----- Original Message ----- From: "Gregg Vanderheiden" <gv@trace.wisc.edu> To: <uaccess-l@trace.wisc.edu> Sent: Friday, February 14, 2003 8:52 AM Subject: [UACCESS-L] New Chat Application Includes Accessibility Features for Users of Screen Readers and Screen Magnifiers New Chat Application Includes Accessibility Features for Users of Screen Readers and Screen Magnifiers Dagmar Amtmann, Ph. D., Assistant Director, UW Center for Technology and Disability Studies Debbie Cook, Director, Washington Assistive Technology Alliance Chat is a popular Internet based application that allows participants to communicate instantly, similar to talking on the phone. Chat participants typically exchange messages by typing text using a keyboard. The messages are exchanged instantly, allowing for real-time, synchronous communication using computer networks instead of telephones. If you think that chat is mainly used by teenagers to exchange gossip, you may be surprised to learn that instant communication is increasingly used for corporate communications. Market research analysts estimate that by 2004 over 5.5 million instant messages will be sent over the Internet by corporate users. With the popularity of chat applications steadily increasing, accessibility of these tools becomes very important to users with disabilities. In addition to popular use of the chat applications by themselves, all distance learning packages commonly used by educational institutions, government, and corporations include a chat feature that allows instructors to communicate with students, trainees and other participants in real-time. >From the accessibility point of view, chat presents one of the more difficult challenges for users of screen readers and magnifiers. How accessible chat applications are for users of screen readers depends in part on how they were developed. Screen readers are able to handle some HTML-based chat applications, but most chat programs use the programming language Java to create an updateable region of the screen that can be used for chatting with other users. Developers using Java typically pay little or no attention to the application's accessibility to users with disabilities. As a result, most applications do not allow the user to control how and when new messages are displayed. Typically, the window refreshes automatically, displaying new messages as soon as they arrive, and making the environment very confusing for the users of screen readers. The good news is that the Special Needs Opportunity Windows (SNOW) Project based in Toronto, Canada developed and recently released A-Chat, a chat application with accessible features. A-Chat, designed for blind and low vision users, is both keyboard accessible and screen reader friendly. For example, the user controls how often messages are refreshed and can even set this feature to manual so that the screen will not refresh while it is being read. The user can choose to receive an audible alert each time a new message is received. Layout of received messages can be set in ascending or descending order allowing the user to read messages in the order they were sent or to read the latest one first. The user selects whether all messages or only new messages are displayed and that helps reduce clutter on the screen. Users also have control the type and size of the font,and the color combination for the display, making it easier to read for low vision users. The text and voice chat features of instant messaging programs like MSN Messenger are generally accessible and are well supported by assistive technologies, but are mostly used for personal communication with friends and family. Voice chat products are also becoming increasingly popular and allow users to chat orally through their computer's microphone and speakers, but these applications may present a challenge to users with speech impairments and those who are deaf or hard of hearing. For educational, corporate, and government communications, A-chat provides an accessible alternative and a viable model of accessibility for other text chat applications. It is currently available free of charge to non-profit groups and educational organizations as a freeware beta and can be downloaded from http://snow.utoronto.ca/chat.html. Gregg -- ------------------------------ NOTE: TRACE IS MOVING TO NEW ADDRESS (Same Email and Phone) Trace R & D Center 2107 Engineering Centers Bldg. 1550 Engineering Drive MADISON, WI 53706 ------------------------ Gregg C Vanderheiden Ph.D. Professor - Human Factors Depts of Ind. Engr. & BioMed Engr. 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