Tom's presentation on low vision and technology to an international symposium.

1. Low Vision and Technology
Presentation by Tom Stewart
To
The International Symposium on Low
Vision Rehabilitation and Visual Ability
Rome 15th - 17th December 2010
www.system-concepts.com tom@system-concepts.com

2. People with low vision have traditionally had difficulties in a society which is
increasingly geared towards visual expression. Signposting, advertising and
entertainment often rely on visual impact and although people with low vision
usually have some useful vision, they may miss out on what is going on around
them.
Slide 1 Modern life is full of visual images eg Times Square
Nonetheless, many people with low vision perform well in the workplace and
assistive technology can help dramatically. In System Concepts, we regularly
test websites for accessibility and are often amazed at how effectively people
using screen readers can perform most tasks. But sometimes web designers
forget about these users and put critical information in images, which are not
read properly by the screen reader.

3. Slides 2a and 2b – Amazon - prices only appears in an image.

4. In the past, assistive technology has tended to be expensive, highly specialised
and adapted to specific individuals. Recent developments in technology mean
that computer technology is now much more personal, with many people
owning laptops, smart phones and tablets (and some people having all three).
Slides 3a, 3b and 3c – Laptops, smart phones and tablets
Personal portable technology not only allows individuals to carry their own
customised devices with them but many of these new developments
incorporate accessibility features as standard. Smart phones now include such
features as screen readers and magnifiers, voice recognition and keyboards,
which can be adapted to suit the users.

5. In the UK, the RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind) has a useful
website with information about phone and computer accessibility features.
Slide 4 –RNIB technology help website
http://www.rnib.org.uk/livingwithsightloss/computersphones/Pages/computers_
mobile_phones.aspx

6. Tablets, which have been around for some time, received a major boost when
Apple introduced the iPad. Millions of these have now been sold and many
manufacturers are producing their own versions.
Slide 5 – Accessibility options on iPad
Although these devices too have powerful accessibility features built-in
including voice over, and white on black screens, one of the „killer features‟ is
the multi-touch screen, which allows users to magnify and shrink images with a
simple „pinch‟ gesture. For many people with low vision, this is all they need to
make the interface more accessible and it comes as standard – it is not an
addition for low vision users.

7. There are many myths about accessible technology (http://bit.ly/eY1Xhj ) and a
particularly common one is that “accessibility stops you using images on the
website”. It certainly does not. As I mentioned earlier, if you put critical
content as images, without appropriate text descriptions, then visually impaired
users will miss it. But we find that many people with low vision find that
images help them navigate around pages even if they cannot see fine detail.
Even users with no vision can find that images on the page help them form a
mental picture of the layout of the page. The most important point - as my
colleague Mickela Perera eloquently pointed out in our World Usability Day
podcast on communications - is for designers to check that the website still
works with images turned off.
Slide 6 Screen shot of Mickela‟s podcast
http://www.system-concepts.com/articles/usability-articles/2010/accessibility-
tips.html

8. One of the biggest myths is that “disabled users are only a small minority” so
why bother? It is true that registered disabled users are a minority. But
according to a recent report in the Guardian newspaper, 36% of the 9 million
disabled people in the UK are regularly online – a minority, but a sizeable one.
However there is a much larger number of users who are not classified as
disabled, but who would benefit from accessibility features, including being able
to increase font size, adjust image contrast or use text to speech in noisy
environments. We were once asked by a car insurance website manager why
he needed to bother with visually impaired users as they would not be driving
anyway! Apart from his legal obligations, we pointed out that some users with
visual impairments can still drive, and anyway, they may well wish to buy
insurance for others.
Researching employment opportunities for this talk, I came across the
European Blind Union website which showed the kind of jobs which are
suitable for people with low vision.
Slides 7 European Blind Union jobs
http://www.euroblind.org/jobwebsite/jobcategory.htm

9. And just in case you think there are only a few limited opportunities under
each heading, these lead on to further detail including many jobs suitable for
people, who are completely blind:
Slide 8 Administration jobs http://www.euroblind.org/jobwebsite/admin.htm

10. Regarding accessibility as an option for a minority is a big mistake. In most
countries there are laws to protect the interests of people with low vision and
other disabled people. In the UK, the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 has
now been replaced by the Equality Act 2010, and makes it a legal requirement
for service providers (including website providers) not to discriminate against
people with disabilities. So websites which offer special deals online must
ensure that their websites are accessible to avoid breaking the law.
World-wide, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities, which came into force in 2008, made accessible and assistive
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) a legal right.
Slide 9 UN convention website
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=26554&Cr=disab&Cr1

11. National bodies, standards makers and regulators are beginning to take action.
This impact is only just „trickling down‟ to consumers but we believe that in
the future inaccessible technology won‟t just be unusable and annoying, it will
be breaching people‟s human rights. Yet, as we have indicated briefly above, it
really is not difficult to accommodate users with disabilities including low vision
and there are really no excuses for ignoring this important section of the
community and workforce.
Tom Stewart, December 2010
www.system-concepts.com