Three assistants for a visually impaired PC user. Accessibility of applications for users with visual impairments

There are 180 million blind and visually impaired people in the world. Every year this number increases. According to experts, by 2020 there will be 275 million people on earth with serious vision problems.

20–30 years ago in the arsenal of the blind and visually impaired people there were only canes, guide dogs and protozoa electronic devices With voice function(watch, landlines). But today we live in a digital world. In the world of gadgets, messengers and interfaces.

The life hacker decided to find out how the blind and visually impaired are integrated into the IT environment. Does modern technology help them? Are mainstream devices accessible to them?

Hardware and software

Blind people today have access to ordinary portable and desktop computers. You don't need braille displays, keyboards or talking scanners to work with documents or surf the web. All of these devices are on the market, but they are quite expensive (the starting price for a Braille display is $2,000) and, as a rule, are used only in specialized institutions for the blind (schools, libraries, rehabilitation centers).

To make a regular PC accessible to a blind person, you only need to install two programs on it:

screen reader is a program screen access, which reads everything that happens on the user’s screen;
a speech synthesizer is a program that converts digital information, which is read by the screen reader, into spoken speech.

There are several screen access programs. The most popular ones are JAWS and NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA). Typically, blind people use both, but the latter is more popular because it is free and open source.

There are also many synthesizers: Acapela, Vokalizer, RHVoice and others. Many screen readers and OS have a built-in synthesizer.

Pavel Malyshev:
We mainly work on Windows. Firstly, this OS is the most affordable (Mac is, of course, great, but not everyone can afford it, and Linux is too complicated in terms of settings for us). Secondly, starting with the “eight” the system has a built-in screen reader. We are waiting for the final Windows release 10 - there will be even more opportunities.

The choice of speech synthesizer depends on the personal preferences of the blind or visually impaired person. Some people prefer to hear female voice, for some - male; Some people don’t pay attention to the robotic quality, others are looking for a synthesizer with the most “live” voice possible.

Maria Yakimova(blind), editor of the “Computers and We” group:
Different synthesizers reproduce the same text differently. For example, if you write “aaaa” (like a scream), then some people read it as a long “a” (draw out the sound), others pronounce it simply as one letter. To read English text it is better to put special voice, since, for example, “Melena” pronounces the word bluetooth as “bluetoop”. Also synthesizers don't notice spelling errors and accents are often confused.

Blind people practically do not use a mouse, but they are fluent in using a keyboard. Blind typing (no pun intended) in in this case not a cool skill, but a basic skill. With help various combinations hotkeys blind and visually impaired people work with various programs.

The choice of software for blind people is determined by how accessible a particular program is for a screen reader. For example, a package Microsoft Office almost completely readable. There are even special courses for teaching blind and visually impaired people how to use Word, Excel, etc.

Blind people prefer to read and send mail through a mail client - web versions are often not entirely accessible (the exception is Gmail). Popular programs for the blind and visually impaired to work with by email- Mozilla Thunderbird, The Bat! .

Skype is the most convenient messenger from the point of view of a person deprived of the ability to see. And the point is not only that in this case it is easier to communicate by voice, but that screen access programs work well with it (you can easily find desired contact, call or hang up). Also used voice chat TeamTalk.

As for browsers, the most adapted are considered Mozilla Firefox And Internet Explorer. Chrome is less convenient. The reason is again simple and banal - there are no labeled buttons that a screen reader could read.

At the same time, blind people draw information not only from text or audio content.

Pavel Malyshev:
We enjoy “watching” YouTube. The only problem is that the player sometimes conflicts with screen reader programs. It is difficult to determine whether the player is in focus or not. If not, it doesn't respond to keyboard commands.

As you can see, the software set of a blind person is not much different from the software of an ordinary user. The same cannot be said about computer games.

Games

Computer games - an important part digital world. Gamers are ready to argue until they are hoarse which is better: Xbox or PlayStation, and developers are ready to invest millions of dollars to make their games even more realistic.

Blind people also love games, but they game process to a sighted person it will seem extremely strange.

Roman Gerus(blind), arranger:
We have both strategy and shooting games. They are audio-oriented, meaning there is nothing on the screen. Locations are built using sounds: you walk along the corridor (you hear steps), boom - you hit a wall, turn around, move on, etc.

Games for the blind are mainly Western, non-Russian developments. Most of them are logic puzzles (chess, checkers, card games). One of the largest Russian-language portals with games for the blind is ontoys.net.

Social media

They say that in the world of the blind, things are as they really are. It doesn't matter if your mug is white or with a fashionable print - it's just a mug. For sighted people, social networks sometimes replace reality. What role do VKontakte, Facebook and other social networks play in the lives of blind people?

Web versions social networks are not always readable by screen readers, which is why many people with visual impairments use the Miranda program. Blind people joke: “The developers themselves probably don’t know what a convenient thing they made for us.” Using social networks through programs is also more convenient because they do not have pop-up windows. If a common person can close an unnecessary banner in one click, then the blind person has to wait while the screen reader reads it.

The Kate Mobile app is often used on mobile devices. According to blind people, it is more convenient native application VKontakte, and most importantly, its developers easily engage in dialogue and take into account wishes.

Usability by touch

The Internet is filled with graphics. More recently, the desire for beautiful and colorful design, an abundance of animation and flash was perceived as progress and a “living future.” But for the blind, all this created many problems.

Pavel Malyshev:
It used to be simpler: screen readers could read almost any website without any problems. But every year there are more and more graphics - screen access programs cannot keep up with this process. Of course, we cannot say to sighted people: “Friends, how about these pictures?” We need a compromise. And it seems to me that he is close. At least the trend towards minimalism and simplicity in design contributes to this. :)

Few people know, but there are standards for developing websites for people with special needs, including the blind. These standards are voluntary; few developers adhere to them. After all, usability development for ordinary users- already not an easy task, which requires considerable resources, and usability for special groups of people is even more difficult. Balancing the interests of all users is quite difficult.

A pleasant fact: according to blind users, Lifehacker is 90% perceived by screen access programs.

Websites for the blind are quite ascetic

Mobile devices

A blind person has well-developed other senses. Hearing and touch become more acute. The ears and hands actually become the eyes of the blind.

At the end of last year, Indian inventor Sumit Dagar presented his development - smartphone for blind and visually impaired people. The essence of the innovation is that, using a special touch (!) display, graphic and text information translated into Braille. This is achieved by lowering and rising microneedles, thereby creating a relief. According to press reports, after entering the market, such a smartphone will cost about $185.

But do the blind need this gadget if mobile devices Can a touchscreen be made accessible by software?

Pavel Malyshev:
Push-button devices on Symbian or Windows Mobile could be mastered in half an hour. Get used to touch screen a little more complicated, but with screen readers (VoiceOver for Apple and Talkback for Android) the problem can be solved.

Voice assistants also provide great help to the blind. They allow you to control your smartphone using your voice. They are familiar to you: Siri, Cortana, Google Now and others.

True, most of them do not speak Russian (with the exception of Google Now). In this regard, it stands out noticeably against their background Russian-speaking assistant"Dusya."

Lifehacker has already told his readers about how this Android application works and its capabilities (,). If you are not yet familiar with Dusya, watch the video below.

In addition, modern multi-pixel cameras and without any additional software - excellent helpers. Visually impaired people, that is, those who are not completely blind, use zoom cameras like portable digital magnifiers.

Object recognition

With the advent of blind people mobile gadgets Applications began to appear that improve its quality.

Pavel Malyshev:
Three years ago there were very few useful or simply available applications(either the button is not labeled, or something else). That's it now more programs, making our life easier.

One of the main difficulties that blind people face in Everyday life, is object recognition. For example, you can hear an approaching bus, but not its number. In this regard, people with visual impairments are actively trying various applications, allowing you to read the surrounding landscape.

Roman Gerus:
If the bill is not new, it is almost impossible to distinguish its denomination by touch. No relief stripes will help.

This problem is perfectly solved by the Blind-Droid Wallet application. If you bring a banknote to your smartphone’s camera, the speech synthesizer will immediately output: “1,000 rubles” or “100 dollars.”

Another example is Google Goggles. Not all medications are labeled in Braille. This app can help you out when you need to read a label.

It's more difficult in the store. There is no program yet that would read product names and price tags. But there is an idea to create a similar service.

“Utrofon” is a service designed to help blind people navigate the city (go shopping, read signs, transport numbers, etc.). The operating principle is described in detail in this video, but in a nutshell, it attaches behind the ear like a headset special device(actually a “utrophon”), equipped with a camera, headphones, microphone and 3G. When a blind person needs help, he calls a special call center, and the person on the other end of the line describes the surrounding situation.

Orientation in space

A guy goes to school, a girl walks down the street, an old man climbs the stairs... You won’t immediately understand that they are blind. How do they manage to navigate space so deftly, because they don’t have a cane or a guide’s leash in their hands?

Eye surgeon Anthony Vipin Das and his team have been working on creating tactile shoes for many years. The idea is that GPS will guide a blind person by transmitting signals to the insole of the shoe (slight vibration). The project is called Le Chal (translated from Hindi as “take me”), it is considered promising, and even won a two-million dollar grant from the US Department of Defense.

But for now, this, like many other concepts, is just a theory. In practice, things are much more complicated with spatial orientation for blind and visually impaired people.

Pavel Malyshev:
Conventional navigators are not suitable for us; we use OsmAnd (for Android) and Ariadne (for iOS). They allow you not only to plot a route by voice, but also to follow it, guided by sound prompts, and “look around” the area. Even transport stops are announced (especially convenient for minibuses).

We discussed the problem of orientation of blind people in space with a robotics engineer, general director Oriense company by Vitaly Kitaev.

Vitaly Kitaev:“Every year, a couple of startups appear that are full of enthusiasm and believe that the problems of the blind can be solved easily and quickly, armed with GPS and ultrasonic and infrared sensors.

Electronic canes, ultrasonic flashlights - there are many such devices on the market. But they are of little functionality, since they detect obstacles only at the point where they are directed, have a large error and are expensive.

Another group of devices are locators that convert 2D images into audio or tactile images (vOICe and AuxDeco systems). They take a regular monochrome image and translate each tonality of a black and white pixel into audio or tactile signal respectively. But the problem is that in the first case it becomes cluttered audio channel, and in the second - there is a high probability of tactile addiction.

There is also now an interesting Israeli project OrCam. This is the so-called virtual vision system. The technology scans the surrounding space, recognizes faces and gestures, and can even read printed text. But, unfortunately, the project is aimed only at visually impaired audiences, that is, a person must see at least the outlines of objects.”

Vitaliy’s company is also developing a device for spatial orientation for blind and visually impaired people. It's called Oriense.

Oriense is a device consisting of three modules: glasses with a 3D stereo camera, a computing unit that can be put in your pocket or hung on your belt, and headphones. A 3D stereo camera allows you to not only understand the position of a pixel in X and Y, but also see the distance to it. This creates a depth map. The device also processes signals from position sensors and GPS and generates a 3D audio image for the user and voice description landscape. 3D audio imaging is a change in tone and subtlety sound signal, allowing you to quickly identify an obstacle. According to the developers, they are striving to make a device that is superior to existing GPS navigators. For example, Oriense already has functions for recognizing holes and steps, traffic light colors, and in the future its creators plan to ensure that the device also reads vehicle license plates.

Does this mean that a blind person can live without a cane?

Pavel Malyshev:
No matter how perfect the system is, it does not eliminate the use of a cane. The device will not be able, for example, to measure the depth of a puddle in front of a blind person, but with the help of a cane a person will be able to feel it.

Future

Technologies and the people who create them are by no means blind to those who are deprived of the opportunity to see the world in all its beauty. Thanks to screen readers, speech synthesizers and voice assistants visually impaired persons have full access to computers, tablets and touch phones. Every year, concepts for devices appear that are designed to improve the quality of life of the blind and visually impaired. Color detection sensors, measuring rulers, navigator bracelets - what designers and developers don’t come up with. Some will say that these are just beautiful ideas, but isn't it thought that creates action?

We asked blind children if they feel the positive impact of technology on their lives, and this is what they answered.

Computers and the Internet give us limitless possibilities. We can read and quickly receive any information. But, on the other hand, live communication suffers.
Roman Gerus

Of course technology helps. It becomes more convenient. The only thing I would like is for all programs and devices to fit into one small gadget like Apple Watch.
Pavel Malyshev

Internet and Newest technologies allow us to be equal to everyone else. You can also study, communicate, be creative, and get answers to your questions.
Maria Yakimova

Probably many, having met blind person or having heard about it, they wonder: “How do people with visual impairments use the telephone, find the information they need on the Internet, read e-books and communicate on social networks?”

Very few people know that there are screen access programs (screen readers) that voice any action performed, any object under the mouse cursor, any key pressed using a speech synthesizer. IN Lately The press is trying to cover this issue, but in all cases they mention one screen reader program - “JAWS for windows”, which has modest capabilities and a high price.

In fact, there are many similar programs on a non-commercial basis, the functionality of which sometimes even exceeds the capabilities paid analogues. However, this article will not talk about this, but about how various gadgets help people with visual impairments in everyday life and about the accessibility of many applications and services for screen access programs.

A little history

When the first computers appeared, no one thought about how the blind would use them. The computer was a device for the elite, it required serious preparation, huge base knowledge and skills. But when computers became available to the average user and began to appear in every third person’s home, the question arose of how to use all the capabilities of the device without seeing the screen. Two answers immediately come to mind: by hearing and by touch. And both of these options were brought to life. It became possible to use the computer by ear using the same screen access programs, and by touch using the so-called “Braille displays.” This name in itself may be incomprehensible to many, because not everyone knows what Braille is. This is a font in which each character corresponds to a combination of one or more (up to six, and in the computer version - up to ten) dots. But Braille displays are quite bulky and require specific drivers, so they are more often used on computers in specialized institutions for people with visual impairments. But screen readers work almost everywhere, and do not require any powerful processor, no drivers. Let's finish the story here and move on to the main problem, the headache of all blind people - the accessibility of applications for screen reader programs.

A little about ways to display information

Those who participated in the creation of at least one application with graphical interface, know that there are, in fact, two ways to display content on the screen: using the environment in which the program is executed (Windows Forms in Windows, XML and HTML in Android, ...) and displaying information using the program’s own means. If the first option is fully supported by screen readers, since they use system metadata, then the second method is absolutely inaccessible to screen readers. For them, the screen remains pristinely clean, because the screen reader’s virtual cursor cannot find a single object whose description can be obtained.

But, unfortunately, many developers follow the second path. This happens by various reasons: someone strives to make their application more visually comfortable, which is not always possible to achieve systematic methods, someone wants to minimize the use of platform-dependent code.

More specifics

Let's take several programs from different categories.

Navigator

A blind person needs to be able to move around the city independently: go grocery shopping, visit friends, visit museums, etc. Having learned to use a smartphone, he immediately tries to download a high-quality navigator with the maximum detailed information about the route.
The first two applications in Play Market on request "navigator" - this is "Yandex Navigator" and "CityGuide". Let's put both.

First, open Yandex Navigator. Visually, everything is very convenient: a comfortable menu, beautiful icons, a nice looking card. For the blind, who doesn't see all this, main screen The application is a search bar, not even labeled as “search”, and a button of unknown purpose, also not named at all.

Okay, let's open CityGuide. In general, everything is the same: a convenient, pleasing to the eye application. However, for a blind person this application is absolutely blank screen. If Yandex Navigator at least gives you the opportunity to try to enter an address, then in CityGuide this is impossible.
As a result, for a person with visual impairments, there are two applications left with a very mediocre pedestrian mode: Google Maps and OsmAnd.

Social media clients

Everyone wants communication, and blind people are no exception.

In contact with

The standard VK client was quite convenient, both visually and for the blind, but the latest major update has reduced its accessibility to almost zero. The main menu, called up by swiping from the left edge of the screen, and the news or wall posts menu, called up by swiping from a certain point on the right edge of the screen (this point still needs to be seen), cause difficulties. In general, you have to use third party application « Kate Mobile", the developer of which was very sensitive to accessibility from the very beginning, and now listens to advice from the blind.

The web version of VK, by the way, is well designed in terms of readability with screen readers, and I personally have no complaints here.

Not everyone uses it, but almost everyone has heard of it. Positions itself as one of the most comfortable social networks for communication. But accessibility is a real problem here. The web version is unreadable by screen readers by more than two-thirds. Mobile applications for iOS and Android are even less accessible. The main menu is read in one container, the whole home page and the chat page is also read as single text, from which you simply cannot select the desired line.

WhatsApp and Viber

Many thanks to the developer of WhatsApp, accessibility is excellent. Even most emoticons are voiced. Viber is almost as accessible.

Facebook and Facebook Messenger

Both of these applications are made according to the same scheme and have same problems: too frequent and pointless screen refresh, confusing and causing the screen reader virtual cursor to freeze, and incorrect labels on some buttons. You can use it, but there are difficulties.

Skype

Until the last major update everything was terrible: crazy freezes, both with and without a screen reader, frequent and meaningless screen updates, unlabeled buttons... But after the update, everything became much better. Nothing slows down, everything is readable, and even that most uncomfortable menu that opens right on top of chats is now readable too.
The Windows version of the application is approximately 95% available, which is good news. But the Linux version has huge accessibility problems.

WeChat

An application with many features and almost zero accessibility. The problems are the same as with Skype and Facebook.

KakaoTalk

Koreans are at their best. The app even has a mode special features, in which everything that is inaccessible using standard methods, the program itself sends directly to the screen reader. Probably the most comfortable communication application after Kate Mobile.

Browsers

There is almost no point in criticizing or praising browsers themselves. Chrome and Firefox on Android, Safari on iOS, Firefox on Windows are fully accessible. Chrome for Windows is also almost entirely voiced, but has known issues, which no one is in a hurry to correct.
Here you need, rather, to pay attention to the accessibility of individual sites. For example, the Gosuslugi portal is almost zero in terms of accessibility. You can work with it, but there are problems, and when it comes to documents and money, you really don’t want to press something wrong. In fact, the websites of many private companies online games, large and even small manufacturers are voiced many times better than the state resource.

Administration and programming

Yes, there are also programmers among the blind, and they also want to work comfortably. Such a well-known development environment as Visual Studio, no more than 50% available. Another popular editor- QT Creator - only 10% voiced, only menus and some buttons are available in it.

Text editors

Microsoft office is fully adapted for screen readers, and there are no complaints about it. But on Android and iOS everything is sad. Polaris office not available at all, other programs from absolutely different developers are also not voiced. I'm not talking about writing huge texts and advanced formatting, but simply reading the document is also unrealistic.

Results

Let's summarize. Smartphones and computers greatly help the blind in life and expand their capabilities. But many developers the most famous applications It's worth paying attention to the availability of their products for screen readers.

Which helps to read text from the monitor screen. It is very convenient for working with a mouse, that is, with a mouse cursor on the screen.
And, although NVDA has many hotkeys, they are difficult to use for completely visually impaired or blind people. Therefore, let's get acquainted with the JAWS program, which allows you to work on your computer without looking at the monitor at all, without a mouse, using only the keyboard.

Jaws for Windows is the world's most popular screen reader program running on PCs in Windows environment. It provides access to system and office applications and other necessary software, including the Internet.
Thanks to a speech synthesizer, information is read from the screen and spoken aloud, providing speech access to a wide variety of content.

JAWS includes big set keyboard commands that allow you to reproduce actions that are usually performed by sighted PC users using a mouse.
These commands are also executed by others useful features, designed to improve the efficiency of blind users.

Since Windows 7 is the most common system for Home PCs today, let's look at how to install JAWS on Personal Computer With Windows system 7.

Stage 1. Preparing Windows to install JAWS

Before installing JAWS, you need to remove “Control” in the “Personalization” Control Panel accounts users", or rather, set the slider there to 0 percent.

Algorithm for disabling User Account Control:

- Main menu;
- control Panel;
- user accounts;
— changing account control parameters;
— notification level (the slider must be set to “zero” percent);
— then click on the “OK” button.

NOTE:
This procedure is completely harmless to regular work on Windows. The “zero” position of the switch will only simplify your work in Windows 7.
You can now close all windows and begin installing JAWS.

Step 2: Install JAWS

Open the JAWS15.0_installation files folder. In it you will see two folders: for Windows 64 and 32 bit. Decide on your system and open the appropriate folder.
— Open the jaws15 folder and run the installation setup file.
— —

The installer will then launch with voice accompaniment. You should follow all of his prompts.
_ After installing the program, you will be prompted to activate it, that is, you will be prompted to restart the computer (an activation window will appear), which must be rejected by pressing the INSERT+F4 keys
(that is, close the program or exit it).
— Restart your computer.

Step 3: Activate JAWS

— After installing the JAWS 15 0 program, you need to delete the “Activator” folder, which is located at the following address: C:\Program Files\Freedom Scientific\Activator.
- In folder " Setup files"Open the folder "activ...".
— Copy the contents of the folder: two files jfw.exe and jhook.dll to the clipboard by first selecting them and pressing CTRL+C.
— Paste the copied files into the 15.0 folder (already installed on your computer) in the following path:
- open the “My Computer” folder
- open the folder drive C.
- open PROGRAM folder FILES.
— open the Freedom Scientific folder.
- open the JAWS folder.
- open folder 15.0.

After opening the 15.0 folder, press CTRL+V (copy to folder 15.0).
— Next, WINDOWS notifies that the folder already contains jfw.exe files; jhook.dll and will offer to replace it. Press the button to confirm replacing all files “Yes for all”.
Note:
When replacing jfw.exe files; jhook.dll JAWS Narrator does not speak because the JAWS 15 screen reader itself must be unloaded. And a blind user can replace files using another speech synthesizer - screen reader NVDA. You can read about how to install it and how to use it in the article on our website:
You can also ask your loved ones to do these complex actions according to the method described above.

— Close all windows by pressing ALT+F4. Then we restart the computer.
— Launch the JOZ program by clicking the JAWS 15.0 program shortcut on the desktop
— The program is activated and will no longer warn about the forty-minute test mode.

NOTE:
1. When installing the JAWS program, all synthesizers, including synthesizers from the NVDA program, installed on your computer must be turned off. That is, the NVDA program and possibly earlier installed program JAWS one of previous versions must be closed.

After installing JAWS 15.0, you can find new synthesizers in the “Synthesizers” folder
Path from the “Desktop” folder to the “Synthesizers” folder:
Desktop; My computer; SYSTEM(C); Program Files; Freedom Scientific;
JAWS; JAWS 15.0; Drivers; Speech;

Step 4: Setting the function optical recognition text on pictures

- After complete installation JAWS programs on your computer
You need to run the file “FSOmniPage”,
located in the “Installation files” folder.

What is optical text recognition.

In the screen reader JAWS for Windows versions 15.0 implemented
optical character recognition functionality that allows blind people
users to obtain information about the text content of the screen presented
purely in graphic form, for example, in the form of a picture with the images depicted on it
letters or numbers.

Software functionality

⇒ 6 carefully selected schemes for highlighting the place of work in the document, which allows consumers not to lose sight of the information being processed and greatly simplifies the editing of information.

⇒ The function of speech support is to clearly pronounce the content electronic documents, applications and web pages. You can adjust the sound volume and reading speed. You can read even the smallest text using voiceover, regardless of the degree of vision loss.

⇒ Controlling the program using a combination of certain keys on the keyboard (“Hot” keys) greatly simplifies and speeds up your work using the program.

⇒ Reading from the screen can occur either with the help of speech support or with the help of translating text into Braille. This allows a blind user to independently use desktop computer or laptop without even seeing the contents of the screen. A blind user can easily create documents, make appointments or keep in touch on social networks.

⇒ The dedicated Dolphin cursor provides screen navigation and mouse control from the keyboard. Ideal for those who cannot see the contents of the screen and have difficulty using the mouse.

⇒ Ability to read and write Braille on almost all Windows applications. Instant text translation from Braille to Braille. Perceiving the screen through a connected braille display. You will be able to operate the computer functions as well as any sighted user.

⇒ Support hundreds of advanced Windows applications: Enlarge text/images and read out content. SuperNova software is designed to work with Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, Adobe Reader,Windows Media Player, Skype and many other applications.

⇒ New user support system. Allows you to easily master the program and get acquainted with its latest changes. Using the Installation Wizard, you can select individual set parameters, and during operation switch these settings among themselves. Ideal for people who have not previously worked with software for the visually impaired.

⇒

⇒ The “Assistant” function, activated by pressing the CAPS+F1 keys or the help button on the program control panel, will allow you to find the answer to any question you are interested in and solve the problem you are facing.

⇒ New user support system. Allows you to easily master the program and get acquainted with its latest changes. Using the Installation Wizard, you can select an individual set of parameters, and switch these settings between each other during operation. Ideal for people who have not previously worked with software for the visually impaired

⇒ Flexible settings system and memory system personal settings ideal for multiplayer mode.

Download demo version: