[gui-talk] Regarding the Lack of Screen Reader Accessibility in Kaspersky Products

[David Goldfield]

Those who follow my blog posts and messages on other mailing lists will 
probably know that I use Kaspersky Antivirus as my security software of 
choice. While I realize that the program's level of accessibility could 
certainly be improved, it was and, for me, still is accessible enough to 
the point where I can perform the tasks which I need to perform. You can 
read my review of the product, from the perspective of an NVDA user, at

https://davidgoldfield.wordpress.com/2016/11/16/kaspersky-antivirus-a-review-for-screen-reader-users/

When I first began hearing of Kaspersky's unwillingness to not only 
commit to accessibility but that they had practically admitted that they 
had no such commitment I was incredulous. I had hoped that this was just 
an assumption on the part of one user. However, a couple of users on 
another mailing list have publicly provided additional details and I 
have always found their posts to be fair, accurate and well-written. In 
addition, one of those users received a tweet from Kaspersky, where they 
pretty much confirmed that accessibility was not a high priority for them.

To that end, I tweeted the following message to @kl_support, Kaspersky's 
support account.

@kl_support I'm hearing rumors that Kaspersky is not committing to 
accessibility in 2018 in your products. Is this true?
from DavidGoldfield | Apr 01 7:14 pm | via Easy Chirp
I soon received the following reply from KL_support.

@DavidGoldfield Most likely you're right. Let us specify it from our 
developers team. We hope to implement it in later versions or patches.
from kl_support | Apr 02 3:50 am | Responding | via Freshdesk


There are some conclusions I can make as to the problems we're facing, 
along with several solutions which I will be aggressively pursuing.

First, let's talk about the actual problems. The person or persons 
responding at the kl_support Twitter account are not engineers, 
developers or designers. They likely don't understand what accessibility 
actually means and therefore don't grasp the ramifications as to the 
consequences of a program being inaccessible to screen readers. This 
person or group of persons likely does not understand that the lack of 
accessibility means that a group of computer users will be locked out 
from performing functions which are absolutely essential to maintaining 
the security of their computers. Let's also not forget that this group 
of users are customers who actually paid for the product. At least one 
customer who recently purchased their security suite is now pursuing a 
refund, due to the decline in the product's accessibility, something 
which is regrettable but which is perfectly reasonable. This customer 
will most likely get the refund which is being sought, which no company 
wants.

The first step among many that I plan to take is to send a more detailed 
message to @kl_support, attempting to explain how blind people access 
computers with screen readers and how the lack of accessibility in some 
Kaspersky products has a negative impact on their overall experience. In 
addition to having a negative impact on users, I will also explain how 
this lack of accessibility can have a negative impact on the company's 
business, since customers will be unwilling to pay for a program they 
cannot actually use. I will also point out that at least one customer, 
who recently purchased one of their suites, is now pursuing a refund. 
This explanation will need to be done in a manner that is very clear and 
to the point as I also believe that some of the individuals responding 
via @kl_support do not speak English as their primary language and so I 
will need to take this into consideration when crafting a response.

My prediction is that this first step will yield very little in the way 
of positive results. My next step will be to compose a more detailed 
response to Kaspersky regarding the lack of accessibility in the form of 
an open letter, which I plan to distribute via a variety of channels. 
This open letter will provide all of the details and documentation I can 
provide regarding the problems we are having with Kaspersky, our tweets 
and messages to them along with any responses we have received from 
them. This open letter, first and foremost, will be posted to my blog. 
In addition, I plan to ensure that I have a link to this post on 
Twitter, my main LinkedIn feed, appropriate LinkedIn groups, relevant 
Facebook groups and other tech-related mailing lists. While I only have 
248 followers on Twitter, I have over 3100 connections on LinkedIn and, 
before I submit this post, I will attempt to connect to people who are 
higher up in the chain at Kaspersky. Additionally, I will submit this 
open letter to at least one of the two consumer advocacy organizations 
such as ACB or NFB and request their assistance. I'm also considering 
contacting a high-profile podcaster such as Jonathan Mosen to see if he 
might be willing to cover this story on his Blind Side podcast. Years 
ago, I would have enjoyed being a guest on anybody's podcast to talk 
about anything. Those days are long gone and I no longer crave any such 
attention or publicity and I no longer enjoy public speaking but 
desperate times sometimes call for desperate measures.

To that end, I am requesting the following assistance. If people are 
experiencing problems with a Kaspersky product, I would ask that you 
kindly send me documentation with as many details about the problem as 
you can provide. Which Kaspersky product (Kaspersky Antivirus 2016, 
Kaspersky Internet Security 2017, etc.), which version of the product is 
currently installed? Which screen reader and what version? What specific 
issues do you have? Please be as specific as you can. Please also 
specify as to whether I may mention your name or do you wish to be 
referred to as "one user reports that ..."

If you have copies of any relevant correspondence with Kaspersky 
regarding these issues and if you are comfortable in having these emails 
or tweets published in this open letter, please provide this to me as 
well. If you would like the correspondence to be published but if you 
would like your name omitted from the open letter, please specify this 
as well and I can substitute your name or Twitter handle with dashes, 
such as @-----.

If any of you are pursuing a refund with Kaspersky due to these issues 
and are now wondering if you should continue to do so or just wait for a 
possible resolution, my prediction is that, while we will win this 
battle, we will not do so quickly. When all has been said and done, I 
believe that Kaspersky will make accessibility in their products a 
higher priority. However, this will take time and you are therefore 
totally justified if you would like to continue pursuing a refund and 
begin using an alternative product. In order to ensure that this open 
letter is properly documented, this will take hours of work on my part. 
I work full-time during the week and so weekends are the only block of 
time which I have to devote to this issue, along with performing 
essential household chores, spending quality time with my family and 
just having some much-needed downtime. Additionally, the weekend of 
April 14-16 is the weekend of Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter 
where I engage in very little online activity. Therefore, it is 
reasonable to assume that I may not complete this document until the end 
of April but I can promise you that it will be completed.

You are free to leave any messages regarding this topic on the av-a11y 
mailing list, which I established to discuss the topic of antivirus and 
antimalware accessibility with screen readers. You can subscribe to this 
list by sending an email to

av-a11y-request at freelists.org

in the subject type the word

subscribe

and send the message.

I would prefer that any responses which you would like to provide be 
left publicly, either on this list or on the av-a11y list. However, if 
you feel that you must respond privately, you are free to do so but 
please understand that I will likely not have the time to respond to you 
quickly.



Thank you for your support and for your patience as we slowly move 
forward to make the Kaspersky products more accessible for everyone, 
including screen reader users!



-- 
David Goldfield, Assistive Technology Specialist Feel free to visit my 
Web site WWW.DavidGoldfield.Info