jul 13 2007 2:05 PM

Gregg,

You are asking the wrong question. The BIOS isn't in Vista. The BIOS
is in the firmware of the chips on an x86 computer. My Sun Opteron
workstation (using AMD's Operaton processor that uses the Intel x86
instruction set) contains a BIOS. And there is no Windows anywhere near
it (the closest Windows is several feet away, on another desk).

In the case of Dell, HP, Lenovo, it appears there is a program that will
run on Windows (XP, Vista, what-have-you) that presents a user interface
for making BIOS settings changes. That program may (or may not) be
accessible. The user interface that the BIOS itself presents - code
running from the firmware before any OS is loaded - faces huge
challenges in being fully accessible due to the nature of the computing
system at the time that that user interface is running.

Perhaps next week I can give a quick demo of this to you (and anyone
else interested) in DC over lunch...


Regards,

Peter Korn
Accessibility Architect,
Sun Microsystems, Inc.


> Hmmmmm.
>
> Is there a BIOS in Vista?
>
> If there is, then there is a BIOS in 90-95% of the computer workstations in
> the US gov (cause there is on all other Windows).
>
> That seems pretty significant.
>
> The question though is " Is the BIOS a user setting or not" . and is it
> covered by our other provisions or not.
>
> This may not be such a problem depending. But we should look at it
> functionally and not treat is all as one type of issue or paint it all in or
> all out.
>
>
> Gregg
> -- ------------------------------
> Gregg C Vanderheiden Ph.D.
>
>
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
>> [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf
>> Of Peter Korn
>> Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2007 3:47 PM
>> To: TEITAC General Interface Accessibility Subcommittee
>> Cc: TEITAC desktop/portable (hardware) subcommittee; TEITAC
>> Web/Software Subcommittee
>> Subject: Re: [teitac-websoftware] [teitac-general] BIOS
>> Accessibility(TETIAC) - from within Windows- HP solution
>>
>> Hi Allen, guys,
>>
>> Please remember that the BIOS issues we are discussing are an
>> implementation detail of x86 PC-based systems. There is no
>> exposed BIOS user-interface for almost every other computing
>> architecture and device.
>> Not on Macintosh, not on SPARC, not on cell phones, not on
>> copiers, not on MP3 players.
>>
>> The exposed BIOS user interface is a program running in a
>> limited environment - there is no OS yet, there is no
>> platform-defined set of themes or color/contrast, etc.
>>
>> I believe strongly that it would be wrong for us to write
>> BIOS recommendations in TEITAC.
>>
>> We should treat the user interaction functionality provided
>> by BIOS configuration programs as we would anything else. If
>> the system is a "closed" system at the time the BIOS is
>> running (no way to run AT), then those provisions should
>> apply. If there are no system-define color and contrast
>> settings that the BIOS config UI can draw from, then we have
>> other rules that apply. Etc.
>>
>> We can also ask the question of whether BIOS re-configuration
>> that one can do from a running system (as we're seeing are
>> available from laptops from HP, Dell, and Lenovo) is
>> sufficient. Since making changes to these settings during the
>> boot process is something you only *have* to do at that time
>> when the system is failing to boot, I suggest that the "fix a
>> system when it is broken" situation is largely outside of the
>> scope of most of the 508 technical standards. Based on that,
>> I suggest that BIOS re-configuration programs that you can
>> use on a running system should suffice, so long as they are
>> of course accessible.
>>
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Peter Korn
>> Accessibility Architect,
>> Sun Microsystems, Inc.
>>
>>
>>
>>> One more follow up.
>>> now that we do know that some BIOS(s) are updateable from
>>>
>> post-boot,
>>
>>> as i recalled, can we require that, for example and
>>>
>> discussions sake:
>>
>>> Desktop and portable computers hardware configuration options
>>> available at pre-boot time, must also be configurable after boot.
>>> This seems broad enough to allow various solutions to meet this
>>> requirement.
>>> I'd think this requirement would go in "hardware".
>>>
>>> Allen Hoffman -- = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ; v: 202-447-0303
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>> --
>>> *From:* = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
>>> [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] *On Behalf
>>>
>> Of *Gregg
>>
>>> Vanderheiden
>>> *Sent:* Thursday, July 12, 2007 10:28 AM
>>> *To:* 'TEITAC General Interface Accessibility
>>>
>> Subcommittee'; 'TEITAC
>>
>>> Web/Software Subcommittee'; 'TEITAC desktop/portable (hardware)
>>> subcommittee'
>>> *Subject:* [teitac-general] BIOS Accessibility (TETIAC) -
>>>
>> from within
>>
>>> Windows- HP solution
>>>
>>> We talked about having an application in Windows that would set the
>>> BIOS values. HP does this as a standard provision in their current
>>> laptops.
>>>
>>> The BIOS provides WMI (Windows Management Interface) for
>>>
>> exploring and
>>
>>> changing BIOS configuration settings under Windows.
>>>
>>> The GUI is provided through HP ProtectTools and the plug-in
>>>
>> is called
>>
>>> BIOS Configuration.
>>>
>>> The ProtectTools utility is under the START menu in a
>>>
>> folder labeled
>>
>>> "HP". A screen shot of the utility is provided below
>>>
>>> Thanks Michael for the pointer and for doing things like this at HP.
>>>
>>> (Picture courtesy of my own laptop)
>>>
>>> Gregg
>>>
>>> -- ------------------------------
>>>
>>> Gregg C Vanderheiden Ph.D.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>> --
>>>
>>>

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