[nfbcs] Windows Phone Accessibility Update

Fri Apr 5 17:10:59 UTC 2013

Greetings:

Under date of January 24, 2013, a letter signed by a number of organizations
around the world (including the National Federation of the Blind) was sent
to Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive officer.  This letter (which I
am including at the end of this message) expressed "great dissatisfaction"
with the accessibility of Windows Phone 8 and demanded a concrete commitment
from Microsoft "to make Windows Phone accessible to blind people in 2013 by
incorporating fully featured screen reader and magnification solutions into
the next release of Microsoft Windows Phone at no additional cost to the
consumer."

During the CSUN conference held in late February, representatives from these
organizations met with Microsoft to further discuss this issue.  Under date
of March 28, 2013, Scott Charney, Microsoft's Corporate Vice President of
Trustworthy Computing, declared that, "Microsoft will deliver a screen
reader in our next major release of Windows Phone."  According to the letter
(which I am also including at the end of this message), Microsoft will be
beta testing this screen reader later this summer.

This is good news.  It has been a long time in coming, and given the good
work of Apple in this area, it is very disappointing that Microsoft has
taken so long to make Windows Phone accessible.  Given Microsoft's track
record in other areas, I am not prepared to say that an unqualified victory
has been achieved.  What I can say is that Microsoft has made a concrete
commitment to deliver a screen reader in the next major release of Windows
Phone.  However, we will not know how well this screen reader will work for
the blind, how it will compare to other accessibility solutions that the
blind are already using, nor when the next major release of Windows Phone
will be released.

Yours sincerely,

Curtis Chong, President

National Federation of the Blind in Computer Science

__________________________________________________

            World Blind Union

            Union Mondiale Des Aveugles

            Unión Mundial de Ciegos

Mr Steve Ballmer 

CEO

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation

One Microsoft Way

Redmond, WA 98052-7329

USA

24 January 2013 

Dear Mr Ballmer

Accessibility in Windows Phone 8 

The undersigned organizations, acting for themselves and on behalf of the
285 million people with visual impairment in 190 member countries of the
World Blind Union (WBU), are writing to express our great dissatisfaction
with the accessibility of Windows Phone 8 and to set forth our expectations
with regard to accessibility of Microsoft products.

When Microsoft introduced Windows Phone 7 in late 2010, the company brought
representatives of consumers who are blind or visually impaired together and
acknowledged that "we are not yet where we want to be with accessibility
features in Windows Phone 7". This community was dismayed when Windows Phone
7 came to market without any accessibility for blind users, meaning that
mobile phones powered by Microsoft technology were unusable for persons with
a visual impairment, at a time when all of your competitors were investing
in accessibility and Apple had already achieved tremendous success with
built-in accessibility in the iPhone . 

In November 2010 and again in November 2011, Microsoft hosted a Windows
Phone Accessibility round table in Redmond, hearing from leading national
blindness organisations from around the world. From the outset, the views of
this group were unanimous calling for built in access for Windows Phone. In
spite of promises to address accessibility in succeeding versions of Windows
Phone, Microsoft has now released Windows Phone 8 with no built-in
screen-reader or other means to provide full access to its features and
functions for people who are blind.

You have consulted our community for more than two years, and we have
responded constructively and in good faith. However this issue now demands a
concrete commitment from Microsoft to make Windows Phone accessible to blind
people in 2013 by incorporating fully featured screen reader and
magnification solutions into the next release of Microsoft Windows Phone at
no additional cost to the consumer.

We look forward to hearing from you 

Yours sincerely 

Kevin Carey, Chair, WBU Technology Working Group 

Arnt Holte, President, WBU

and counter signatories from national blindness organisations

Brian Charlson

Chair of the American Council of the Blind Information Access Committee

brian.charlson at carroll.org  

American Council of the Blind, USA

Carl R. Augusto

President & CEO

cawbu at afb.net

American Foundation for the Blind, USA

Dr. Marc Maurer

President

officeofthepresident at nfb.org

National Federation of the Blind, USA

Dr Kevin Murfitt

Chair of Board of Directors

kevin.murfitt at visionaustralia.org 

Vision Australia, Australia 

John M. Rafferty

President & CEO

john.rafferty at cnib.ca

CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind), Canada

Jukka Tahvanainen

Managing Director

jukka.tahvanainen at nkl.fi

Finnish Federation of the Visually Impaired, Finland 

Arnt Holte

Vice Executive Director

Arnt.holte at blindeforbundet.no

NABP (Norwegian Association of the Blind and Partially Sighted), Norway 

Teresa Palahí

Vice-President for Social Affairs and New Technologies

tpaj at once.es

Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles (ONCE), Spain

Kevin Carey

Chair

kevin.carey at rnib.org.uk

Royal National Institute of Blind People, United Kingdom

____________________________________________________________

<Microsoft Letterhead>

Mr. Kevin Carey

Chair, WBU Technology Working Group

1929 Bayview Avenue

Toronto, ON Canada M4G 3E8

March 28, 2013

Dear Mr. Carey and WBU Colleagues,

Thank you for your letter, dated January 24, 2013, regarding Accessibility
in the Windows Phone platform.   Steve Ballmer has asked me to respond on
his behalf.

I am aware that many of the individuals and organizations within the WBU
have longstanding relationships with Rob Sinclair, our Chief Accessibility
Officer, and they have made valuable contributions to the company’s
accessibility efforts over the years by providing feedback on our products.
I also recognize there is frustration and concern regarding the rate at
which Accessibility features are being added to our new phone platform. I
have discussed your letter with my team and with the President of the
Windows Phone Division, Terry Myerson, and we would like to provide further
information on our future plans.

Microsoft will deliver a screen reader in our next major release of Windows
Phone.  As part of this commitment, I would like to invite individuals from
your member organizations to evaluate demonstration phones and a beta
version of our screen reader in late summer.  Additionally, I would ask that
any feedback be prompt so that our engineering teams have time to
incorporate your feedback before our coding is complete. 

I hope that we can count on your continued engagement and I look forward to
receiving your feedback on these new investments.

Sincerely,

Scott Charney

Corporate Vice President

Trustworthy Computing