Re: Definition of Assistive Technology

After receiving some feedback from Barry (I'll let him decide whether to 
send it to the list), here's a potential rewording of "Assistive 
Technology" and "accessibility platform architecture" (changes in CAPS, 
removed text is indicated by [REM]):

DEFINITION: Assistive Technology:

A user agent that provides services to meet the requirements of users 
with disabilities that go beyond those offered by the mainstream 
software applications (INCLUDING MAINSTREAM USER AGENTS). Such services 
include alternative presentations (e.g., as synthesized speech or 
magnified content), alternative input methods (e.g., voice), additional 
navigation or orientation mechanisms, and content transformations (e.g., 
to make tables more accessible). [REM] Examples of assistive 
technologies that are important in the context of this document include 
the following:

-screen magnifiers, and other visual reading assistants, which are used 
by people with visual, perceptual and physical print disabilities to 
change text font, size, spacing, color, synchronization with speech, etc 
in order improve the visual readability of rendered text and images;
- screen readers, which are used by people who are blind to read textual 
information through synthesized speech or braille;
- text-to-speech software, which is used by some people with cognitive, 
language, and learning disabilities to convert text into synthetic speech;
- voice recognition software, which may be used by people who have some 
physical disabilities;
- alternative keyboards, which are used by people with certain physical 
disabilities to simulate the keyboard;
- alternative pointing devices, which are used by people with certain 
physical disabilities to simulate mouse pointing and button activations.

Note: Mainstream user agents may also provide services directly that 
meet the requirements of users with disabilities.
[REM]


DEFINITION: accessibility platform architecture

A programmatic interface that is specifically engineered to ENHANCE 
COMMUNICATION BETWEEN MAINSTREAM APPLICATIONS AND assistive 
technologies. Examples include MSAA and IAccessible2 for Windows 
applications, Gnome Accessibility Toolkit API for Gnome, Java Access for 
Java applications.



Cheers,
Jan



Jan Richards wrote:
> 
> Another definition...
> 
> I think we should add a definition for "Assistive Technology". We use 
> the term quite a bit, but without a definition, which both UAAG and WCAG 
> have. Below is my suggestion. It is similar to that used by UAAG and 
> WCAG, but uses the term "software application" rather than "user agent" 
> in a couple of places.
> 
> ---
> 
> Assistive Technology:
> A user agent that provides services to meet the requirements of users 
> with disabilities that go beyond those offered by the mainstream 
> software applications. Such services include alternative presentations 
> (e.g., as synthesized speech or magnified content), alternative input 
> methods (e.g., voice), additional navigation or orientation mechanisms, 
> and content transformations (e.g., to make tables more accessible). 
> Mainstream software applications communicate with assistive technologies 
> via accessibility platform architectures. Examples of assistive 
> technologies that are important in the context of this document include 
> the following: screen magnifiers, and other visual reading assistants, 
> which are used by people with visual, perceptual and physical print 
> disabilities to change text font, size, spacing, color, synchronization 
> with speech, etc in order improve the visual readability of rendered 
> text and images;
> 
> - screen readers, which are used by people who are blind to read textual 
> information through synthesized speech or braille;
> - text-to-speech software, which is used by some people with cognitive, 
> language, and learning disabilities to convert text into synthetic speech;
> - voice recognition software, which may be used by people who have some 
> physical disabilities;
> - alternative keyboards, which are used by people with certain physical 
> disabilities to simulate the keyboard;
> - alternative pointing devices, which are used by people with certain 
> physical disabilities to simulate mouse pointing and button activations.
> 
> Note 1: Mainstream user agents may also provide services directly that 
> meet the requirements of users with disabilities.
> Note 2: This definition is based on User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 
> 1.0 Glossary.
> 
> 
> ---
> 
> Cheers,
> Jan
> 

-- 
Jan Richards, M.Sc.
User Interface Design Specialist
Adaptive Technology Resource Centre (ATRC)
Faculty of Information Studies
University of Toronto

   Email: jan.richards@utoronto.ca
   Web:   http://jan.atrc.utoronto.ca
   Phone: 416-946-7060
   Fax:   416-971-2896

Received on Thursday, 9 August 2007 15:30:43 UTC