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From: MAINT@UQAM.BITNET (Peter Jones)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: Software Development Standards
Message-ID: <10750@bunker.UUCP>
Date: 22 Mar 90 19:32:44 GMT
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Reply-To: MAINT@UQAM.BITNET (Peter Jones)
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Index Number: 7253

[This is from the BLIND-L mailing list]

On Mon, 19 Mar 90 17:26:00 EST Don McLaughlin said:
>We develop software that is used largely by state government agencies,
>particularly state rehabilitation programs.  We are interested in making
>software, intended for a general user audience, be considerate of and work
>well for blind and visually impaired computer users.  Does anyone out there
>know of any standards, principles or guidelines that could instruct software
>developers in how to write software the meets this objective?

1) Keep it simple. Often, the information sought is a relatively short
   text string, buried in a maze of graphics.

2) Beware of programs that do a lot of fancy work with the screen. It's
   often much simpler to ask questions of the user one by one in ASCII.

3) Provide hooks for attachment of auxiliary communication programs.
   Beware of messages that appear on the screen and then vanish.
   A visually-impaired user, using a braille or audio system to
   explore the screen might not notice the message before it
   disapears.

Peter Jones     MAINT@UQAM     (514)-987-3542
"Let your flippers do the walking" :-)