WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

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Re: Something's amiss with the latest survey

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From: David Wu
Date: Aug 28, 2015 2:40PM

In past years Ai Squared did very little, if anything, to pass along the WebAIM survey. As a result, a very large segment of screen reader users were under-represented. In 2015, Ai Squared merely made our user base more aware of the survey. This is nothing more than what other screen reader user groups did in 2014, 2013, 2012, etc.

The higher percentage of ZoomText users from 2014 to 2015 doesn't mean that ZoomText suddenly saw a doubling of sales in the past year. What the data does explain, however, is that partially sighted screen reader users were not counted in the past year's surveys. The big jump in ZoomText share should not be surprising since ZoomText primarily benefits those users who need screen reading but can still see parts of their screen. Because the number of low vision users vastly outnumbers blind users by a ratio of 6 to 1, it is not surprising that when included in the survey in 2015, the market share results for ZoomText have shot up dramatically.

As for Window-Eyes, in January 2014, Microsoft announced that users of Microsoft Office 2010 or later would be able to download a free copy of Window-Eyes. While I am not at liberty to report the number of downloads, I can safely say that it is a monstrous number. Even if heavily discounted for tire kickers and those who downloaded but didn't use Window-Eyes, the numbers would still make a significant impact on overall market share.

Sincerely,

David Wu
CEO
Ai Squared