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The Idea Place Posts

Accessible Credit Reports

Published April 25, 2008 by Kelly Ford

Previously I blogged about the inaccessibility of the legally mandated annual credit reports that consumers are entitled to from the various credit reporting services. I’m pleased to report that progress has been made in this area and we should be able to obtain accessible credit reports by the end of October of this year.

 

Washington, D.C. (April 23, 2008) – The nation’s three major consumer credit reporting companies today unveiled a comprehensive program to provide improved access to important credit information for people who are blind or visually impaired. The initiative, crafted with the American Council of the Blind, its California affiliate and several individual members of the blind community, will help protect the credit information of individuals who cannot read a standard print credit report.

 

Under the plan announced today, Equifax (NYSE: EFX), Experian (EXPN.L), and TransUnion have begun working to make online credit reports and related information accessible through their jointly operated website, AnnualCreditReport.com, the official site to help consumers obtain free credit reports. Accessible credit reports for people with visual impairments will be available online by October 31 of this year. By the end of the year, the companies will also make credit reports available in Braille and other formats at no charge to qualified individuals who cannot access print information.

 

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Dinner, Ice Cream and Reality TV

Published April 20, 2008 by Kelly Ford

Living in the Seattle area for me is often a mixture of old and new. Old because my father lived in the city of Seattle as a child and frequently speaks of favorite places with fondness. Old too because as a youth of 11, I visited Seattle with part of my family on a vacation to the area. Little did I know that some 22 years later I’d make my home here.

 

The new of Seattle comes in large part from the fact that, unlike my father, I live outside the Seattle city proper in the city of Redmond. This means that there are still many times when an evening out involves going to all new locations in the city.

 

Last evening was one of those adventures of discovery to the West Seattle area for dinner and a play at a small local theater. The night was made especially nice because dinner and the play were both better than expected. Then too, there was some ice cream tossed in for good measure so how can one go wrong?

 

The evening started off with dinner at the Elliott Bay Brewery Pub. While the menu is largely the typical pub grub, I’d have to say that Elliott Bay is well above average in the pub category of restaurants. Service was also topnotch. I also liked the fact that tables were spacious and roomy. There’s nothing worse than eating at a restaurant feeling like you are sharing your table with guests at the surrounding tables because the establishment is cramming too many diners into a cramped location.

 

After dinner we stopped off for some ice cream at the Husky Deli. This is by any measure a Seattle institution famous for ice cream that’s been in business since 1932. I’ll confess to not having heard of it before but Aimee tells me my father always speaks glowingly of it and a quick phone call to him asking if he could guess where I was and a mention of Seattle and ice cream confirmed this fact. Last evening might have been my first visit, but I’m sure it will not be my last. The deli offers a wide assortment of flavors, all made locally at the deli. The Swiss Chocolate orange comes with my personal recommendation and at $2 for a cone the price is more than reasonable.

 

There’s a video of how the ice cream’s made available. If you are using a screen reader, activate the Flash button named 0 to start the video.

 

After a stroll around the West Seattle neighborhood, we headed over to the ArtsWest theater to attend a performance of “The Dead Guy”.

 

The play was billed as a comedic look at reality TV where for a week’s worth of fun and one million dollars a contestant agrees to let the audience choose the method of his death. My brother Joel’s passing is still pretty raw for me so I wasn’t entirely certain how I’d react to the play because there’s a part of me that knows better than ever that death is no laughing matter. Still, I’m somewhat of a student of the media and the general plot of the play appealed to me. I also suspect that in some corners of the media industry the ideas from this play are more than just satire.

 

The ArtsWest theater was a nice discovery by itself. It is a small 149 seat intimate theater where the front row is less than two feet from the non-elevated thrust stage. I really enjoy productions in these types of theaters because of the real sense of connection you feel with the performance. That level of intimacy is simply not possible in larger theaters and no matter the quality of the production, the emotional impact suffers.

 

For me “The Dead Guy” didn’t entirely work. Sometimes the sum of the parts is not better than any individual item and for me this was one such case. The theater was good, the performance from the actors strong and some of the ideas in the play’s dialog thought provoking. Yet the end experience has left me feeling like there was some untapped potential just waiting to be drawn out.

 

Action in the play bounced between the comedic and the maudlin with bouts of preachiness tossed in as well. As an example early in the play the main character attempts to reconcile with a girlfriend only to be rebuffed with a humorous line about her not wanting to be a widow at 21. Yet by play’s end, the two have found love which is consummated by her bringing the man whose death is less than 15 minutes away a bakery treat he cherished from his youth. Unfortunately none of the emotions were delved into enough to leave an overall lasting impression much beyond the closure of the theater’s exit door. Then, perhaps that was in part the intent of the playright as reality TV seems to be in and endless race to push the boundary of believability with events that are really more and more unreal.

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Technology Accessibility Still Needs Major Work

Published April 19, 2008 by Kelly Ford

This article in Computer World is pretty accurate with respect to where accessibility stands today for individuals who are blind.  While I think the writer’s emphasis on the shortcomings of Narrator creates somewhat of a false impression of how full screen readers work, the main themes of the article are pretty accurate.  People who are blind still have to work way too hard to use computing technology and far too often one upgrade or web site change can set things back.  There are also far too many instances of blocking accessibility issues encountered almost daily.

 

The comments are also worth a read.

 

The article has also been making the rounds at Slashdot.

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Report on Proposed Updates To Section 508 Standards Available

Published April 12, 2008 by Kelly Ford

As some may know, a committee of folks from throughout the accessibility arena has been working on a report that recommends changes to the section 508 U.S. federal standards around accessibility. The report was recently made available. A news release talking about the report is available at http://www.access-board.gov/news/teitac-report.htm.

 

The report itself is at http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/refresh/report/. Details on the update process are available at http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/update-index.htm. I’d encourage anyone with an interest in accessibility to get familiar with this report and to watch for updates from the access board and opportunities to comment on proposed updates to Section 508.

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IE8 Beta 1 Available

Published March 14, 2008 by Kelly Ford

With apologies to anyone who’s already read this on my Webwatch e-mail list, I wanted to mention that beta 1 of Internet Explorer 8 is available. This is the product I work on at Microsoft so it is always nice when something I work on is available publicly.

 

I know blog readers sometimes try beta releases from different companies.  I wanted to give folks an alert about IE8 beta 1 should you opt to take it for a test spin.  We are still working through some issues with various screen readers, including JAWS, Window-Eyes and ZoomText.  Sso if you install the IE beta, please pay attention to the release notes.

 

The release notes talk about some key problems with the shipping versions of several products where web content will not be available and the IE menus will not speak.  There are two reg keys detailed in the release notes you can use to work around these issues but if you do not, IE will seem extremely broken.

 

The blog announcement talking about IE8 beta 1 is at:

http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/03/05/internet-explorer-8-beta-1-for-developers-now-available.aspx

 

The release notes are at:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949787

 

Although it isn’t mentioned in the blog post, IE8 beta 1 contains Microsoft’s initial support for Web ARIA.  If you are not familiar with ARIA, it is a way to make complex web applications more accessible and do things like assign roles we are familiar with such as trees, menus and more to HTML elements.  This is a very simplified example.  Personally I think ARIA holds a lot of potential to make the web more functional for screen reading users.  You can learn more at:

ARIA Best Practices – http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-practices/

ARIA Working Draft – http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-wai-aria-20080204/

 

If you opt to try the IE8 beta and have feedback/bugs/issues please feel free to ping me.  We definitely want to know what doesn’t work for the ways you want to use IE.  We also have a blog post at http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/03/05/ie8-beta-feedback.aspx that details the other feedback mechanisms for the beta.

 

By the way, we still have an open test position to help us with accessibility testing across the product.  The link for more details on that position is at http://members.microsoft.com/careers/search/details.aspx?JobID=EDC85083-8FD9-4E16-BE2B-1B736C30E3AC&start=1&interval=10&SortCol=DatePosted.  If that link doesn’t work for you use job code 186473 and search US jobs off of http;//Microsoft.com/careers.

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Joel Brian Ford, R.I.P. 1969-2008

Published January 20, 2008 by Kelly Ford

On January 16, 2008 my youngest brother Joel unexpectedly passed away. If accessibility in the web world means we have access to more information, then I guess it means we have access to more sadness because reading my baby brother’s obituary for myself has been part of the most profoundly sad experience of my life.

 

These words were read at Joel’s funeral and I share them here knowing that Joel is and always will be with us in spirit.

 

 

Joel,

 

Days and nights of our youth were filled with endless hours of play. In summer baseball, swimming, camping in the backyard and countless adventures to the store where fifty cents made us feel like millionaires. Spring and fall were witness to the weather’s change but the love of two boys growing and learning together remained the same. Football, Halloween candy hunts, roof top jumping to the leaves piled so high. Never mind that dad said to stop, it was an adventure that was waiting to be experienced.

 

In Your teenage years I marveled at your basketball prowess. So many championships, so much success for you.

 

As we grew our adventures changed. How exciting as two young people to have some pocket change and experience together the excitement of video games. Like all you put your mind to in life, you were never content to just play the newest game. You climbed the mountain and conquered each opportunity that was put before you.

 

My first job. My first bicycle. Bent handle bars, body over the hood of a car. How much more memorable the experience when you didn’t let me know about that parked car. The humor and laughter ring true even today. How much more memorable the experience than just two boys out for a bike ride. As the officials of your beloved basketball would say ,”no harm no foul.”

 

Like the two roads in Frost’s The Road less Travelled, our paths diverged at times. What a joy to have them connect again in Portland, The Rose City. You then a father and how wonderful to see the pride and joy you took in building a world for your angelic Jessica.

 

As adults it was back to the games of our youth. Baseball and cookouts in the backyard, adventures to Seattle to watch the Mariners. The joy of rediscovery of the brother of my youth.

 

Scientists tell us that in the universe for every action there’s an equal an opposite reaction. Some of that “book learning” of mine, I know. My heart hurts so much but I know it is only because the equal and opposite reaction is the joy you brought to so many in this world.

 

I love you my brother. I love the strength of conviction you showed in all you did. Your beliefs were those of your own and you stood strong for what you believed was right.

 

Father, brother, son, friend. Four words I know but these say so much and you lived up to all of them. You were and always will be Joel, a father to Jessica, a brother to myself and many others and a friend to so many more and most importantly a son to mom and dad.

 

Some brotherly advice too my dear Joel. Heaven’s your new home but please give God a break before you start telling him how to run the joint. I know you can do it better so go easy on the guy.

 

I love you my brother. Rest in peace.

 

Kelly

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Google Toolbar Adds Accessibility

Published December 26, 2007 by Kelly Ford

A recent posting on the Google Blog announced that Google’s toolbar for Internet Explorer added accessibility enhancements. The gist of the posting is that keyboard access to the various toolbar buttons as well as better support for Microsoft Active Accessibility has been added.

 

This release adds support for Windows Accessibility APIs (used by screen readers, etc.) and enables keyboard navigation and access. From inside a browser with Toolbar installed, the global shortcut Alt+G places your cursor in the Google Toolbar search box. If you’re using a screen reader, you’ll hear “Google Toolbar Search”. Pressing the Tab key brings keyboard focus to the button placed immediately after the search box, and right and left arrow keys move focus between buttons. More information on keyboard access is documented in the Toolbar Help Center.

 

Using the keyboard access in the toolbar is straight forward. From within Internet Explorer, press alt+g and focus is placed in a search edit box for searching Google. Press tab once and focus moves to a search button. From that point use left and right arrows to explore and access the various toolbar buttons. Enter typically activates the button with focus, while down arrow brings up options for that button. Finally the typical keyboard method for right click/context of shift+F10 or the application key on your keyboard brings up further options on many buttons. It seems like a nice job of improving keyboard access here.

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Interesting Video Service

Published December 19, 2007 by Kelly Ford

I’m not a big television watcher but on occasion do enjoy an episode or two of some of the older classics. Typically that has come in the form of a DVD from Netflix or my cable television’s on demand service.

 

While both of these solutions do satisfy my need to watch the occasional show they are not without problems. In the case of Netflix, there’s the obvious that you need to have requested the DVD and it has to be sent to your house and such. As much as I enjoy Netflix, this hardly fits the bill when you’d like to kick back and enjoy an episode of some previous favorite show. We do all need that immediate gratification these days after all.

 

Cable television’s on-demand service is intended to fill this need for immediate entertainment. Great but I’ve not yet found a cable system with an accessible on-demand menu system.

 

I recently signed up for a beta of a service called Hulu that’s claim to potential fame is that it wants to make video available “when, where and how you want it.” So far I’ve been pleased with the service. Sign up was straight forward and a few days after indicating my interest, I received an e-mail and in a matter of minutes was watching some old TV classics.

 

Site accessibility isn’t perfect. There are many instances of missing alternative text that makes browsing with a screen reader more problematic. Still one can figure out where the untagged links lead and more or less use the service. Feedback on every page also makes prompting for improvements in this area a snap.

 

The video player used seems to be Flash technology. Buttons are missing labels so this is a bit of a challenge if you want to pause or otherwise control the video. Trial and error does help here though. The folks over at Adobe have a great Flash accessibility site that I’ve mentioned in feedback to Hulu so hopefully they’ll respond.

 

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A Holiday Treat From The Past

Published December 3, 2007 by Kelly Ford

Several years ago friends of mine had the creative idea of producing an audio Christmas card for family and friends. I had the privilege of serving as audio engineer for the project, as much as a day’s recording in a home computer room turned recording studio can be called a project. I’m sharing the music from that CD with permission and hope blog readers will enjoy the talents of these folks as much as I have over the years.

The music is a collection of holiday classics and original compositions by the then Rachael Robinson. Her daughter Sarah joins as vocalist on several tracks and Harv Robinson (rest in peace) has a stirring introduction to the original composition “You Shine,” a heartfelt ballad that speaks to those people who are special in our lives.

“Vision,” has long been a favorite of mine from Rachael’s library of music. The bouncy fun tune hits home at the frustration I think anyone who is blind feels from time to time when society doesn’t seem to see us as people first and defines us strictly by our lack of sight.

In “Too Much For Thirteen” Rachael captures the fear, pride and essence of homelessness from a child’s perspective. It is one of the most moving pieces of social commentary in any form I’ve ever heard.

The power and richness of Rachael’s vocal ability can be heard in the holiday classic “What Child Is This.” To my ears, her rendition is as compelling as the versions I hear on radio during the holiday season.

A total of nine tracks were recorded for the CD. Enjoy this holiday treat.

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