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Re: Microsoft Accessibility Collaboration Opportunities

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From: Cliff Tyllick
Date: May 13, 2016 11:50PM

Bevi, I had several conversations with the large group Microsoft sent to CSUN. They are definitely interested in making Office products not only more accessible but also more usable for creating accessible content.

You are absolutely on target with the disconnect between the features built into Microsoft applications and the features people who work productively with those applications need. Easily half of the Quick Access styles make no sense—"Intense Emphasis"? Give me a break!

That said, the folks from Microsoft have heard the message. They want to hear what we have to say. So participate in their forums, and follow and tweet to @MSFTEnable, the Microsoft Accessibility Twitter account. It would be easy for us to get adversarial with them, but to do so would be counterproductive. Let them know what you need their software to do. If you have developed hacks or workarounds to get it done, let them know what they are. They know they don't know, and they want to learn.

For my part, I have shared the Productivity Tab for Word 2010, which consolidates many features that support accessibility in one interface. I have also pointed them to the tutorials the Texas state agencies produced on creating accessible documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, respectively.

I think it would be great to get a discussion going with them about the challenges of producing accessible forms in Word. I know of at least two hacky approaches various groups use to make forms accessible in Word. It would be nice if there could be one standard baked-in approach that reliably produced accessible forms. It would be great if selection lists and all the other features that make forms highly usable could also be made to be accessible.

In talking with them, I pointed out how features they created with other purposes in mind—stylesets, for example; page background color, for another—could be used to customize presentations quickly to meet individual needs. And I learned of a feature or two that are helpful but have been well hidden.

So engage them. Make suggestions. And listen. They are eager to work with us to create the products we need.

Best,

Cliff Tyllick
Accessibility Coordinator
Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services
512-438-2494
<EMAIL REMOVED>

Sent from my iPhone
Although its spellcheck often saves me, all goofs in sent messages are its fault.

> On May 13, 2016, at 4:26 PM, Chagnon | PubCom < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
> Yes, Jennifer's suggestion is a good one. Combined with input by a targetted accessibility group, the open public forums can reinforce the need for accessibility.
>
> As a professional beta tester for 30+ years for more software companies than I can count, I've learned several things:
>
> 1. Software engineers know how to program. But they don't know anything about what we users do with their software, so their understanding of what tools we need and the end-products we're trying to create is nil.
>
> 2. They don't have a clue what accessibility is about, especially those engineering teams located in countries that either haven't adopted accessibility laws or haven't yet implemented their countries' policies. The majority of software engineering teams are no longer located in the US, Canada, Europe, and other countries with accessibility laws.
>
> 3. Their bosses, who allocate the R&D funding to program features into the software, don't have a clue what accessibility is about, so they don't give accessibility the go-ahead on the development schedule.
>
> 4. Open forums are managed by the lowest level staff at the software company, usually those without much experience in programming or software use. They literally are counting the number of requests that come in on various topics, and then relaying those numbers to the upper echelons in the marketing department.
>
> Therefore:
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> 1. The more that we can reach the decision makers at the software companies, the greate likelihood we'll see better software in a couple of years.
>
> 2. Having a direct organized group speak directly to them is one method. Open Forums can help, but we'll need to make sure enough "numbers" make their voices heard by the forum counters. Coordination by members of the two groups is critical.
>
> —Bevi Chagnon
>
>
> > > >