[gui-talk] Fwd: Microsoft Mobile Accessibility Roundtable

[Steve Pattison]

 From:    erik burggraaf erik at erik-burggraaf.com
 To:      GW-Micro List gw-info at gwmicro.com

Hi, Thought some here might be interested in this given the recent
threads on wp7.  Understand that every one has been frozen out.  No
mobile speak, no talks for windows phone 7.  It also nagates all
applications that relied on multi-tasking, background processing, and
any sort of interaction.  not just accessibility tools, but any
applications.  Even simple interaction such as copying and pasting
won't be available until the next release of windows phone in about two
years time.  

Best,

Erik Burggraaf
User support consultant,
One on one access technology support and training over the phone or in person,
1-888-255-5194
http://www.erik-burggraaf.com

Begin forwarded message:

Below is a document that captures an event that took place recently and
which RNIB attended. 

Steve

Microsoft Roundtable 26 October 2010

Hello All,

I would like to thank each of you for taking the time to travel, in many
cases, great distances to Redmond, Washington to meet with members of
Microsoft's mobile and accessibility teams.  Your engagement, feedback,
and guidance are genuinely appreciated.

As a follow-up to the Mobile Accessibility Roundtable, I wanted to
provide you with summary notes from the event and a statement from Andy
Lees, President of Microsoft's Mobile Communications Business, outlining
Microsoft's accessibility goals for the Windows Phone operating system.
Please feel free to share the statement with your members and
constituents.  

Overview of the event:

The Mobile Accessibility Roundtable was a daylong event held on October
26, 2010, at Microsoft's corporate headquarters in Redmond, Washington,
U.S.A.  The event included guests from the following organizations
representing the blind and low-vision communities: National Federation
of the Blind, American Council of the Blind, American Foundation for the
Blind, CNIB, Royal National Institute of Blind People, Vision Australia,
and ONCE.  Microsoft's participation included facilitated dialogue and
presentations by: Andy Lees, President of Microsoft's Mobile Business,
Rob Sinclair, Microsoft's Chief Accessibility Officer, Chuck Bilow,
Microsoft's Senior Program Manager responsible for Windows Phone
accessibility, and me, Richard Suplee, a Senior Product Planner in
Microsoft's Mobile Communications Business. 

Current status of Windows Phone 7 (WP7):

At the Roundtable event, Chuck Bilow and others discussed some of the
technical features of WP7, as well as some of the challenges we have
faced in bringing this new product to market.  Some of these points,
outlined below, are important to keep in mind as we continue the
dialogue about the future of WP7:

Windows Phone 7 is a fundamental top-to-bottom rewrite from previous
Microsoft mobile operating systems and in many ways is like a first
version product.  It is an entirely new operating system and user
interface.  Therefore, no applications from earlier Microsoft mobile
operating systems will run on Windows Phone 7 and features had to be
re-created for use on the new platform.  No handset that currently runs
Windows Mobile 6.5 can run the Windows Phone 7 operating system.  There
is no upgrade path to Windows Phone 7 for the Windows Mobile 6.5
operating system, the current hardware or existing applications. Windows
Phone 7 is a new platform from the ground up.

We are not yet where we want to be with accessibility features in
Windows Phone 7.  With that said, we are able to support a number of
eyes-free calling scenarios, contrast and color adjustments, and pinch
and zoom support in e-mail, web-browsing and Office applications.  The
eyes-free calling support utilizes wired headsets, speech recognition
and text-to-speech in its Voice Activated Dialing scenario.  

With this first release, because of the inherent increased complexity,
it was not feasible to build some of the infrastructure we need to
support a screen reader (for example, multi-tasking, inter-process
communication, and user interface focus).  These features impact the
ability to support many types of applications, including accessibility
applications like a screen reader.  

Because this is an entirely new system, we are still examining how best
to implement certain functionality.  For example, we are still examining
how to enable simultaneous applications (i.e., multi-tasking) in the
Windows Phone operating system.  This limitation in the V1 platform does
not allow applications to run in the background and control touch input
or any other aspect of the user interface.  The initial operating system
lacks features such as Copy/Paste, support for enterprise scenarios,
some email and web browsing plug-ins, and some assistive technologies
like traditional screen readers.

Feedback from guests at the event:

The highest product priority is for Microsoft to enable a built-in
screen reader that works across the Windows Phone experiences.  The
screen reader should be free to users and work "out of the box" on all
Windows Phones.

In addition to a built-in screen reader, Microsoft should provide
programmatic access for developers, including assistive technology (AT)
vendors, to extend the capabilities of the built-in screen reader.

Microsoft should work with its original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and
mobile operator partners to promote the availability of Windows Mobile
6.5 phones with optional screen readers until Windows Phones have a
screen reader.

The Microsoft mobile team should use the Microsoft's Windows Phone
"Chassis spec", the hardware guidance Microsoft provides to OEMs, to
help promote  accessible hardware.  The example given was using the
chassis to ensure Microsoft's OEM partners use displays with sufficient
screen contrast. 

Attendees expressed some skepticism in Microsoft's current capacity to
build a high-quality screen reader, but felt if Microsoft applied
sufficient research, design, and usability resources to the problem,
Microsoft should be able to enable a high quality screen reading
experience.

* The Microsoft mobile engineering team should incorporate input from
people who are blind to ensure a high quality screen reading experience
is enabled.  

* Microsoft should engage with external groups that represent the blind
community to test and review the accessibility features Microsoft
enables. 

* Accessibility information is not available on the Windows Phone
website and should be.

* Microsoft should continue a dialog with the assembled group.

Guests also provided rich planning information during a device ecosystem
workshop and mobile accessibility futures sessions.  This information
will be used by Microsoft's mobile planning and user research team for
building out "Day in the life" portraits and scenario development.

Next steps:

Provide a meeting summary with guest feedback from the Roundtable and a
statement from Andy Lees.  Below is a statement from Andy Lees,
President of Microsoft's Mobile Communications Business, that you should
feel free to share with your members and constituents:

o   Microsoft's goal is to deliver platforms, products, and services
that are accessible.  We recognize that there is more we can do in this
respect, and our goal is to develop Windows Phone into a compelling
option for people who are blind or visually impaired.  

Windows Phone 7 is exciting because it introduces an entirely new way
for consumers to interact with their mobile phones.  It is a complete
change from Microsoft's past mobile systems - different than anything
else on the market.  This new approach presents both challenges and
opportunities for visual accessibility.  The Windows Phone 7 operating
system already provides some features that enable basic accessibility
for blind and low-vision users. As we move forward, we will continue to
make Windows Phone handsets easier for blind and low-vision individuals
to use.  These plans include further expanding use of speech
functionality to create a better eyes-free phone experience, and
building on this technology to enable screen reading functionality
specifically tailored to the one-of-a-kind Windows Phone interface.  

Looking to the future of mobile computing, we believe there is a great
opportunity to embrace new technologies to help all people better
navigate their world.  We hope to shape and define this future in
partnership with the blind and visually-impaired communities. 

Microsoft will host an additional Mobile Accessibility Roundtable at the
beginning of the next major Windows Phone product planning cycle.  This
will give the blind and low-vision communities an opportunity to provide
feedback and priorities as Microsoft develops its next plan of record
for Windows Phone.  The next Roundtable would likely be at least a year
away. 

* Microsoft will extend its Windows Phone testing program to include
individuals within your organizations.  We will send details after our
next Windows Phone testing program is established.

* Microsoft will communicate accessibility updates through the
Trustworthy Computing team's newsletter (Accessibility Update).  This
could include information on operating system updates, new third party
applications or new phones. 

On behalf of Microsoft, thank you again for participating in the Mobile
Accessibility Roundtable.  We think the Roundtable was a positive step
towards a richer engagement between Microsoft and your respective
organizations and the blind and low-vision communities you represent. 

Sincerely,

Richard Suplee

Senior Product Planner, Microsoft

Regards Steve
Email:  srp at internode.on.net
MSN Messenger:  internetuser383 at hotmail.com
Skype:  steve1963
Twitter:  steve9782