Accessibility for blind people

29 Sep 2006 Category: Features, Internet, Japan, Technology, Top Page 10

For most of us, using a computer and surfing the web is an almost entirely visual experience. We move cursors around the screen, click buttons and menus, read text and look at pictures. But although most of us rely on monitors to use computers, blind and visually impaired users haven’t been left out. James and Uleshka talked to blind programmer Masafumi “Max” Nakane to find out more about usability both on and offline for those who can’t see.

Written by James Bowskill

Max, how does a blind person use a computer differently to a sighted user?

It’s not much different, you use the regular keyboard you simply know the keys by heart. For the output, you’ve got to use some kind of software that either reads things and speaks them to you or describes things using Braille.

Could you describe a Braille display for us?

It’s a box that connects to the PC, usually through USB, though in the old days it was either serial or parallel. I think some of the latest devices have a Bluetooth connection. Depending on how much money you want to spend, it has between 40 and 80 Braille cells, and one Braille cell contains either 6 or 8 dots to represent one Braille character.

You have a few buttons on the device itself that you can use to send commands to the screen reader software on the PC. At one time you can only display forty characters, which is obviously not enough for viewing the entire display. So you use the buttons on these devices to move the focus around the screen, as if you’re looking through a straw, and you have to put the fragments together in your brain to make up the entire image.

When do you decide to use the screen reader and when do you prefer the Braille reader?

Well, it depends. For programming and such I would use Braille mostly, as it is more accurate. If I want to read a book though, I don’t use Braille, as it’s slow. The speech software has a very high speed-reading mode; one volume of a book could be read within 3 hours, so it’s quite fast. When I have to proofread I use both; I listen to the speech to see if it sounds ok, and at the same time I’ll check with Braille.

Here is a sound recording of Max’ screen reader software reading this whole article. Note that this isn’t the fastest it can go! Max considers this a comfortable speed for casual readings, while native English speakers using screen readers would prefer it much faster than this.

Max, you used to do a lot of accessibility research for the W3C and now work as a researcher for Auto-ID Lab. Japan at Keio University. Now more than ever accessibility has received a lot of press - but do you actually find that things are improving? Are most blogs easy for you to navigate through?

Well, yes and no. First you have to understand a few basics:

A screen reader tries to steal information from the web browser. Internet Explorer parses the HTML and the screen reader simply accesses the information from memory. My screen reader lets you jump from one heading to the next, so you can quickly move through the page. But without the appropriate heading tags, the screen reader doesn’t know where to jump. Using proper heading tags in HTML to define a line of text as a heading is much better than using font tags to just make the text look like a heading, which is still quite a common thing to do.

Many blog templates, such as those in Movabletype make extensive use of heading tags, so it’s actually quite easy to jump through the page and to a beginning of an article. But the blogger has to have a great understanding of how HTML pages are made, and if you get someone who’s not really interested, who’s not really a geek, you can’t really expect them to know what’s behind it.

Another thing is that that this kind of functionality isn’t available in every screen reader. So people using a simple screen reader still have to still listen to the whole thing before getting to the real content. You’ve got to overcome all this to make it really accessible for everyone.

Here are 3 things you can easily do to make your website more accessible for everyone:

1: Use the “alt” attribute to describe images Providing alternative text descriptions of images on your site will allow visually impaired visitors to understand what is being shown, even if they are accessing the site via screen or Braille readers. But don’t add “alt” descriptions to spacer images (the invisible images that are sometimes used to control a page’s layout) as screen and Braille readers will read these out too!

2: Write meaningful links Making links understandable out of context helps users who might not have read the whole sentence, or are scanning the page for links. So instead of an ambiguous “To see my birthday photos, click here”, try “Have a look at my birthday photos”. You can also add a “title” attribute to the link to provide more information when the user hovers over (or focuses on) it.

3: Use effective page titles and headings Your page title will be the first thing a screen reader tells the user – so it should be as informative as possible without getting too long. Many visually impaired users will then listen to the headings within the page to help them get to the part they want. If you haven’t added heading tags correctly, this can’t be done!

Simple and effective! Thank you for the advice.

How do you actually find portable electronic devices? Let’s say MP3 players. Are they difficult for you to use?

Oh, some of them, yeah. I haven’t really used an iPod, because its inevitable software iTunes is almost impossible to use on a PC with a screen reader. I have a player that can also be used as USB storage, so I don’t need any special software to transfer my stuff into the player. I don’t really use many of the functions, which probably aren’t needed anyway.

You mentioned that you are using a PC – is that because you like using PCs, or is it that most speech software is only made for PC and not for Mac?

There is nothing useful available for Macs really. I think Apple is now trying to develop some accessibility solutions for blind people, but I’m not sure how far they have gone, and also I don’t think they are doing it in any other language besides English.

Interesting… How about using mobile phones?

About four years ago Docomo made the first cell phone that had a speech output. Their priority target was senior citizens, but they also added some features which were useful for blind users, too. The first model only read out menus and emails and it let you browse through your phone book using speech output.

The second model also reads web content using speech output. AU has two models that speak, as far as I know. Before these phones, I simply remembered the sequences that you have to use in order to store and retrieve that number.

Are there any products that are specifically designed for blind people that you use?

There are a few things that talk in my house, like a clock, a remote control for the air conditioning, and some talking scales, things like that. But they’re not really designed for blind people, because you can buy them from regular stores.

But I don’t think my watch is made for anyone else but blind people: you can touch it to tell the time.

Sound examples of a talking escalator inside Shibuya station and the re-assuring sounds an ATM machine makes

When I first came to Tokyo, I was really surprised by all the things that were talking, the musical pedestrian crossings and train stations with different melodies, baths that tell you when they’re hot… Do these things help you, or irritate you?

Well, mostly they’re helpful. Sometimes things get a bit too much, but you can ignore it if you want. It’s not loud enough to be a problem yet.

Here is a little sound example to get you in the mood of walking down Center Gai in Shibuya for about 100 metres.

A lot of foreigners say that though when they first come to Tokyo. (smiles) If you go to other countries where there’s no announcement on the bus or train, you feel very insecure in fact, like you don’t know what you’re actually doing. If trains follow the timetable as accurately as in Japan you can still guess, but if you go to the US for example and take the Amtrak - it’s not that easy.

Sound file of the pedestrian crossing in Naka Meguro.

The speaking traffic lights are for blind people, there’s no question about that. As for most other things such as train announcements - I don’t think it’s really meant for blind people, though. I think it’s more a part of the service for everyone to be informative.

There’s lots of Braille at train stations, on handrails, on ticket machines. How much does this help you? Is it consistent enough to help?

The Braille on the handrails definitely helps. Whenever I go to a station I’ve never been to, the first thing I do is look for a handrail and the Braille label, and most of the time, amazingly enough, you find something there. And most of the time it’s useful information.

If it’s a handrail by the stairs going up to the platform, it tells you the platform number, what line, and which direction it’s going to. When you go up the stairs to the platform and look at the other end of the handrail, the Braille labels will give you an arrow and say which ticket gate you are taken to if you follow that arrow and things like that. Handrails by the stairs going out of the station tell you the name of the exit. Sometimes they tell you what’s there, like what street or what major landmarks or whatever, so they’re quite informative.

Some train related sound files: 1. announcement on the JR platform in Shibuya 2. announcement inside the Toyoko Line train 3. getting off at Ebisu and hearing the Ebisu station theme song

Are there any rules for designers how to make them? Who makes them anyway? And are there general standards for how, or where things are positioned?

I don’t know to be honest. Some people just started doing it as an experiment, and then I guess, after a bit of trial and error it got quite obvious in terms of where you have to put the labels and things like that from the reactions of the blind individuals. It’s not really standardised though; Braille labels on train doors are higher on some lines than on others and the content is different, too.

What about those yellow blocks which you can find everywhere in Tokyo? I heard that there are so many different versions, since they too haven’t been standardized, that it actually confuses the people trying to use them. Do you find the raised blocks useful enough?

Well, some blind people rely on them much more than I do. For me it’s just sort of like a landmark. Let’s say if I use the same train station every day, I would know when I come across one block that it’s really close to where I have to turn, something like that, which isn’t quite what it’s intended for.

Obviously the original idea is that blind people can follow the tactile so they can go to wherever it’s leading. But if you are some place for the first time, you never know where it’s leading you to. Some people think that it’s easier for blind people to walk on the tactile, but it’s not necessarily true and it’s not necessarily safer on the tactile than off it.

It is better to have it than not, especially on the platforms at the train stations where I use it as a warning signal, so as not to fall onto the track. (laughs)

Finally, if I can ask one more question; I noticed some Braille on a drink the other day. What does it tell you?

Those labels can only be found on alcoholic drinks so that blind individuals who don’t want to drink alcohol can safely take out what they want from the fridge. But it’s different depending on the company; most cans just say alcohol, but on cans by the “Kirin” brewery, one side says “Kirin” and the other side says “beer”. The space on the can is too small for more than three or four characters of Braille so you don’t really have much choice as to what you can put there.

You can put “Kirin” but you’re definitely not going to be able to fit “Sapporo” in there!

Max, thank you so much! It’s been a very interesting conversation indeed.

38 Comments

1. interesting article and extending as well, during my stay in tokyo i realized some of these solutions. it seems that there is a culture of considering the needs of blind people, but according to these insights more has to come…

   greets from germany

   Posted by: Stefan on September 29th, 2006 at 10:25 pm

2. [...] Accessibility for blind people: http://www.pingmag.jp/2006/09/29/accessibility-for-blind-people/ via Noah’s brain [...]

   Posted by: yes, this is Design*Notes [ a g a i n ] » Friday three for free on September 29th, 2006 at 11:39 pm

3. We have similar braile on buses and trains on london transport. Its is fun when your bored on the bus.

   Posted by: Badger on September 30th, 2006 at 3:27 am

4. Accessibility is definitely not the sexy subject of design. Very few folks get on the covers of design subscriptions for making something equally accessible to people with various disabilities. I still strongly feel however that the distinction between good and great design is if something can be beautiful and usable to a wide-ranging audience.

   Posted by: P.J. Onori on September 30th, 2006 at 6:21 am

5. james, nice article!

   Posted by: henry on September 30th, 2006 at 10:49 am

6. Great job in covering accessibility. I think it’s about time the world do something about it and your article has just shown me that a lot of us (I’m not excluding me) are very slacking behind on this issue.

   Posted by: weekeat on September 30th, 2006 at 5:55 pm

7. I love this site, but I do wish you had a complete RSS feed. Check out http://www.fullfeeds.com/

   Posted by: Lee on September 30th, 2006 at 10:31 pm

8. Great article, this make me realize that my country has poor support for disablities people not like in Japan.

   There are no signs for blind people.

   Posted by: kuswanto on October 1st, 2006 at 12:08 am

9. [...] Ping Mag baru saja membuat artikel tentang aksesibilitas untuk orang cacat. Di artikel tersebut disebutkan bahwa Apple kurang memberikan aksesibilitas terhadap orang cacat. [...]

   Posted by: Apple dan orang cacat « Blog Mac Indonesia on October 1st, 2006 at 12:13 am

10. Ya, we should not mercy or treat out some of our special community any different, but at least we can make the differents by some creative solutions. They deserved a fair treat as all we have.. The handrails and beer is so considerate.

    Posted by: munchy on October 1st, 2006 at 2:15 am

11. Unfortunately in my country is very difficult to find something that have just a little of consideration for the blind people. I think that the yellow bloks and the metal in the marble have a nice aesthetic. But all that sound and the textures, don’t overload the senses of the people? Leaving aside that, i Love the sound of the pedestrian crossing. I only heard that in a anime.
    (Sorry for my bad english, i’m just starting to learn)

    Posted by: Sergio on October 1st, 2006 at 2:39 am

12. Very good site! I like it! Thanks!
    Healthy Recipes

    Posted by: reciperss on October 1st, 2006 at 1:40 pm

13. People interested in accessibility in game design may be interested to look up http://www.game-accessibility.com. Great article by the way.

    Posted by: Barrie Ellis on October 1st, 2006 at 11:11 pm

14. No accessibility for people from Apple? Haven’t these “experts” ever opened the Universal Access pane in Mac OS X’s System Preferences? There’s a whole host of settings for people with different disabilities. If there is no 3rd party software for disabled people on the Mac, it’s because 3rd party developers haven’t adopted it, not because Apple isn’t providing it.

    Posted by: Mike on October 2nd, 2006 at 6:04 am

15. Very good site! I like it! Thanks!
    Dessert Recipes

    Posted by: Recipes on October 2nd, 2006 at 8:37 pm

16. [...] Also, a Toyko-based blog has an interview with a blind programmer that talks about usability both on and offline for the blind. Both stories found on the Monday Morning Must Read, thanks. [...]

    Posted by: Good stories from here and there… « Design for Social Need on October 6th, 2006 at 11:23 am

17. This site is great!. There are so many good and sensitive articles. I very like it!

    Posted by: kohji on October 10th, 2006 at 9:51 pm

18. This article is rad!

    Posted by: Ian on October 20th, 2006 at 2:02 am

19. [...] PingMag’s “Accessibility for blind people” is a very nice interview with a sight-impaired programmer dealing with the difficulties of interacting with on and offline technologies: [...]

    Posted by: Convivio Network on October 26th, 2006 at 6:22 pm

20. This has been very helpful. I’m working a thesis around the sense of touch using human-product interactions for my illustrations. The idea of multiple interpretations for the textured floors in the train station isn’t something I had thought about. Thanks for drawing attention to it.

    Posted by: Christina Worsing on October 30th, 2006 at 11:29 pm

21. [...] Accessibility for blind people: http://www.pingmag.jp/2006/09/29/accessibility-for-blind-people/ Direct Quote: Write meaningful links. Making links understandable out of context helps users who might not have read the whole sentence, or are scanning the page for links. So instead of an ambiguous “To see my birthday photos, click here”, try “Have a look at my birthday photos”. You can also add a “title” attribute to the link to provide more information when the user hovers over (or focuses on) it. via Noah’s brain [...]

    Posted by: DesignNotes by Michael Surtees » Friday three for free on December 28th, 2006 at 12:15 am

22. [...] übertragen) Auto-BR (Zeilenumbrüche werden <br>-Tags)INFOÜber michLETZTE BEITRÄGEAccessibility for blin…Pflegeprozess in der e…online übersetzentranskulturell lernen …Bildung Älterer KATEGORIENAlleBildungBloggingBlogs von PflegeprofiseLearningGenderGesundheitlernen und lehrenMedienkompetenzPalliative CarePflegePsychiatrieSozialwissenschaftentranskulturell lernen …VermischtesWebdesignGALERIENaktuell  [6] « Januar 2007 »MoDiMiDoFrSaSo12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031         SUCHE suchenARCHIVJanuar 2007Dezember 2006November 2006Oktober 2006September 2006August 2006Juli 2006Juni 2006Mai 2006April 2006März 2006Februar 2006Januar 2006Dezember 2005November 2005Oktober 2005September 2005August 2005Juni 2005Mai 2005April 2005März 2005Februar 2005Januar 2005November 2004Oktober 2004BLOGSA List ApartaproposBeats WeblogBIASBildungsBlogbueltge.dec’n'e_LOGCSS-Hilfee-DenkariumE-LEARNINGE-Learning in der Psyc…education & mediaeLearning und Wissensm…elearningpostLearning Circuits BloglernpfadeMediendidaktikmediendidaktik.deMedienpädagogik - gren…molly.comnetzlernen.chPingMagpixelgraphixPlastic Thinking: Moe’…Podcasting for LearningRecherchen BlogWebdevBitsWebstandardWeiterbildungsblogLINKSinteraktiv einfachlernundentermaboartprojekt inmalojaWissenspool e-Learning…SERVICE     [...]

    Posted by: simplekaywa - Accessibility for blind people on January 3rd, 2007 at 5:51 am

23. [...] Whilest being in Japan, I realized how different things can go. Whereas in Europe street construction always takes place at rush hour’s peak, in Japan they do it at night. When I was in 名古屋市, 東京’s 大崎 or even in 五反田, they had those little purple diggers and green wheel loaders manned with Japanese workers wearing yellow helmets. Pure cliché – if you ask – but nice. Another very surprising thing was the surface itself, not only on the streets, but also in the underground, shopping malls or at the stations. In his article about blind 東京-based programmer Masafumi “Max” Nakane, PingMag shows some nice pictures of these embedded stones, which can make your feet really hurt after a time of running around (and trying to maybe follow the 山手線 by foot…;-). [...]

    Posted by: roppun.com on January 10th, 2007 at 2:57 am

24. @ P.J. Onori
    While you say accessibility might not be a very sexy subject, it is important for the web to be equal to all in terms of access to information. It’s the fundament al goal of the World wide web infact. And as these images show, accessibility in online and offline design and physical spaces can be incorporated without marring the beauty of the other.

    Posted by: Inverse on January 16th, 2007 at 5:22 am

25. [...] Max talks about being blind in Toyko [...]

    Posted by: curb » What the blind have to say. on January 23rd, 2007 at 9:29 am

26. [...] Accessibility for blind people [...]

    Posted by: - - anpanpon :P - - » Blog Archive » (ต้นชบากับ)คนตาบอด on January 24th, 2007 at 8:10 am

27. [...] Accessibility for blind people [...]

    Posted by: neo-nomad - PingMag on March 17th, 2007 at 10:48 pm

28. [...] one doesn’t realize how much our experience is based on visual input. but just picture dots on every known surface, on any known indicator. it makes you realize how much we need to see. blind programmer Masafumi ”Max” Nakane talks about usability. [...]

    Posted by: Felipov » ***** on April 26th, 2007 at 5:31 am

29. nice article for Blind people

    Posted by: samay on July 21st, 2007 at 9:33 pm

30. hi, i like u idea. is very good .(sorry my english is very bad dont mind )now i have to plane walking sick. is not nomale walkin stick.is have a sencer. is more easy than other walking stick. if u have some idea plese give to me. my e mail id paran4us@yahoo.co.uk.

    Posted by: Thaya on September 21st, 2007 at 12:32 pm

31. [...] Accessibility for blind people  An interview with a Japanese computer programmer about accessibility for blind people. Very interesting. Explains braille display and speech readers. [...]

    Posted by: Does Your Website Have to be Accessible? on November 10th, 2007 at 4:20 am

32. [...] (2006) Comment on the article ‘Accessibility for blind people’ [Online] available from http://www.pingmag.jp/2006/09/29/accessibility-for-blind-people/ [Accessed [...]

    Posted by: Relevant quote regarding accessibility and sexiness « Clive K. Lavery’s MA Module Blog on November 19th, 2007 at 9:26 am

33. [...] Журнал бизнес-идей по материалу Pingmag. [...]

    Posted by: Пиво для слепых | Еда и напитки | Бизнес-идеи on March 4th, 2008 at 7:15 am

34. [...] Журнал бизнес-идей по материалу Pingmag. [...]

    Posted by: WebSnap - Пиво для слепых on March 4th, 2008 at 9:55 pm

35. [...] Accessibility for blind people. Scroll all the way down. [Link via PingMag]   [...]

    Posted by: Its Beyond Me » Please Think Of The Disabled… on March 6th, 2008 at 1:23 am

36. OK, this was a cool find!

    I a US visually impaired person, and lived and studied in Machida Tokyo. I fell in love with the accesability that Tokyo has to offer. I lived there for a year, and it was simply amazing.

    What’s funny is I only came across this article when searching for an image under google search with the keyword “blind.”

    Posted by: Cory on March 16th, 2008 at 5:04 am

37. I want to buyone watch for one of my elder family member who is blind, can anybody help me to find it from where to buy in india

    Posted by: Shashikant Sharma on April 18th, 2008 at 7:59 pm

38. Nice article. I have a blind daughter. Now she is 16 years old in Thailand. She is stuying in secendary achool too.

    She is also writing her own blog in Thai language anyway.

    Nice to read it.

    Posted by: Thavisak Thawornrat on October 11th, 2008 at 9:57 pm

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