Underestimating the challenge of cognitive disabilities (and digital literacy)
You. All. Right, welcome. Everybody thanks, for joining, us my, name is edu troll I'm here at Microsoft Research and it's my pleasure to, introduce Gregg. Vanderheiden professor. At the, high. School at, University, of, Maryland. College Park he's also the director of the trade center and. Dr.. Vander Heiden has been doing accessibility. For. Almost 50, years I think so. He's like one of the great great, granddaddy's. Of our field and. It's a real pleasure he's worked with Microsoft since the basically, the very beginning, of Microsoft, doing accessibility work. So. He's out here. In the area and, wanted. To come, and give us some update on some stuff he's been thinking about lately and, hopefully, it'll be a nice, interactive. Bit. And it's gonna be my, pleasure to welcome you thank you very much. So. Thank you very much I want. To do a presentation kind, of in three parts the. First one is, I want to talk about an emerging, problem of our, own making, it's, something that we've sort of always knew was there but we just really, didn't understand. The. Depth or complexity, of it and. Then second, I'm gonna be showing some work. That we've been doing to try to address this and, those. Two will get done. Together because, it was in working on the second one that we realized how deeper a hole, we actually were trying to fill. And. Then I'm going to end by. Talking. About, next. Next generation. So what does our interface going to look like in 20 years and. How. Are we going to be addressing accessibility and. I'm. Going to posit, that we, not only can't. Approach. Accessibility. The way we have been at. That time, but. That there are some, new. Technologies. Things that we're. All working on, and. Industry, particularly working on that, may give us tools to actually approach it in a completely, different way kind of actually.
Upside Down from. From what we're doing today, in, looking at accessibility. So. We. Have an emerging crisis. It's. One that we have been making its, while. Technology, is enabling independence. And. Employment. And participation, for some people it's actually creating. Barriers for others, people. Used to be able to get. An education be. Employed, live. Independently, without having to use technology. But. Not anymore if, you want to tell your kids I want. You to go to school but you know I just don't believe in this technology, stuff so I don't want you on the web and using technology. And email and and computers, and stuff like this they. Would look at you like you run. Trucks, or something and, say. But. Mom dad. That's. How they give out homework that's, where the homework is I, know. You used to go to libraries, to look up information but. All. My classmates are going to have the entire Internet, as a resource. For their assignments and what, am I going to do. Getting. Jobs think, of trying to get a job even jobs that don't require. Computer. Use require, computer. Use and. Healthcare. I mean we go and the doctor tells you well the reports are online. The. Information, so we. Are finding, now that if, you actually try to go. And do, any of these things and completely. Issue, technology. You, can't do it but. We. Are creating, a society, therefore, that requires, the ability to understand. And use technology, but. We're not actually designing, technologies, that can be understood and. Used by all, we've. Made progress there's, special interfaces, we put inclusive, design features. Into. Our operating systems, and into our products, but. Actually, these are really, better and they're, really tuned to people who have more technical ability. We. Say, that everything, is taxable people apply in people if we, can just make it work with their screen readers. But. Screen readers are great for bright blind, people. But there's a lot of people who are blind who can't, use screen readers and if. You, say oh well then, they can't use oh my goodness you, know you. Know what, can't they do now they you know all of this stuff is, off the table and we. Don't notice it so much because all, of the people we know who have disabilities, tend to be at the upper end of this I have something that I call TQ it's. A technology quotient. It's. Not the same as IQ. Because. I know people that are blazingly, smarter, than I am who, can't use their technologies, but, I can so. Does that make me smarter than not. By a long shot. But. The. Ability. To use technology we, need to recognize, as its, own special. Ability. And. If you have somebody who has really really low technology. Quotient. It's. Like, somebody who's got really really low stature you can't tell them that oh we.
Designed, It to be on a high shelf but you should just reach harder. And you'll, be able to reach it. They. Just you, know don't, have the, ability, to use, the technologies, we're designing them at too, high a level so. Now. Those, of us in the room mode that have high IQ height EQ we, have your entire organization filled. With people have IQ. And height EQ designing. Things and it's just really hard for them to design if we. Have trouble using technologies. And how. Many here have not had trouble using their technologies. What. About the half below. The median. How. About the bottom, 20% how, about the bottom 10% if, you design something that 90% of the people can do you say well our inclusive, design we've, reached 90% of the population you can feel pretty good except. That's. One out of ten people can't. Use it and that. Is a lot, of people and that. Is a real problem. And. What. We're finding is it's much we're. Seeing many. More people having many more problems, than we ever expect, did. Even. When we try to add all of these new features in, we say well we'll make it more flexible we'll add new options, every, time we add an option, what do we add complexity. So. As. We, try to make it more, flexible and particularly. When we're dealing with people's cognitive disabilities. If you have something. That's a cognitive, goes from here to here the complexity, you can knock off about 20%, of the complexity, on any design and not, lose any information or any functionality, it's just, we designed them too complicated. But. As you keep going down, you. Start having to give. Up some, information or. Some. Features you can't make something that's really, really really, simple, and. Not lose information you can't teach. Physics. In. A very very very simple, way and not, lose something from what you want to teach to physics, majors okay, so, we, now have lots of levels so you have, to design for the. Different. Kinds of levels so how do we do that well, we have features that can. Make things that are too small to read larger. These, are all built right into windows we. Have things that make it so you can change the language so that if. You're trying to learn the. Operating, system we, have people coming from other countries and it's. Something we didn't expect many of them all, come, up and they hit Community, College and all, they've been using is mobile technologies, okay. Windows. Looks, nothing like. Mobile. Technologies, okay, yet. Windows is, what they need to be able to master if they're going to go on to the job market saying that they know how to use the three apps that I always use on my mobile device and you'll. Also find that they also don't, really, know how to use all of the aspects of their mobile device ask. Them to share documents between, two programs and they just look at you like why, would I want to do that you, can do that, kind. Of things now we all know how to do it but if you think about it you. Have to think about it and. That means that's, a. Measure. Right there. We. Can make things so that they have higher contrast, okay. But. We. Can even take you know word which has got like 11 menus. Of all. The different icons, and stuff and we can make it so that it has a simple. Menu. Right, but. Getting there to use those features you, first of all need to be aware of them okay. And most people don't know that you can do all of those things the thing we always hear when we start doing this and showing morphic and stuff like this is you, know I didn't know windows could do that I didn't, know that the computer could do that. The. Next thing is you, need to know how, to do it and. Often. It's so complicated. That they. Even. When you show them how to do it and they go oh that's fantastic, you come back the, next day and they're not doing it and why. Not it's just they, don't remember how to do it. They, can't find it. Sometimes. We, can't find how we did it last time our selves or when we did it and, sometimes. You actually have to have the feature turned on before. You can use the computer to go turn the feature on and. You'd say oh yeah but we have some little hotkeys. How. Many people you know who are have, trouble with technology, who are really good at remembering lots of key combinations, and of all, of the settings you have you've got key combinations, for just, a few of them and the, rest of them they're out. So. We've. Been working on something to try to explore, this problem called, morphic, and. The. Goal of morphic. Is to try to figure, out how to make things simpler. For people to use who need to use a special adaptive, technologies, and I. Need to get out of. This. Mode so that it'll share my screen there you go. So. First. Of all what, morphic does and this is where morphic started, with was this idea of Auto.
Personalization. The ability to store, in the cloud what you need and. Then, when you sit down to a computer, it can have it automatically, applied so. Will. You do this by having a. Not. A profile, of the user but a, their. Preferences, how they would like things to be set up stored, in the cloud and it's stored under a big UUID just a number. Like a Swiss bank, account, and, then when you want to invoke it you can do it in several ways one of them that I'll be using here, is you, can just have a little USB that's, got the, number. On it and you give it to morphic and it goes up looks, it up comes down and applies it at. The Community College we actually tie it to. Their sign. In so when they sign in they, don't have to have any keys when they sign it it automatically, does it or at the library you, can associate with the library, card so, when they just log in it automatically, applies. So. Now. This is Alice. Now, Alice needs an on-screen keyboard so. She just plugs in a USB, or logs, in and it'll, go up bring. Down and launch the on-screen, keyboard and it's just the one that she wants set up with just the features she wants in the way she wants it and then when she's done she goes away and it disappears. Now. Olivia she. Needs to, have a screen reader and now this is really good because until. The screen reader is is there, she can't use it and she uses, NVDA. And so. She. Comes in she can be able to just key. In and, it'll. Automatically, launch and so it'll launch this right screen reader at. The right speed. Using. The. Traveling. NVDA with Wi-Fi, will sound VVIP, while descoteaux, okay so. And. In the language so, it's the right speed the right language the right settings, all of the verbosity etc. And then, when, she's done it automatically. Goes. Away and, the. Ability to have it automatically, go away is also. Key. We. Had one, woman. Who. Was, coming in for a study and. When. We bring somebody in for a study around technology you always check, to see what their technical background, is, so. He asked her do, you use a computer and, she said well I used to we. Said okay, so what did you use it for she, says well I, I. Used it for email and. And. Then, I used this Skype and I would use that to talk to the grandchildren the great-grandchildren, and then and the nieces and nephews and that was really fun. And then, we. A. Bunch. Of us my. Friends and I we got together we did this Facebook thing. Well. It's pretty nice, but. You said you used to use it, she. Said yeah she said one. Day I was sitting there and I heard the kids in the other room and they were going ah the. Computers all messed up for Grandma again and, I. Figured you know. I've. Had my time this, is their time so, I stopped using the computer. And. I, like to want to die I, just. Sat there and at the time this was number, of years ago there, was not much that I could do about it but the. Ability to have it so that, it. Could set up she is not able to set up the computer so she could use it and she had no idea how to unset, it up when she was done but. With morphic. Setting. It up instantly and then when she walks away instantly. It kicks back. So. That's a key, part another. Thing that we built in a morphic and this is a problem, is. That. Ordinarily. Having, it just set up the eighty there is fine, if the 80 is there to set up the. Problem is if you go to the library often, you'll find that the only computer, that has the 80 that you need is the, one up on the fourth floor in the resource room that is open, in the daytime and may. Not be open at night, and. So. You. Only can use one, computer some at the time and you can't use it for the class you can't use it for the. Special. Lab, and the evening for teaching this or that or the other thing so, with. Morphic we have something called installation. On-demand. Which. Means that if you sit down to a computer, and it, sees that you need 80 and it's not there it, will automatically, get the 80, it checks licenses, to make sure that either morphic, or the site or you have a license, to it it, downloads, it and launches. It and configures. It exactly the way you need to have it and then. When you leave it takes, it all back away so, for the first time when. You go to the library you can sit with your friends you, can go to that special, lab, and the evening that's about this topic when. You go to your Community College any. Classroom, any computer. Any, lab, you. Can sit down to any computer and you'll, be able to have the, 80 you need show up be. Configured, set, up for you and leave. And. When you go it then. Just disappears, again. We've. Even had situations where people sat. Down at a computer and it, was the right, screen. Reader because that's usually the wrong screen reader when you get there or. It's set to the wrong speed in which case you can't use it because you can't understand, it to slow it down, things.
Like This so all of this happens, so this is all part of the. The, auto personalization. That we did and. These, are all things that more if it can do. So. We went out we started working with, American. Job centers and we work with community colleges and. Libraries. And. We. Learned something and we learned a whole bunch of things but one of the things that we found was. That the. None. Of these places have. Time to. Work with their patrons, to set up anything, like. Profiles, and needs and things like this. The. AJC's. Are hanging on by their fingernails, the. Librarians. Are running around and, and. They also don't know about, these features are so how are they going to help, somebody figure out what features they should be setting up when they don't wanna know what they are and there's, no chance a lot of these places also to have people turning over all the time especially, you, know job centers and things like this so, how. Are we going to get there so, that. Was one, problem the other thing we discovered is there were a lot of people that. Didn't really need 80, you, have so much stuff built into Windows that. If they only could get at it that, would be you know wonderful. So. But. Getting at it is kind of a trick so. We. Created, something called a, quick strip and. Let. Me. Bring. Up the, one that we start with that was sort of the advanced one and, so, the quick strip allows, us to be able to make. It easier for people to be able to find, and discover. The. Settings, and things that they, need and. To do. Again. Remember we talked about awareness, of. So. If we look at a quick strip. So, here we have one just a second it's. Adjusting. To your monitor. And, so. Here, we have the ability for example to change languages, so. Now. You have the ability to change languages, but it's pretty complicated I have to go and find it so on here let's. Let's. Say Chinese so. If I just click on Chinese, within. A couple seconds you'll see it comes back and, now. The menus, are in, Chinese, okay. Not. Having to reboot the computer, but. All of the parts. That you're looking for now are. In. Chinese, all of the complicated, menus so. Again. People who came out of mobile are. Now trying to figure out how. Windows and. We. Get lost on these menus sometimes, so, imagine somebody who's just, coming. Out of mobile and. They're. Trying to figure out all this complication, in another language so, in this case they can switch it back so at least when, they're trying to figure it out they can figure out the complexities, in, their own language. We. Also have. Translate. Tools and so we have all of the different ones including, your Microsoft. Translate, app. That. Does tax speech did, you know that you have an app that will actually point at street signs and it'll trancey, look at this. Good. For. Tutorials. Here screen. Zoom you have this great capability. To make things larger on the screen and it's nice it's much better than a magnifier, but, trying to find it and understand. It is hard, so. This. One again, what, does it do it just uses. The standard tools. You. Can either make it larger if you want to have more real estate you can actually make. It so that ever smaller and you got a bigger desktop, if you decide that's what you want. The. Now. One. Of the things. That we found, in the community college, is people. Who were having trouble with. The. Coders they kept saying well we need to be able to take. A picture of the screen and we can't figure out how to do scream, snapshots. And things like this and, and. When they do it takes a picture of the whole screen. So. They sent to the professor and they're trying to tell them where, in the code so what, they really want to do is just take out the part of the code they're having trouble with, and. So we said oh it's really easy all you need to know is you click over here. Well. Let me put this back into English for you so that it's a little easier for you. But. The you, have a really nice little screen snipping, tool, if. Anybody. Is aware of it and they know the secret code for being. Able to to, get to it and so. It's nice because you have it right there in. Here so if you know to click on the notifications.
And Then you know to click on the expand, and, then you know to click down here voila, you, suddenly get a really, nice little. Snipping. Tool. But. Again. Just. Making it so that it's easier you just click screen snip in there you've got it and. So then you can go and I guess you can even make a gerrymandered. Screen. Split, and. Capture. It and post. It to where you'd like to do it. And, again another. One we found is in. Word so, they. Actually had people who, were. Trying. To learn English. And they. Were using Microsoft. Word and what. She wanted him to do was to go through and to turn. On tracking and mark it up and highlight. The parts where they needed, to be fixed and then to turn that in for their homework and after. Several, classes, where, she would go around trying to get. Each one to find out which controls, were we're on which is a in strips they, finally gave up she passed out paper. Yellow. Magic highlighters. And a red pen and just told him to mark it up on paper and then go over and put it on the scanner and then to turn their homework in that. Way because. They were not able to figure, out how to get all of the people to, figure out she was wasting all of her time trying, to teach them how to find things in Windows well, so. One of the things that they, asked for was one is to make it so we have ms word simplified now you can make this simple, it's real, easy you just right-click over here and you, click customize. Ribbon and, then. You come over here and you a. Customize. Ribbon and then you click on you. Get the commands up and then, of course you sort, of learned by it telling, you that you didn't create a group that you have to create a special, group then, you have to rename the group so you know what it is and then you come over here and you find all the items you want to put from. This little, short list here to put on to your menu, to try and simplify it but, the problem you have is you've got next next next next next next next and they're all different nests so. Even, if you find the, controls, you want on your thing you'll usually find that there's several of them here and they all do different things so you have to figure out which are they are and. It's not just next it's delete it's more here's more colors look at how many different more colors there are and. Things, like this so it's, there but it's not something, and if it's somebody who can't handle the ribbons they, certainly can't handle, that but it's. Great you have it in there the capability, is there now all we have to do is to figure out how, do we make it that that can be exposed to somebody in a way that they can actually use, it. So. One. Of the things that we put on here is simplify. And, this. One and again all morphic, does is, remember. And change settings so it, just, changed it in and, it gave you a, very. Very simple. Ribbon. So you can see on the ribbon here, on. There now you, also have a simplification. But, mostly. What you do is you take away all the words and, that, doesn't actually make things simpler. The. Icons. Everybody. Thinks that icons well it looks visually simpler, to get rid of all those words and just have the icons but. Take. Away all the words and have even people from your own word.
Team Tell, you what all the icons mean and pretty, soon they'll have to start you. Know looking, around because, it's not that easy to remember and for people who don't know in advance. So. We have the words and we've got the icons, and they're, all nice and enlarged, makes it easy to work with, we. Also found, that, for. Some people they needed to be able to access different, things off of different menus so, we have an essentials, and with, this one you have one, ribbon. That. Has all of the most important things off of all of the ribbons okay, so, here's all the file in print here's all the formatting, and paragraph formatting here's, all the inserts that you need to do we. Even forgot to put equations, on here and they came back and said oh you know we need to have insert equations, so we said okay so, people, are having trouble and, here's, all the Edit tracking and stuff like this so without, having to go back and forth also. One. Of the problems you have is that. We. Keep updating, things and what happens when we update them we decide to rearrange them and we change the icons and we do other kinds of things and, people. Who finally, remember we have people that are hanging on by their fingernails, and. Then what we do is we remove the ledge that they're hanging on to and of. Course they they fall so. By. Doing this, as you can, still change your other venues, this, one stays the same because this one is is, defined, as it is okay. The. So. These are the kinds of of things that we've done around word. High-low, contrast, you. Had high contrast, but you didn't have low contrast, so. We, added some. More themes to, windows, and then we exposed the expanded, set of themes people. Who have trouble reading, often. Will ask for low contrast instead, of high contrast. So, the, so. We added those kind of things but, one of the things that we did here and we've, seen this as part, of our layering. You will tear that again, and later is. That we expose some of them but. If people want more it says help and more options we, open up and we tell you that here are all the places that you can go into. The. Control panels and we'll drop you right into the control panel where you need to be okay, so. We. Do that Sears one for color vision people, don't even know that this is around and so there's a large number of individuals, who have what. One in seven people who, are male, and the smaller percentage. Of females, have, color vision problems, and it's really fine, most, of the time except, when people send you color coded, information. And so, this lets you change, the way, the colors are represented, as, you can see here to. Make them so that you end up with contrasting. Colors for different. But. There's more than just these available so. We make it so that you can click. Here and again, go, back and it drops you right into the color vision section. Of. Your, control panel so. That you can be, able to to. Access, it so here we are with. All of the different kinds of things, that you have set. Up for that. Again. We. Had, volume. And mute and. This. Is an interesting one where they asked us to do volume and so he said. You. Want to click there and then click, there and then click there, to make it louder and they say oh that's fantastic thank. You I said, well you know instead of clicking here one. Inch, to your right you click right there and there's, a volume control. What. Did you do. People, aren't aware of that so you, know that okay that, makes sense for people who aren't you know computer, computer, users I did.
This At Atia. The. America the eighty Association. Industry Association a third. Of the people in the room leaned forward what did he click on I, did. This in the information. Science. Class. At, the, University, of Maryland a. Third. Of the class leans forward what, did he click on okay. We, take, some of these things for granted. I wouldn't. Be surprised if there's somebody at at. Microsoft. Here someplace who, would say oh you can click on that dollar. Now. Bitch yeah but I want to mute it and then you'd say oh well, all you have to do is to click on this thing over here and there we go well how am I supposed to know that and you just say, well. I guess, you say gee, it would be nice if you could mute let me start clicking around on things. One. Of the things we found is that people, with lower technology. Skills. And knowledge, don't. Just. Click, around, as. A matter of fact we, had them they're afraid to click around we. Had one who is sitting there and they're leaning over and staring, at the screen okay and, they're in there you know six. Inches from the screen and so we showed them you know you could do this and that you can do this and you can make it larger and they, oh that's, incredible thank, you so much we. Come back you know and then a few minutes later they come back oh thanks. Again this, is so much faster, next. Day we come in there squinting at the screen again, so. You go over and you say you know you know why didn't you use the thing well I was. Afraid I would break the computer. So. A job, Center you say ok we expect that. You. At the community college at the University, we, also hear, people saying. I'm. Afraid I'm gonna mess up the computer, as. A matter of fact you if, you go to the website you'll see that one of the people, we were there when we were doing interviews said you know am I gonna mess this thing up. They. Don't just go clicking around on things because. They're afraid they'll mess things up and in the Job Center they're, scared to death because. They're, trying to you know they depend on this place to get a job they mess up their computers, what are they going to do to me right. They. Don't realize we mess up our computers, all the time but that's that's. A different animal, so. Things. Have got to be obvious when we pop this up people say gee, why, don't you replace all those words with with icons, that would look a lot nicer and. The answer is yes, and nobody, would know what the icons. Did. As. A matter of fact one. Of our, people, was talking. About them so I. Asked, him to you know make little icons for, what they think the icon should be and they gave, me them and I said okay now which icons go to which one and they go oh let, me see that one mmm, that one must be and, they actually had to try and match back. Even, if they picked them out they couldn't figure out which, ones went back and as I said you can try this with on your own icon sets and your own teams and and take the words away. Now. We have, an option where you can't stick an icon up in the corner, of these if you want to but. We actually want, to have the room so that's large, enough for people to be. Able to to, read. Another. Thing we found was we. Went into, the. Libraries. We said, what. Is it that the people, have the most trouble with and they said well, they. Show, up and they have a flash drive and they stick it in the side of their computer. And. Then, they go around looking for a, librarian. Because. They say I've got my resume, on this thing how do I find it and they. Don't know well and again you'd say well that's easy all you have to know is to, type. Windows. Explorer. Why. Would they know that what do they even know what that things called most people who use it don't even know what it's called. If, the tray if you've locked this onto the tray which isn't always there they. Can click there and, then, you have to say well then you have to click on this PC and they go climb this PC and so, they got a flash drive and it's just toms trucking on it and they look up here and there's, nothing that says Tom's trucking there's just all these pictures that all look like the same and then there's. This one thing that they heard about a USB maybe that's no that doesn't that looks like a toaster, so. That can't be it. The. So. You, know they have no idea what they're what they're doing and of, course so. One of the things they asked for and so we provided was an. Open, eject so you click and it will automatically, open up any USB plugged, into the computer and there it is there's a resume, and they can launch it and be. Able to use it. Same, thing. My. Onedrive, okay, so, the, it's. Great fantastic. Tool, and, onedrive, Google, Drive at.
The Community College they hate use Google Drive and. The. People can't figure you know what do I do well, you open up a browser I'm. Opening your browser to get to my, drive where my files are yeah and then. You have to type you know like, drive.google.com. Well. That's it that's code stuff all right. And for, onedrive, in. Office I think. You actually do different things so you can make it so that they just click on they stuff and it automatically, opens. Them up right. To where they need to be okay, and so, now that's, you put it within reach. Of where. They need to be so. These are just some of the different kinds of things again we, have adjust the mouse and. We have the ability, and here's one where we did again, what we did is we provided a number of things that were very common the, ability to use right or left button, for. Left-handed, people the ability to make. It easier, double click for people who just they just they, you know they can't go fast enough a, larger. Mouse, pointer, and. We'll. Come back to that one the ability to make this thing so it doesn't fly around the screen on them or it goes faster, so they don't have to go, you. Know to try to get someplace to get to it. And then. We. Also have more. Adjustments. And so you click here and here we describe all of the other features first of all we, always say that these are the commonly items. Provided, by Windows so it says, these, are Windows features and, then it says but there's many more and then. Here are all the different places that you could go to to find different, things to adjust your mouse they're actually scattered around in, different, places. This one if I come here I can see I can use my left button and things like this it's. As initial mouse paws saying so I click on this and then I'm over here, and, if I'm trying to then make into a larger pointer, I then have to go to pointer options but it's not really there it's under pointers and, then here you have to know that you're supposed to click on this thing call the scheme, and. Then you come back down and then you have to realize that what you really want to do is to do a scheme to get there now you actually have a friendlier. Version and, so. We also provide, access to that, so. That if you come. Here, it's, this cursor and pointer size color and touch, feedback so, if I click that I get this and, I haven't quite figured out why, this isn't where you go but but. Again we find the different places that would be easy now this is something that people can use could. They ever find, their way to this and the, answer is I couldn't. Even find my way to this so I was just using that that link. The. You. Know coming home and then trying to figure out you, know what category things, are in and then you go to those and then you. End up having to you know look in the next one and I think mice. This, has pointers in mice which is under devices so that's, not what I would think of looking for a Mouse pointers the thing on the screen is not going to be a device, but. Printers, scanner but I click on Mouse but then it's not here and if I click there I don't get it so actually at some place but I don't know where it is. They. Don't first, of all we, find very few people that ever go into the control panels. Secondly. When. They do that. People. I search, I'm the first one it's, like you know men don't ask directions and and. I. Always, go in I always search but, most. People don't even think to search and. They. Don't expect to find. It and they don't know what to search for, so, they type mouse and what are they going to end up with they're going to end up on the wrong one because they really want to have pointer, size which. Which, is not under Mouse in. This particular case but. But. Some of those things we can work out that's just rearranging. That's debugging. But. What you can't do is you can't get them to go into the control panel in the first place. But. One, of the things that we need is that we want to get them into the control panel so, can we first get them used to using controls. And then, wanting, more and. Saying here's where you go and, then showing them how to find it and then, you just sort of it's it's like an easier on ramp. All, of us were much, more. Exploratory. And adventuresome, and and, not afraid to dive in, but. Again, for. Example and, don't come back to your sector, we're. At the AJC and we come in and there's this this guy standing. Behind. Somebody, who's sitting at a. Computer, there's 24 computers, all lined up all, in identical, cubicles, identical, computers and standing.
Behind This person. 20. Minutes finally. Gives up and leaves, comes. Back later in the day and. The computers open sits down and using it so. You go up and ask him it's like yeah I noticed. You're standing before and you know why didn't you use one of the other computers and he says oh this. Is the one I used yesterday they said well why. Don't you use one of the other computers as well I don't. Know if I can use those but. I was able to use this one okay. So, that's, the, level that. Were talking. About and as I said before with. The person who was leaning over and squinting and then it worked and they were afraid to do anything that isn't what they did before. The. Mistake, the, previous day was. To actually do, it and show it to him it, should have made sure that we stuck around and had them do it three, or four times so. That they realized, that they could do it but. Again you. Know can, we that's. That's. What we're learning is, that people. Are really down, dealing. With these things on the superstitious, level, we're. Even finding people that we think are all computer, literate because they're using their their, phones ask. Them to do something other besides the four or five things they do every day and, many. Of them. They. Just know how to do a few things and. That's, and. We need to recognize that because we. Need to get them beyond. That so. Part of the purpose of this is, to get people started and to. Make. It so that they are able, to. Be. Able to. Get. Used to it we had one person who came. In and they. Were sitting like two feet from the computer and they said all they sat there and said I don't know why I volunteered, to come in and do this I can't, use computers, I'm not going to be able to do this I shouldn't, have done this, it, was really a mistake and, you know I was going on and on and on like this so. In. That case instead of these were using little NFC cards and so we had one that said larger. And high contrast he put it on and it changed the larger in high contrast, then. We had another one they'd put on and it said you know. A. Different language or something and he'd just you know you put him on then we had to put a couple on and then the researcher, got called away. To. Go in the other room for a few minutes they came back and he was the person on there on the computer using it and browsing the internet and it. Was like, what. Do you do with the guy he was here a minute ago, who, you know we couldn't get to pull his chair up to the computer and, I. Kind, of look at it, and. Talking to him it was it's sort of like. You. Coming down a path and you see a pitbull. Standing. In the middle of the path in front of you you. Know what do you do you know go over and pet it yes. If. You own one maybe if. You don't you. Stare at it and you look at it, but. If somebody comes up and says tell. It to sit and you say sit and it sits and. Then you say tell us to roll over and it rolls over all. Of a sudden sure you walk up and pet it because you feel like you're not you're. Not afraid of it you're in control well. Because, he had the ability to make this do some things at his, command. Suddenly. It, broke the the fear factor so, maybe. If we can figure out how, to get people over that. So we can get them into things they can get them into the control panel we can get them into making changes, into. The computer, adjusting, to them instead. Of them feel like they're at the mercy of the computer, yes you had a question. Do use your tools slowly. Either. Feel, less. Anxious, about using, windows or. Slowly learn. Where to find these settings or. Is. It more like well you. All mocked the functionality, that was there and it doesn't, really matter to them how, they, can find again is lemon switch otherwise that like where these, are learning we're just. It's. Just opening. Up in the AJC's, what, we found is that the, superstitious. Level is really very very high and. So, unless. You actually. Are. There enough if you just put it there and walk away you know if you build it they will come. Doesn't. Work because. They're just so afraid to do it even if they know it's there you, put it within reach and they won't reach out because they don't want to break anything. We're, just now putting it in on the community college and mass and we're putting it at the University of Maryland so, we have more data about that but. But. Yes what. We've getting in feedback and, and from, them and talking to them but, we wanted to do now is to see what happens in in, in practice over time. Is. That, it. Does both once they figure, out first of all they discovered, that the computer can do can do these things and that's a big leap for them then, the second one is that, they realize that they can do it. And. Again the the easier. We can make it the. Better so, what. I just did is I keyed in with what we think may be a very very simple one so well. This is that the quick strip is entirely customizable, so you can make it up be whatever you want so here's one that, might be for an older person okay.
And. This. Is a person who just plain can't use Windows they can't figure out where they are. Interestingly. If. You say. They're. In, male. And then they want to go look at pictures and then you say oh well you just quit this program and then launch the other program and they say what's, the program. Think. About it well how would you describe what a program, is to. An older person and if you can't say what it is how do you tell them that they need to change. Programs, to do different things, okay. And. I'm. Stopped, and I've been trying to think about it for a long time and I can't think how to do it but, you can make it so that you. Have a strip that has just, the things they need on it so. It's got screen zoom. It's got screen snip the. USB, and then my pictures in my email when they click my. Email they, get their email okay, and you, can make this mine. Hides, again but you can have it so the VAR never closes, okay. So. That it's always open so then when they want to get their pictures they can click and they get, their pictures all right and, then. When. They see. Something and they go oh I want that capture that one so, you know they come down and their screen, sniff is there so they can go screen snip, and. They. Grab, the picture of grandma with the with, the baby and. They. Go to the my mail. And. It. Says new mail that's a good one it's a good name on, this one instead, of you. Know compose, or something like that which means nothing to somebody, and. Then they can you. Know paste something in here and and now they can send the picture of Grandma and the child off something, that would be completely outside of their reach but you. Just pick out the things that they're, looking for, but. They don't have to then worry, about you know programs, and, how to get from one when, they want mail and go there they go pictures, they go pictures and the, fact that that one of them is. You. Know a program, here and one of them is on the web is. Is all. You. Know transparent. To them they don't need to to be able to know, those kinds of things okay, so. These. Are kind, of some of the things we can do can we make it so, that we have tiny steps can we make it so that we have contained environments, they. Get used to it and then she goes okay but now how do i browse. The web so then you add one more and you, get them leaning forward. But. You throw too much of them all at the same time and, they, bounce off and then, they never want to talk to you again. So. The. So morphic can first of all it can expose. Hidden. Features that are hidden in devices you can bring them forward there was another more button over here that. You can use and it. Brings up another array, of buttons and you can drag the ones down that you want to have on your on, your tray so, that you can have, a simple set here but you can have a larger, number. Of things to set from but, you can make it so that people can discover that, there is something for colorblindness that there is something for left and right handed people that you can change the mouse so, that if you're having trouble using it we. Can then make commonly, used features or even programs be faster, to get to or always. Shown as we just saw in in the example. We. Can also allow a person settings to follow them across devices okay so, as I move from one device to another you saw that but. Very importantly, we, can also have their assistive, technologies. Follow them around some. Of the kids we're working with don't have any computers, at home and, you know for those of us who have several. At home it's sort of like a different reality but. How do the kids do homework okay. And, if they need a tea how, do they do homework then go to the library but there's no eighty on the library so what is supposed to go, over to Grandma's house she's got a computer but, does she have their 80 on the computer they. Go to their tutor but thick tutor can't work with them because, he doesn't have the 80 on the computer. You. Can also change between setups so that you, can actually have on. Here on, the side here we have my, safe settings you can have a whole bunch of different, settings. There, in. A household you could have them be for different people but a single person can have them for different ones so. Some. People's performance, changes over the course of a day so, by the end of the day they. Can't see as well they can't move as well they, can change the profile and it'll change all the settings for. People who can't focus they, can say set, it to their study and it shuts down all of their stuff turns off the notifications. In all their different places and and. Lets, them just work on this and then an hour later or, a half hour later whenever they give. Up they can click and one click it all comes back if. They got a churn all that stuff off one at a time, they'll never do it you, can even make it so that you turn them off and it'll automatically turn back on after a period of time yes.
Or. First. I understand. How. That works if it's. Narrow. So let's say I use jaws. How, does, that work if Josh doesn't reinstall. On other computers and correct, because since the model of jaws requires. Me to pay, for okay. Norfolk. Norfolk, has installation, of demand, which. And it runs below the security layer so, that even on lockdown computer, morphic can install, and uninstall software as, it as it needs to, and. Then we work with the we're working with Freedom Scientific etcetera, and licensing, models. So that either we. Don't ever install. And launch it if the, site the individual, or or, morphic, doesn't, have a site license for, it so we don't launch any software, that we don't have that. There isn't a valid license in place for. This person on this machine to use that software, and do. You think. Just. The whole model of you know software, licensing. And what that means is that something that this. Demographic would understand or would they be super, confused. Well, first of all one of the things we're going to be doing is is that we are going to be having. Licenses, ourselves. So. That we use the local, licenses, if they're there and if they're not there we would use our license, is. The way we would typically do it or it'll pop up and say you. Can't use this software here you don't you, don't have a license, but normally. They don't have the license in their profile, to use if, they don't have permission, but, what we do have where, the school has permission, but. They have to use it or someplace else but. They can't use it someplace else because, the school, can't tell the other someplace else that this child should be able to do that because it can't tell anything about the child, you. Know things like that. Okay. Also. Really. Critical. Is. It lets you set up a computer from scratch okay. Think of that installation on demand so, we internships. Are really, critical, things for people with disabilities, a lot, of people are afraid I are somebody with a disability they. Don't know if they can do the job for. People with disabilities, it's important, not only for, them to get job experience, it's important, for them to be able to demonstrate what. They can do and that, they really are good and the people who hire them find out that they can be you, know the most loyal and the best and most reliable etc, employees but they have to get over that so you get an internship he, shows up for the internship, and it's, a month before, they actually get the stuff. Installed. So, when you have weeks or month delay before. You can actually get the, 80 up and running you're. Pretty much out of luck on that internship, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. The. Minister. For. Accessibility. In, Canada. Uses. 80. And. It took a month to get her computer set up ok. And and. She basically said if it takes me a month to get set up. You know, lord. Help anybody else in. The government kind, of thing so, or. You get a promotion or you get a job and you show up so, with, Norfolk, you, can have, the. Morphic IOD which is a server. It's. Got all of the software. They can just mount it on their drives and. Then they can have it so that when, the person comes in they, just plug in and literally, in minutes. Before, they get back from their first orientation. Lecture, that, computer, can be all completely, set up for, the individual, and, available.
For Them to use ok. So, these are all things but these are two that only morphic, can do they, can't be done any. Other, way yes. Yes. Well, it's on Windows now and it's we're moving to the. Macintosh. Will be. The next couple. Months. Yes. With. The, following caveats, you, can't run jaws on. Mac. OS, instead. You'd be using their screen reader so, we can when. They go, over there you'd lost. Their screen reader, but. You can do things like language and speed things. Like that but they can adjust them so that they could actually have the. Screen reader running at a different speed on the. Mac OS than it does on Windows because, on Windows you, know they've been using it longer and they has a different speech synthesizer, I don't know if you know this but, the. Rate at which you can listen is a function, of the synthesizer. And. Some of the synthesizers, that sound the best don't, speed up as well, and, things like that so yeah so they can do those things. And. It's not just for those who think of as a disability, we're. Actually disabling. People with complexity. I. Have, what I call complexity, induced disability, where people are. Used. To be able to do things but we introduced technology and, complexity, and now they are. Not able to do things and, and, we think it's them well they just need to spend more time learning the technology but. Again if, if they are not people who learn technology well it's, not like our friends, who are brighter. Than we are who can't use their technologies, are just, plain stupid or lazy they. May be CEOs, but, there's, a reason, why they, have trouble with their technology where we don't and. It's it's, because, of this a function. Before. I leave this, and go into the future I, want, to leave you with a thought what. If the only way for you guys to get a job is if you could do differential. Equations, and integral, calculus okay. Now. Some of you would say yeah, okay I can do that but the rest of us are going I. Can't. I'm an electrical engineer so this one I pass um but, what if you had to have a high artistic, quotient, then, unless, you could be a great artist you couldn't get a job or what if you. Had to be able to compose, music in, order to get a job yeah, a high, mq. Music. Quotient. What. If we designed the whole world so that you couldn't get a job if you couldn't you, know do that well, then. Many of us would be at a job center, feeling. Hopeless and, and, everything else because somebody, designed a world that, needed. A skill that. They designed, into, every job a, skill. That we don't have. I. Would be my, musical. Talents. Are are. Negative, in. Terms of being able to compose music or something like that. So. Why, are we creating a world where you can't get along unless you have height EQ, or, an. Average one or a, low. One and so. We need to be doing that we need to figure out how to design for all levels and there's ways of doing it layering, the complexity, and morphic. You, already, do some of that in yours, but. My. Message I guess is first of all. We. Need to do more and, and morphic is is a way of doing another layer and. It's another layer that well. Many of the things that more if it does, are things that the Microsoft, can't do itself because it. Would take on, too. Many liabilities. Around, having, to work with every single piece of a tee and things like that but, but collaboratively. This. Is something that that, that we can do and that's what we're looking to do, if. We, don't figure out how to do that we're going to be excluding, more people as we, go forward not, just a minute employment, and and. Many. Many more people than we realize. Ok. So. Any. Questions, about that and then I want to go to the future yes. Yes. What. It's. What kind of partnerships, or permissions, do you need from. The. Universities, or a lot so you just do, it. Oh, what. We're installing is, software. Package that they already have control of okay. So, the, the. If. They want to they literally can have the packages, mounted, on their server that, they pre scanned and they know are all, available the, but. By, working with us what they do is they get the latest ones we. Can scan them once working, with a security, firm you know McAfee, or semantic. Or or, whenever and. Then say ok this has already been pre scanned in this I go thank, you because, trying. To scan, trying. To scan. Eighty. To. Make sure there's no malware there's, nothing that looks more like malware, than, eighty right, it, wants to be able to see your keystrokes it wants to be able to see everything that's on the screen. So. What, you want to do is you want to have trusted, sealed packages. That. You know the chain. Of possession from, the manufacturer. All the way to to, what it is and. So then now they have this this block of eighty which. They know is all clean. So. Then installing, it it's that's easy.
But. It so that huge delay half of that delay is because. You're, asking him to do something they haven't seen before you're, asking to install software they don't understand. When. They look at the software and they go this, software, looks at keystrokes, you know and, it's like it's. It's. Pretty, nasty-looking stuff if you actually look at what it what it needs to do in order to be eighty so. That's. A big, part of what are. Some collaboration, but the organization, that you're trying to help once. Oh yeah well they they have to bring it in yeah they're bringing it they're bringing in yeah and. Any software that comes in even Windows when it comes in goes, through a review process and, stuff to make sure and they want to make sure it works with everything else they have things. Like that do. Ok. I wanted. To set, this aside for a second now and let's. Talk about the. Next next generation how the, stuff, we're doing up to now the morphic you saw is. A collaborative. Work we're doing with a lot of different places. For. Example smart work is a project, in in. In. The European funded. By the European Commission it's a consortium over there. That's. Trying to figure out how you to, make smart, working environments, and in incorporating. These kinds of capabilities into, it morphic. Itself came out of work. Funded. In the United States and in Canada and to, European. Commission. Funded, projects, and so, this is a. Collaborative. International. Kinds of efforts. So. This. Looks so. We've been looking at today and and in the near future but. If we look in the next next generation. We're. Seeing a number, of things and we, actually see some of these today, one. Of them is we. Said before you snow longer possible to live learn, or participate, or be employed unless you can use digital, interfaces I mean, you can't get, in your house. Our. Power company, just told, everybody that you can have a lower. Electric. Bill if you use one of our digital thermostats. And. So, they, will, install them give them to you free install, them and so, people now have thermostats, that they don't know how to use okay. They, used to have one you, know older people it used to be a twister and now all of a sudden you. Know what's all this. The. Numbers, don't make sense one. Called, up and said well I don't know what's happening it said 68 and so I wanted to make it hotter so I pushed up, to 70, and. Then I and then but then went back to 68, so then I tried, to make it go to 70 again but now is it 72 and and. And. Well that's okay but then it was back to 68, so then I tried to get it back up to 7 now it's at 70 now it's at 80 it's getting hot in here, and what, they have doing a course is they push, the button and it moves the, the.
Setup And then when it sits there it goes back to being a thermometer, so. It drops back to 68, so. Then they try and hit it up twice and of course it's already at 70 so when they punch it twice it's now 72, and. Then it's 68 and, and they're sort of ratcheting, themselves, oh and. It's not making any sense to them because that's not the way things. Behave. Microwave, ovens are delight, every. Time I come up to one I have to do a little experiment, to try and figure out you. Know I just, push the one that's one minute right, now. It's one second, and it's like how, do I get one minute you know you have to put in 100 seconds, but. 100 seconds is really one minute zero you know etc. The. Second one and this is really key all. Of, the efforts we're doing today and all the efforts we're doing only, about 6 percent of the products and websites are accessible. Okay, so. With all of the effort we're doing we've made this huge impact. Of 6 percent now you. Have. Some. Products, like Windows stuff which, you know massively, used, so, but. Most. Of the individual, products are not made by big corporations, they're made by a million, little places and they, don't even have the ability to hire people, and you. Hire, people but, you try and train all of your designers, in how to make things accessible and, it's, it's just impossible so, it is impossible. To train all developers, in the major companies and how. To create interfaces, for all. I'm. Considered, to be somewhat. Of an expert in accessibility, and yet, if somebody, asked me to design somebody, I started, calling my colleagues ok so, how many people have my colleagues, available. To try to call to do so if, we. Can't be cross-disability. Experts. How do we expect every, single designer so this, is like a lost, cause but yet this is in critical our. Current model says this is what we should be doing. And. Then most products come from small companies and they don't have any people. On them and then, forth it's, actually, not possible to create. Interfaces. That are cross-disability. Accessible. By everybody, you can't do, it. If. You did figure out how to put all that many bells and whistles on it it, would be so complicated nobody, could figure out how to use it but. Even then I've. Had people who had who, are deafblind. Cerebral. Palsy and. Had a cognitive, impairment and try and think of how you design something. But. All of the different combinations you just you can't get there so. Proposition. Instead. Of trying to do those four things all, of which we pretty much know can't, be done what. If, you. Just had to make your product, generally. Usable. If. You could make it so that half, of the population, could, understand, and use it okay so. Everybody. Who's blind can be in the other half you know it's you know it's it's you. Just do the the easiest, 50%. And. Then. We create an AI robot, we'll call it an info, bot, that. Is powerful enough to be, able to understand, and use any interface, that, 50%, the, the. 50th percentile, person. Can. Use so. We designed from the bottom up a, robot. That can understand, at least this much we, designed down to the top now as we go forward you can go better and, it doesn't mean that you can't also build it in flexibility. And and as much as you can for other people because. It's really nice but in. Terms of the accessibility, rules and the ability to sell to the government the ability to actually. Go and say you know everybody can use it we, get the info bot and then. Accessibility. Experts, and and this isn't just people in universities this, is people in the companies wouldn't. Your. Researchers. Like, to instead of trying to figure out how to create an interface. For, a blind person to be able to figure out how to use a visual interface. What. About the question what. If nobody could see, what. Would an interface, look like if nobody could see and could. We give an interface, to somebody who has no vision that's. Optimized. For someone who has no vision and. The, other problem you have is you say well you can do this now and just have an API but do, you know how hard it is to have an API to all, the inner workings of all of your product, it's like as, soon as you create an API you froze, the inner working of your products and your. Designers, your architects, you know they. Just come out and say are you are you serious, you. Know we can't your, hamstringing, us so the, info bot on the, backend has a stable. API. On. The front-end it basically, just is be able to take whatever interface, you give it and now. It works for all of your products and all, of those small business products and all, of those products designed by people who have no interest or knowledge of, disability. Okay. As.
Long As half of the population and, hopefully. They can figure out how to design something for that then, it would go and then, the, rest of us that. Are looking, at accessibility instead, of going around trying to beat, people up to try to make things accessible. We. Are creating, better, interfaces. For each of these little things I think, you have something at Microsoft, called design for one. Apply. Too many or something like that, it's. One of the things where you, say well instead of us just trying to figure out how do you design for you know everybody let's, start taking just real live cases, figure. Out what they take and then figure out what we learned from that that. Could be generalized, so, that. Is a lot, more interesting, and rewarding, if. You have people who are working with ALS you could say okay what, are people with this. Stage of ALS because ALS of course is progressive, in it so it's a whole bunch of different targets. You, know what is it that's going to work for them or for other people that are in that same situation, for whatever cause. And. Then, we design something for them and, we. Can optimize it so we get all of these optimizations. And then. They plug into the back of the information. Generator. So. What are the benefits first. Of all. Disability. Experts inside and outside of the company can. Focus on creating the best interfaces. For individual, disabilities, and. Those. Who are doing it that's what they really want to be doing they don't want to be running around yelling. At people about. Matching things so. Rather than spending their time training, and training and training and trying to do try. To train everybody to be expert, on everything they let their regular, designers, do regular, design and they. Focus. And they can work on their individual once. Training. Every one is never-ending. As you know as. Soon as you train somebody up somebody, else comes in takes their place. If. You're lucky they're someplace else in the company so you don't lose it entirely but. Who knows maybe they end up in management so they don't design another thing. You. Can never reach in, depth of, the subset who, actually develop. When. You get this you barely get awareness to those levels you don't really get expertise. And. Of. Course we don't get any of the small, developers, and. You were also asking to be cross-disability experts, which is impossible. And. Asking. Them to do all types all levels, and all combinations, ah I. Can't, even get my students, who spend two year studying with me to get to that level of, capability. For, all disabilities. So. The. Interface generators, can then be different developed by different groups so. Example. You can have people working on blindness, people working on deafness. Et
2020-01-24 08:26
