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Re: Adobe Connect & accessibility

for

From: Andrew Kirkpatrick
Date: Oct 4, 2010 11:15AM

Hadi,

What I am taking exception to is your stating that you are unaware of any plans to make Connect accessible, nothing more.

There's a big difference between these two statements:

1) I did a study on web conferencing tools and Connect was not very accessible compared to other tools, and I don't know of any plans by Adobe to address the issues.
2) I did a study on web conferencing tools and Connect was not very accessible compared to other tools, and Adobe stated at the CSUN conference in March 2010 that they were working to make Connect accessible to assistive technology users.

My concern is that what you wrote sounded like #1 when I've worked to make sure that you and others are aware that there is a plan in place and that work is going on, which sounds like #2. Since a lot of software is developed on a 12-24 month release cycle, it is not unexpected that six months may pass without seeing a new version, but that does not change the fact that work is proceeding.

I've been discussing doing a webinar such as you describe with the product team. I'm looking forward to sharing our progress as soon as possible.

Thanks,
AWK

Andrew Kirkpatrick
Group Product Manager, Accessibility
Adobe Systems

<EMAIL REMOVED>
http://twitter.com/awkawk
http://blogs.adobe.com/accessibility


-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Hadi Rangin
Sent: Monday, October 04, 2010 12:44 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Adobe Connect & accessibility

Hi Andrew,

I really don't want to repeat the same discussion that we had earlier this
year here at this forum publically unless you prefer it and find it
beneficial.
What you were suggesting at your presentation is not even a work-around
solution-- at least not from my perspective. You suggest the following to
make Adobe Connect accessible to screen reader users:

* Screen sharing -Screen sharing requires that the presenter
self-audio-describing information on your screen.
* Document sharing -documents can be shared in advance.

* VOIP -can be used accessibly, provided that captioning is available. Chat
pod can be used for speaking into the meeting.



Do you really expect that presenters would describe what they show or do
during their presentations? How many times end-users have on-time access to
the presenters to obtain the necessary documents in advance? How about the
on-the-fly web tour? How do I know who is in the room? How I can send a
private message to selected users? How I can read the text chat information
real-time or in a reasonable time?



I don't know how people use Adobe Connect in the higher education
environment because I can't use it but I see that Elluminate and Talking
Communities are used in a very fast pace and interactive environment and
users are required to interact promptly.



I think we all know that Adobe Connect is not accessible to screen reader
users and you admit it in your presentation and I like your honesty.



Anyway, last time I saw you talked about accessibility of Adobe Connect was
at the CSUN conference and it was over 6 months ago.

Would you be willing to setup a webinar on accessibility of Adobe Connect
with focus on screen reader accessibility in near future? I think there are
many people like myself who would like to learn more about the accessibility
features in particular for screen reader users in the upcoming Adobe
Connect.



Thanks & regards,

Hadi







----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew Kirkpatrick" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
To: "WebAIM Discussion List" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Sent: Friday, October 01, 2010 9:01 AM
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Adobe Connect & accessibility


> Hadi,
> I'm surprised to hear you say that you are not aware of any redesign plan.
> This was one of the featured points of my talk at CSUN in San Diego last
> year, which you attended. Perhaps you mean that you haven't seen a spec
> for the planned changes - I can't tell from your message, but it is public
> information that improvements are planned.
>
> http://blogs.adobe.com/accessibility/files/accessibility/assets/adobe_connect_csun2010.pdf
>
>
>
> Thanks,
> AWK
>
> Andrew Kirkpatrick
> Group Product Manager, Accessibility
> Adobe Systems
>
> <EMAIL REMOVED>
> http://twitter.com/awkawk
> http://blogs.adobe.com/accessibility
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Hadi Rangin
> Sent: Friday, October 01, 2010 9:55 AM
> To: WebAIM Discussion List
> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Adobe Connect & accessibility
>
> Hi Deborah,
>
> Andrew Kirkpatric and product manager for Adobe Connect are well informed
> about the accessibility issues of Adobe Connect for screen reader users.
> We
> had a series of communication and discussion with Andrew and his team on
> this subject. They would love to make it accessible but I am not aware
> about
> any redesign or new design plan. Andrew please let us know if there is
> such
> plan.
>
> I have conducted an accessibility evaluation on several Web Conferencing
> Tools; you are welcome to read the result at:
>
> http://bargirangin.com/conf/csun2010/
> or
> https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/hadi/www/conf/csun2010/
>
> Thanks,
> Hadi
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> To: "WebAIM Discussion List" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> Sent: Friday, October 01, 2010 8:04 AM
> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Adobe Connect & accessibility
>
>
>> When I tested the keyboard/voice control accessibility of Adobe
>> connect for my employers two years ago, my report to them said,
>> "Adobe connect: no accessibility at all. This is somewhat
>> surprising, since Adobe tries hard to be decent with
>> accessibility, so I wonder if further communication with the
>> company would reveal more information. But the help files say
>> nothing."
>>
>> This obviously isn't helpful -- I don't know what it is about
>> Adobe connect that I couldn't use. My guess is that I probably
>> couldn't get into the base controls by voice at all, which
>> meant that I couldn't test to see if anything beyond that initial
>> startup was accessible. I know that my employers did some
>> outreach to Adobe about accessibility, and I'm pretty sure they
>> didn't hear anything.
>>
>> On the other hand, this was two years ago. I would be willing to
>> believe things have changed.
>>
>> -deborah
>>
>>