Universally Accessible Bulletin Board

"The short-comings as I see it are when we're seen as different and in need of special accommodation. I simply need to purchase goods and services that work for me. Just think of me as a customer worthy of your attention, and not a charity case that you'll feel better about having served in some special way.

I choose to use a screen reader to access the computer, and you choose to use a monitor. We aren't that different really.

You see, my mother didn't have a disability according to the world I live in, however when one of us was around she always asked us for assistance, and when no one was there to assist she used a step-stool to reach the higher cupboards. Why is it then that when I ask for assistance or use a tool to get something done I become a person with a disability?

Universal Design is all that is required in order for me to live a happy, productive life and to use [Company X]'s services."

-- Respondent Post, 4/7/2009 12:30:05 PM

Early January this year I started receiving emails from a client about whether or not blind, deaf and paraplegic respondents could use our software.  My response at the time was "I think it has been done but I don't have any information to say how it went".  My intention was to get back to her but I didn't have time to track down an obscure trial project no one knew anything about that ran sometime in the past 6 - 8 months.

As the weeks rolled by I received more questions about this but I didn't have a solid answer.  Then one day the client came to use and said "We've paid a company to evaluate your software, can you help them?"  To which I replied "Sure".  I setup a demo project and loaded it with all the features imaginable and then sent it to the email address I had been given.  Time passed and I didn't really hear anything more.

Meanwhile I had started to transition into the software department from a client service role.  This client came back with feedback and I brought this project up as a development opportunity.  After looking through the feedback and doing a bit of our own research we embarked on turning our legacy frames-based forum product into a universally accessible application.

One snag we knew would be trouble is "We can make the changes, we can follow standards but how do we know it will be logical and easy to use for the respondents?"  Since none of us at the office fit the respondent demographic we can't do much more than download demo screen reader software and give it our best shot.

We looked into having the original company that did the assessment re-evaluate the software but they wanted somewhere around 2500$.  This wasn't going to fly for our client, the end-client or us (Since we were charging somewhere around there for this development to be done).

After some digging we managed to find an assessment offered by the CNIB for about half the cost.  We chipped in some and so did our client and the process started again.  The concern this time around was "What if they come back to us with a ton of changes... we're stuck then because we'll have to hire someone else to re-evaluate".

Initial feedback came in and it seemed that the frames based layout was going to be a major hindrance to respondents.  I went through about a week of moping over this.  We were given some changes that needed to be made to make the frames more user friendly (giving them all title and longdesc attributes) which we managed to squeeze in the weekend before the projects were slated to start.

The first day of the project all of our expectations were shattered.  The client claimed they've never had more technical support calls on any other project.  None of the calls had anything to do with the accessibility of the software but rather the questions being asked (e.g. what do you mean by ...?  Do I need to do ... before answering ... ?).  The blind respondents were actually the first through the software almost every day.  The ones who claimed to be having the hardest time were paraplegics asking for an auto complete function.

The project ran for seven days and new questions were made available on five of those days.  As I'm writing this they're just finishing up the last day and feedback is still coming about how easy to use the software was.  This was really cool to read and see.  A project which we felt really lost at times (blind) to which direction we needed to take ended up working out.  Now we have a more accessible product and a foundation for updating our other product lines.

Now, just a while before I have to go talk with our sales team about this, I'm reflecting over the past few weeks and smiling.  I'm also cringing because of the thought that these changes need to be propagated into nearly 20 other language interfaces.  Whoever heard of a piece of software that was universally accessible to respondents in an Arabic interface?  Maybe in a short while they will be common place.

Expect the unexpected.