Commentary

ADA compliant screen readers? Garbage-in, garbage-out...

The content in the coding of the software application must be compatible with the screen reader to be compliant with federal disability access rules.

Image: iStock

November 12, 2018 by Ben Wheeler — President, KioskGUY.COM

These days, food isn't food, it's called protein and carbs. Consumers consider how many grams of sugar and fat on every food item wrapped in a package before it is even considered to be purchased.

The reality of garbage-in, garbage-out isn't confined to the food we consume, however. It especially applies to companies' efforts to comply with federal government standards for providing screen reader access for disabled users.

In my role as a kiosk industry consultant, ADA compliance is not a new challenge for organizations that design, manufacture and operate kiosks, as Kiosk Marketplace reported in a series of articles last year. But lawsuits continue. Last month, The National Federation of the Blind and three Maryland residents sued Walmart on the grounds that the company's self-checkout kiosks violate the Americans with Disabilities Act. Making matters worse, the "call for assistance" button that most kiosk solutions have tried to hang their "accessibility" solution hat on actually was used in this case. However, the Walmart employee who came to "help" the blind user proceeded to skim $40 cash during the transaction.

The American Foundation for the Blind website gives an extensive definition of a screen reader. These are software programs that allow blind or visually impaired users to read the text displayed on the computer screen with a speech synthesizer or braille display.

Questions to ask

The AFB website also offers some questions on what you should be asking yourself when you go looking to purchase a screen reader. These are:

Is the screen reader compatible with your computer's operating system?
Does it work with the applications you plan to use?
Does it work with your braille display?
What keystrokes or gestures are used for the program's basic and advanced functions?
Are the keystrokes easy to remember?
Is it possible to change the key combinations if they conflict with those used by application programs?

The AFB also lists most of the well-known screen readers on their website, which include:
1.   BRLTTY
2.   CakeTalking
3.   CDesk Compass
4.   COBRA
5.   Dolphin Guide
6.   Eye-Pal Ace
7.   Eye-Pal Ace Plus
8.   Eye-Pal ROL (Read Out Loud)
9.   Eye-Pal Vision
10.  Max for Mac
11.   Job Access with Speech for Windows (Professional)
12.   JAWS for Windows (Standard)
13.   Nonvisual Desktop Access
14.   Orca
15.   System Access
16.   System Access Stand-alone Mobile
17.   Thunder
18.   VoiceOver
19.   ZoomText Fusion

If the content in the coding of the website or the software application isn't compliant, you are not compliant with ADA web content accessibility guidelines Section 2.0 and Section 508. Screen readers read HTML, not graphics and not PDFs, and they don't fix bad code — they only read it.

Unless the website or content within the application software is re-mediated for all the things that are considered to be accessible, your screen reader by itself is not considered accessible.

A new tool

One tool I have come across is the Audioeye accessibility product suite that includes their digital accessibility platform automated accessibility scanning tools and their Ally toolbar. The suite identifies and automatically enables an automated re-mediation of most of the accessibility issues before the team manually re-mediates the rest of the accessibility issues with your website or software/content before it goes into the Ally toolbar.

The tool allows organizations to provide their site visitors with a fully customizable user experience that is tailored to their individual needs, regardless of their device type, language preference or preferred method of access, which in the case of a self-serve kiosk is a screen reader reading truly re-mediated content via a screen reader.

Such tools are clearly important for kiosk suppliers and deployers. If you come across any other such tools, please advise me. It's important to get the word out to everyone in the interest of minimizing the likelihood of lawsuits and of making unattended equipment accessible to all.