aDesigner
A disability simulator that helps Web designers ensure that their pages are accessible and usable by the visually impaired.
Date Posted: July 7, 2004
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First, it checks regulations and guidelines such as Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act, the W3C WAI Web Contents Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), JIS (Japan Industrial Standard), and IBM®'s checklist. We call such items to be checked compliance items.
Second, it checks usability problems faced by people with visual impairments, going beyond compliance. An author can experience how low vision users see the Web pages by using "low vision simulation" modes, and an author can also understand how blind users listen to and navigate through the pages by using "blind visualization" mode.
Third, it simulates how presentations will appear to audiences under various conditions, such as in meeting rooms or auditoriums. Authors can confirm whether or not an audience can read the text or see the figures of their presentations.
Fourth, accessibility information (MSAA/IA2) inspection functions efficiently support GUI accessibility checking for both GUI applications and Web pages. | | |
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Existing checkers mostly check the compliance items described above. For example, there is no tool for visualizing the time it takes to reach each element using voice browsers, nor is there any tool for detecting the problematic parts for low-vision users based on image-processing techniques. aDesigner tries not only to evaluate compliance but goes beyond compliance.
aDesigner synchronizes the error location with the browser view position, so an author can easily find out which part of the page has a problem.
aDesigner also has effective features for handling ALT texts. (ALT text is used as an alternative text for images, and voice browsers read such ALT texts for the images.) ALT texts are very important for voice browser users, but the proper usage of ALT texts is not widely known. aDesigner tells you if the ALT texts are not being used properly.
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The darker color indicates that it takes more time to get to the position using a voice browser or screen reader. A solid black background means it takes more than 90 seconds to get to that position.
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No; it runs only on Windows® XP or above. | | |
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The aDesigner works with the English and Japanese versions of Windows, and the messages and descriptions are available in English and Japanese.
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In the low-vision mode, Web pages in any language can be simulated.
In the blind mode, English and Japanese languages are handled properly. Western European languages will be added later.
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The aDesigner provides three rating results for the blind mode. Compliance is basically a binary decision from the checklists; however, it is also very important to check how well the blind can hear as well as how quickly they can navigate in the page.
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Compliance is necessary to conform to the regulations and guidelines. However, compliance does not always cover all of the issues that visually impaired people face when navigating through Web pages. Therefore aDesigner evaluates other usability issues.
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The problem map indicates the positions of the problems on the target Web page. This helps authors understand which parts of the page have problems.
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aDesigner supports the Flash content file format (SWF) versions 5 through 8. | | |
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aDesigner supports OpenDocument Text (ODT), OpenDocument Spreadsheet (ODS), and OpenDocument Presentation (ODP). The supported versions of ODF specification are ODF 1.0 and 1.1.
Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries, or both.
IBM is a trademark of IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.
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