What screens do you use when you order breakfast at the coffee shop? pay for groceries at Walmart? buy tickets at your local train station? More and more, these screens have few if any tacticle buttons on them. Unlike the ATM’s of a couple decades back, today’s are largely smooth glass panels like on your smart phone. This is a worldwide dilemma as this article from Australia shows. In the U.S., advocates from both the National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind have encouraged Congress to enact the Websites and Applications Accessibility Act which would tell the Department of Justice to enforce compliance with the ADA’s standards of computer accessibility. This bill would update the standards that weren’t even thought of when the ADA was signed into law by Pres. George H.W. Bush on July 26, 1990.
One of the biggest barriers we who are blind or low-vision face is the ability for our software developers to keep pace with the ever-changing world of technology and artificial intelligence. Private industry, which is the backbone of the American economy, has a habit of running the race while we who make needed accommodations walk a careful gait. We must ask: Are the program developers behind touch screens even aware of the difficulties that people with sight difficulties have in operating their technology? Certainly, some developers of touch screens for ordering groceries, checking out at a restaurant, or making online money transfers have gained some awareness of our plight.
Thanks to Apple and Google, the developers of smart phones have built in accessibility options. To read across a screen on your IPhone XVI, you drag your finger across the panel and listen to the icons being read by Voiceover. Tap twice on an icon that you would like to open and learn the various sweeps, slides and other finger movements to perform other functions. An imperative put forth by the American Council of the Blind
Thanks to Apple and Google, the developers of smart phones have built in accessibility options. To read across a screen on your IPhone XVI, you drag your finger across the panel and listen to the icons being read by Voiceover. Tap twice on an icon that you would like to open and learn the various sweeps, slides and other finger movements to perform other functions. An imperative put forth by the American Council of the Blind seeks Congress to direct the DOJ’s enforcement of The Exercise And Fitness For All Act which directs manufacturers of digital screens for treadmills and other exercise equipment to include similar programming in place. After all, there isn’t much difference between the screen of a treadmill and that which displays icons on a smart phone. Changing speeds takes tapping the image noted for going faster or slower; clicking on the phone app to bring up a num-pad on your IPhone also takes pressing a button you can’t easily feel.
Changing
In short, the difficulty that touch screens pose for making the world more accessible stymies many of our efforts at making everyday transactions without assistance. Perhaps, the solution will be multifaceted. For now, when using touch screens at the gym when running, I kick it old school by labeling each button with a single-letter abbreviations with Dymotape so as to manipulate my speed, turn the treadmill on or off and change my running incline. The iPhone is a great tool that many of us in the blindness community are learning to use. Time will tell how software developers will work with companies to build accessibility functions into other touch screens that people use every day.
Boldly Blind 