Peter Korn's Weblog

A few years after I joined Sun I took up a sport I'd long been interested in - hang gliding. But then after two years of it - learning the basics of flying and actually managing to find a thermal or two and gain a modest amount of altitude - I found myself frustrated with the speed of my progress, the flight characteristics of my glider. And then I had to deal with some major life changes (loosing first one parent, then the second), and the years passed by with my glider gathering dust and mildew in the garage.

As part of a major house cleaning, I decide I needed to either finally sell it all, or give it one last go. I'm giving it one last go.

As to whether I will stick with hang gliding this time... the jury is still out. These towed flights (both in this first weekend, and again a weekend later) have helped me regain my flight skills, and reminded me of both the things I like and dislike about the sport. Trying a more modern Falcon 2 glider gave me a taste of what better performance can give me. I hope to soon try flying the Wills Wing Sport 2 glider, to have a few longer flights off of Ed Levin, and see if I can't fulfill the remaining requirements for the Hang 3 rating so I can try ridge soaring at Fort Funston. (2008-06-26 19:26:27.0) Permalink Comments [0]

One of the points folks in the accessibility community often make (me among them) is that accessibility features are useful to and used by folks who don't have a disability (or have perhaps a "situational disability"). This is termed an "electronic curb cut", stemming from the observation that the cuts in the curbs of our sidewalks placed there so that folks in wheelchairs can easily cross streets are used far more by delivery people and parents with strollers and bicyclists and so on. Similarly then, uses of electronic accessibility features by folks without the specific disabilities they were designed for are making use of "electronic curb cuts".

Today I came across a bizarre use of an electronic curb cut... installation of the Oracle database system by someone in a straight jacket, using nothing but their nose. The purpose of the video was to demonstrate that Oracle installation is not a particularly difficult or time consuming a task (as apparently an Oracle competitor had claimed) - that it can be done "with more than one hand tied behind ones back" (rather literally), and done so pretty quickly and efficiently.

Not only does the video make their point about Oracle installation in a silly way, it also speaks rather well to the purpose language in the current Section 508 accessibility guidelines: "Section 508 requires that...Federal employees with disabilities have access to and use of information and data that is comparable to the access and use by Federal employees who are not individuals with disabilities...". As the video shows, with Oracle's support for mouseless operation, combined with the StickyKeys feature of the underlying OS, someone who can only press a single key at a time (perhaps with their nose) can install the Oracle database. And in fact, can do so pretty quickly for a task as complex as database installation (in something like 45 minutes, with the bulk of the time consumed NOT by keystroke entry but by the install process).

I wonder if the next video in this sequence will show the installer wearing a blindfold, and use a screen reader to make their point... (2008-06-20 10:41:03.0) Permalink Comments [1]

When we formed the OASIS OpenDocument Format Accessibility Subcommittee and reviewed ODF v1.0 for accessibility concerns, one of the things we thought about was the creation of DAISY books - the suitability of ODF to be the source format for digital talking books for people with print impairments. While most of the 9 recommendations we made for accessibility improvements (all incorporated into ODF v1.1) were of use to DAISY book creation, there was one in particular that had no other purpose save for DAISY: noting the page number whenever pagination occurs (whether or not a visible page number is displayed in the document) so that DAISY book users in a setting with users of printed books could know the printed book page number.

While the OASIS OpenDocument Format Accessibility Subcommittee concerns itself only with file format issues, we all of us on the subcommittee recognize how important it is that applications make use of the accessibility features in ODF (else they would be only of academic interest). To that end we published the OASIS ODF Accessibility Guidelines. Also to that end, one of the subcommittee members (Dave Pawson, then of the Royal National Institute of the Blind) contributed code to the DAISY Pipeline project back in April 2007 to support ODF as a source for DAISY books.

Today I'm delighted to report on the early availability of an ODT to DAISY DTBook plugin to OpenOffice.org (one of the over 100 extensions now available for OpenOffice.org). This open source project - using the GPL v3 license - is a cross-platform extension to OpenOffice.org written in Java that generates DAISY DTBook XML files - the penultimate stage in the DAISY process toward creating a (talking) DAISY book. While only at "version 0.0.4", it already supports an impressive list of tags, and includes a rich set of example documents illustrating a wide range of document scenarios (including addresses, lists, tables, nested tables, and mathematics). This OpenOffice.org extension is being developed by Computer Science Masters student Vincent Spiewak and his professor Dominique Archambault of the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris. It has just been featured in the May issue of The DAISY Planet, and since it was made available 6 days ago, has been download more than 150 times. (2008-05-29 16:57:52.0) Permalink

I am incredibly proud of the OpenOffice.org community for their great work on accessibility overall, and especially for their work realizing accessibility on Macintosh with this release. With this beta (and the subsequent final release later this year), Macintosh users will finally have an accessible office suite - blind users of VoiceOver are able to read and write office documents (including Microsoft .doc files, since OpenOffice.org supports reading/writing those as well as the native OpenDocument Format).

OpenOffice.org 3.0 Beta is receiving very positive feedback from the community for its strong accessibility support on Mac OS X. OpenOffice.org is the first application that is multi-platform accessible, exposing a rich set of information to assistive technologies on Windows, Solaris, GNU/Linux and with this upcoming release, Mac OS X (Intel-based Macs only). OpenOffice.org 3.0 will be the first version to run on Mac OS X that will have the look and feel of an Aqua application while supporting the Mac OS X accessibility APIs, and integrating well with the built-in Macintosh VoiceOver screen reader - offering better accessibility support than many other applications available for Mac OS X.

For nearly a decade Sun has argued that the right way to realize technology accessibility is to divide the task into three parts: (1) the tasks of the platform or OS (to define an accessibility framework); (2) the tasks of the application (to expose its contents and information via that accessibility framework); and (3) the tasks of assistive technologies (to utilize the information provided by applications via the platform accessibility framework in order to make things accessible). As the Macintosh platform has had a rich and powerful accessibility framework in OS X for some time now, and assistive technologies utilizing it like VoiceOver since at least OS X v10.3, that means that 2/3rds of parts are taken care of and it now the remaining task of applications to leverage the accessibility framework for AT compatibility. And that is precisely what the OpenOffice.org Mac team has done - making OpenOffice.org the first and to my knowledge only office suite (and one of the very few large third party Macintosh applications) to be accessible through VoiceOver.

"We are very pleased with this latest demonstration of leadership by Sun, Apple, and the OpenDocument community to further the cause of accessibility to the Open Document format by the blind and other people with disabilities," said Curtis Chong, president of the National Federation of the Blind in Computer Science. "This move - to make OpenOffice.org accessible on the Mac - is an important step for people who want access to the OpenDocument format and the OpenOffice.org software, and it is reassuring to know that as OpenOffice.org moves into the Mac arena, it will be usable by everyone. We sincerely hope that similar efforts are underway to ensure access to OpenOffice.org on all platforms where it is available."

Folks implementing OpenDocument Format support in their applications (as Microsoft is now doing) should use this document to help them make full and appropriate use of the accessibility features in ODF, and to properly expose them in their application's user interface. Specific guidance includes information on things like theme support and keyboard navigation of the UI and content and how ODF applications should support assistive technologies (this last should be done by utilizing the accessibility frameworks supported by assistive technologies on the platforms they are running on).

As an aside, this last piece of guidance is also part of the recently issued report to the U.S. Access Board made by the Telecommunications and Electronic and Information Technology Advisory Committeee (agreed to by IBM, Sun, Microsoft, and others on the committee), which states that: "On platforms that support AT-E&IT interoperability, software that provides user interface components must either use the accessibility services provided by platform software or other services to cooperate with assistive technologies, when such services allow the software to meet the accessibility provisions of this standard." It is wonderful to see how the IT industry has moved to embrace the approach to programmatic accessibility that Sun first implemented in the Java Platform in 1997... (2008-05-23 14:23:33.0) Permalink

I've had the distinct pleasure of working with a tremendous set of colleagues on the Telecommunications and Electronic and Information Technology Advisory Committee. One colleague in particular - Andi Snow-Weaver of IBM - had the unenviable task of running the largest of the TEITAC subcommittees, as well as spearheading our harmonization effort with other global accessibility standards. It was a particularly thankless job that she did incredibly well. At least, it was a thankless job until now...

Earlier this month my company recognized Andi with our first ever "Innovation in Government Technology Awards", at a ceremony in Washington DC. Scott McNealy himself helped give out the awards. Details can be found in Bill Vass' blog about it (Bill is the President & COO of Sun Microsystems Federal, Inc.). And today IBM published a web article about the award.

As someone who has worked many many years on accessibility - and more recently a few years on standards - I can attest to how rare it is to receive recognition for either standards work or accessibility work. This makes an award for work on accessibility standards that much more special and noteworthy. Congratulations Andi on a tremendous job, very well done!

[I must admit I had a small hand in nominating Andi - after the Mr. Happy incident, it was the least I could do!] (2008-05-22 18:41:06.0) Permalink

Last November I noted that Microsoft and Novell would be working together to make some of their technologies accessible on UNIX, and I welcomed them to the UNIX accessibility neighborhood. Today it is time to welcome them to another neighborhood - that of the OASIS and ISO standard OpenDocument Format. It is also time to issue an invitation...

In their press release today Microsoft stated that Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 2 - to be released in the first half of 2009 - would support reading and writing OpenDocument Format v1.1. Microsoft further states in this release that it will join the OASIS OpenDocument Format Technical Committee, as well as the ISO/IEC working group engaged in ongoing maintenance of OpenDocument Format. Some choice quotes from the press release:

When using SP2, customers will be able to open, edit and save documents using ODF... It will also allow customers to set ODF as the default file format for Office 2007. To also provide ODF support for users of earlier versions of Microsoft Office (Office XP and Office 2003), Microsoft will continue to collaborate with the open source community in the ongoing development of the Open XML-ODF translator project on SourceForge.net.

Microsoft will join the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) technical committee working on the next version of ODF and will take part in the ISO/IEC working group being formed to work on ODF maintenance.

This means that sometime in 2009, users with disabilities will have yet another application option for reading and writing ODF files - they will be able to use Microsoft Office as shipped by Microsoft. This will supplement the options already available to people with disabilities for using ODF, including: IBM's Lotus Symphony on Windows with a variety of Windows AT applications, StarOffice and OpenOffice.org on Windows with several Windows AT applications, StarOffice and OpenOffice.org on UNIX systems with all of the UNIX AT applications, and the newly announced OpenOffice.org 3.0 beta on Macintosh with VoiceOver and other Macintosh AT applications. For folks who want to use Microsoft Office 2007 with ODF prior to their release in 2009 (as well as folks wanting to use an earlier version of Microsoft Office), there is also the Sun ODF Plugin for Microsoft Office, now at version 1.2.

And so it is time to issue an invitation. As co-chair of the OASIS OpenDocument Format Accessibility subcommittee, I would like to warmly we.come Rob Sinclair, Reed Shaffner, Gray Knowlton, and anyone else at Microsoft involved in accessibility and Microsoft Office to attend our subcommittee meetings and participate in our ongoing efforts in ODF accessibility. As a board member of the OASIS, Microsoft has always been able to participate in any OASIS technical committee or subcommittee. But in light of this recent move, I want to be sure they feel particularly welcome to do so!

On November 28, 2006, Judge James Robertson ruled in favor of the American Council of the Blind in the case "AMERICAN COUNCIL OF THE BLIND, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Henry M. Paulson, Jr., Secretary of the Treasury Defendant". Judge Robertson found that the inaccessibility of U.S. currency to the blind is a violation of Section 504 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act. Key language from Section 504 in this matter is:

No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States...shall, solely by reason of her or his disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance or under any program or activity conducted by any Executive agency, or by the U.S. Postal Service.

Yesterday the D.C Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Judge Robertson's ruling. Writing for the majority opinion, Appeals court Judge Judith W. Rogers wrote (emphasis added):

The current design of paper money springs from the world of the sighted... Upon casual inspection anyone with good vision can readily discern the value of U.S. currency; yet even the most searching tactile examination will reveal no difference between a $100 bill and a $1 bill... Where the plaintiffs identify an obstacle that impedes their access to a government program or benefit, they likely have established that they lack meaningful access to the program or benefit... Where the basic task of independently evaluating the worth of currency in excess of 99 cents is difficult or impossible, the visually impaired are forever relegated to depend on 'the kindness of strangers' to shop for groceries, hire a taxi, or buy a newspaper or cup of coffee... The government might as well argue that there's no need to make buildings accessible to wheelchairs because handicapped people can crawl on all fours or ask passers-by for help.

Furthermore, Judge Rogers noted that the Treasury Department's failure to produce currency that can be independently identified by blind and visually impaired Americans was an example of the very "thoughtlessness and indifference" that Congress sought to prevent when it subjected the federal government to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in federal government programs.

I first met Cynthia at a CSUN presentation I was giving on Java Accessibility something like 10 years ago, showing off the Java Access Bridge for the first time and demoing how Slimware Windows Bridge was able to provide text attribute information from a Java app. Her persistent questions put into my head the idea of leveraging the Java accessibility framework for a non-Java app. In her case, she was thinking about Lotus Notes. But we took that idea and put it into practice for OpenOffice.org, which on Windows re-uses the Java Access Bridge for compatibility with a handful of Windows AT products. More recently I had the pleasure of co-presenting with her to a group of folks in Massachusetts who were concerned about the accessibility of OpenDocument Format files. She was there to talk about IAccessible2, and the great work IBM/Lotus did in collaboration with several Windows AT vendors to make ODF accessible via those AT products on Windows - using essentially a derivative of the original Java Accessibility approach we discussed nearly a decade earlier.

Cynthia was a tireless advocate for accessibility - a great ally (and at the same time a foe you didn't want to have if you were getting in the way of accessibility work). As others (in the blog posts above) have commented, she had a keen (and snarky) sense of humor, and was a delight to work with.

Ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Article 9 of the Convention speaks to Accessibility, and I read several aspects of this as applying directly to technology accessibility work:

To enable persons with disabilities to live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life, States Parties shall take appropriate measures to ensure to persons with disabilities access, on an equal basis with others, to...information and communications, including information and communications technologies and systems...

States Parties shall also take appropriate measures:

...

g) To promote access for persons with disabilities to new information and communications technologies and systems, including the Internet;

h) To promote the design, development, production and distribution of accessible information and communications technologies and systems at an early stage, so that these technologies and systems become accessible at minimum cost.

Article 27 speaks to work and employment, which is a key place for technology accessibility access. From this article, I likewise find a few key passages for us:

States Parties recognize the right of persons with disabilities to work, on an equal basis with others; this includes the right to the opportunity to gain a living by work freely chosen or accepted in a labour market and work environment that is open, inclusive and accessible to persons with disabilities. States Parties shall safeguard and promote the realization of the right to work, including for those who acquire a disability during the course of employment, by taking appropriate steps, including through legislation, to...

d) Enable persons with disabilities to have effective access to general technical and vocational guidance programmes, placement services and vocational and continuing training;

...

g) Employ persons with disabilities in the public sector;

h) Promote the employment of persons with disabilities in the private sector through appropriate policies and measures, which may include affirmative action programmes, incentives and other measures;

i) Ensure that reasonable accommodation is provided to persons with disabilities in the workplace

There is a good description of what is next after ratification. A few choice bits from it:

Among other things, ratifying countries are bound to:

Provide “reasonable accommodation” in places such as schools and the workplace, that is, those necessary and reasonable modifications and adjustments that permit inclusion of persons with disabilities;
...
Include students with disabilities in the general education system, providing the necessary support when needed;
Ensure equal access to vocational training, adult education and lifelong learning;
...
Protect the right to work and prohibit job discrimination;
Promote the employment, self-employment and entrepreneurship of persons with disabilities;
Ensure an adequate standard of living and social protection, including through public housing, assistance for disability-related needs, and aid with disability-related expenses in case of poverty;

It is perhaps not a coincidence that yesterday we received a request for accessibility information about Sun products from a company in a country we had never heard from before on accessibility. This country is in the developing world, and is a signatory to the convention. Maybe ratification is already having an impact... (2008-05-14 09:59:45.0) Permalink

OpenOffice.org 3.0 beta - with support for Mac, VoiceOver & Mac accessibility

For me, one of the most noteworthy aspects of this beta release is direct support for the Macintosh accessibility framework and specifically interoperability with the VoiceOver screen reader. With OpenOffice.org 3.0, blind users on the Macintosh will finally have access to an office suite - enabling them to read and write office documents and spreadsheets and... In fact, because OpenOffice.org supports reading and writing .doc and .xls and .ppt files, this will allow blind users of the Macintosh to work with colleagues on Macintosh and Windows who might be using Microsoft Office. Of course it also means that ISO 26300:2006 format ODF documents are now accessible to the blind on Macintosh.

Earlier this year Sun demonstrated VoiceOver working with a development build of OpenOffice.org for Macintosh at the CSUN Conference on Technology and People with disabilities. We also had a chance to meet with a number of Macintosh AT vendors at the conference, and saw good results with their AT tools and the OpenOffice.org development build.

Today marks another first for accessibility in Berkeley: the first wheelchair-accessible car share van, which debuts today (which, also not coincidentally, is Earth Day). City CarShare's new Access Program provides a wheelchair accessible minivan for City CarShare members to use. Members pay $7/hour + 40¢/mile during the day, or $3/hour + 40¢/mile from midnight to 8am => the same rate as for any of their minivans. You can be a non-driver member, in which case one of up to 5 registered designated drivers can be the one driving the accessible van. (2008-04-22 11:15:40.0) Permalink

It is tax day; can you interact with your government electronically to file your tax return?

Governments worldwide have been going electronic/digital for a long time - and not just internally, but also in their interactions with their citizens/constituents. A big question is, as they do this, will their interactions be accessible to all citizens with disabilities? This is a central tenant of Section 508 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act, which requires that:

individuals with disabilities who are members of the public seeking information or services from a Federal department or agency to have access to and use of information and data that is comparable to the access to and use of the information and data by such members of the public who are not individuals with disabilities

This question of public accessibility has come up numerous times in discussions around OpenDocument Format (vs. other documents formats): a move to a standard document format internally within a State or Federal agency might also mean using that format for interactions with the public. In such cases, the format should be one that is accessible not only to employees with disabilities, but also citizens of that state or country. I suggested last year that one of the key principles of such an adopted document format is that it be accessible via affordable assistive technologies, because requiring an expensive investment in software in order to interact with a government isn't a fair or appropriate burden to place on citizen - especially if that government isn't providing such expensive assistive technologies to its citizens.

As today is tax day in the United States, it is a good time to look at the question affordable, accessible electronic interaction with governments in the area of tax preparation and tax form submission. This is particularly timely this year because of the Economic Growth Package signed into law by President Bush in January, which provides an economic stimulus payment of up to $600 per person via a tax rebate (plus another $300 per child). To get this rebate, you must file a tax return, even if you have too little income to otherwise need to file a return.

70% of people with disabilities in the United States are unemployed - they earn little to no money. And in the United States there are basically four ways to get the assistive technology needed to have access to electronic content: through your employer, through your school, through rehabilitation services, or by purchasing it yourself. If you among the 70% who are unemployed, you aren't getting AT through your employer or school (you aren't considered unemployed as a full-time student). If you are unemployed, you probably don't have the many hundreds or thousands of dollars to hand needed to buy assistive technologies. And finally, rehabilitation services are stretched very thin in this country (and anyway typically only serve folks who are in the process of getting a job), which means most unemployed folks with disabilities have to do without assistive technologies and without access to computers and the Internet.

Which brings us back to the issue of filing a tax return and claiming the economic stimulus payment if you unable to read or otherwise fill in a paper tax form. One option is if someone in your area offers assistance (the San Francisco Lighthouse for the Blind has offered a free service for tax preparation for the blind in order to get the stimulus payment). And now - thanks to open source accessibility solutions on the open source UNIX desktop - there is second option: combine a cheap or free computer with a free desktop software and free screen access solution, and someone with a disability can file their own tax return themselves (at least so long as the Internet tax filing services following the web accessibility guidelines).

Starting with something like a $250 PC clone onto which you install Ubuntu or Fedora or OpenSolaris; or using a free, refurbished computer from an outfit like the Alameda County Computer Resource Center (which come with either Ubuntu or OpenSuSE pre-installed), a blind person has the pieces they need to file their taxes and get their rebate (a rebate that is more than enough to cover the cost of the brand new PC clone they might have purchased to connect to the Internet). In fact, this is what Kenny Hit and Mike Gorse were doing this tax season - using the open source Orca screen reader on the open source UNIX desktop with the open source Firefox web browser to file their taxes. Their only barrier was due to accessibility problems with the web sites of the companies they were filing with... (2008-04-15 18:04:52.0) Permalink

The typical underwater digital camera is a housed camera with a flash and perhaps a focusing light (as is shown in this photo of Mark with my old rig + his HID light). The best underwater photos these days are taken with SLR cameras in special custom housings with multiple large flashes. Such a setup can cost more than $10,000! This gets you something like a Canon 5D, a housing for it, and then strobes and arms (ideally 2 strobes!).

For this dive trip, I tried to put together an effective setup at 1/10th the cost. I went with the Canon G9 in order to have something small, but with a bright 3" LCD screen and pretty fast focusing. And then the big experiment: going with the new and incredibly bright 24W HID light from Darkbuster in "video light" configuration (plus diffuser) in the place of a flash. Going this route allowed me to save on buying a bright and expensive flash (the cheapest good underwater flash is more expensive than the Darkbuster!), and meant that I didn't need an electrical sync cord (which requires a more expensive housing and significantly increases your chances of getting a leak) or a fiber optic flash trigger cord (which I haven't found to work that well and getting the right amount of light is always more of a challenge).

I'm pretty pleased with the results, especially for macro photography (check out all of the nudibranch photos). So long as I took the time to adjust the light, and made sure to zoom in a tad so that all of the photo was within the cone of light from the Darkbuster, I got pretty good results. If I do a lot more of this, I'll probably get a second Darkbuster in order to achieve more even lighting results (and use my makeshift "lens cap" - PVC pipe end fitted over the light with holes drilled in for water cooling - to cover one for more dramatic side-lighting - like in this shot). The biggest challenge will still be dealing with surge underwater, which combined with even 1/10th of a second of shutter delay means a high percentage of slightly-out-of-focus photos. My old housed film camera never had this problem... (2008-04-14 21:00:04.0) Permalink Comments [1]

[Note to readers: I'm way behind in blogging lots of recent events. This is the second of several posts attempting to catch up...]

While not all of the honorees managed to attend, there were several one-star generals, and one two-star and one three-star general there among the honorees. Sartorially, the generals' military dress far outshone the black tie that most of the rest of us were wearing. The full list of honorees is quite distinguished, and it was a real pleasure and honor to be among them. (2008-04-08 20:30:42.0) Permalink


	Peter Korn's Weblog The collected occasional commentary by Peter Korn, Accessibility Architect at Sun Microsystems, Inc.