[Promotion-technology] FYI: Enabling accessibility - Building Windows 8 - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

[David Andrews]

>
><http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/02/14/enabling-accessibility.aspx>http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/02/14/enabling-accessibility.aspx
>
>
>
>Enabling accessibility
>
>
>
>Windows 8 is a product we design for an 
>incredibly broad spectrum of people around the 
>world. One of the areas where we have worked to 
>deliver an even greater level of innovation is 
>in ensuring that Windows 8, particularly the new 
>Metro style experience, is accessible to 
>everyone regardless of their physical abilities. 
>In this post we will talk about the engineering 
>work that goes into the features we refer to as 
>“accessibility” – though as you will see, many 
>of these features are broadly applicable and 
>just make the product better for everyone. If 
>you are interested in Microsoft’s overall 
>efforts in accessibility and related topics, 
>please be sure to check out 
><http://www.microsoft.com/enable>www.microsoft.com/enable. 
>This post is especially important for developers 
>building Metro style apps for inclusion in the 
>Windows Store, as we are asking you to test the 
>accessibility of your application prior to 
>submission. I encourage folks who have never 
>seen these tools in action to learn about them 
>through the video. The upcoming beta will be a 
>great chance for everyone to experience the product.
>
>An important note.  With the next public release 
>of code (later this month) we will see a 
>significant improvement in the capabilities 
>described in this post, but we still have work 
>to do between beta and RC especially with 
>regards to working with the latest releases of 
>third party tools. I just want to make sure 
>folks know that this post talks about 
>improvements in the next release as well as 
>functionality that will still be improving as we get to the release candidate.
>
>This post was authored by Jennifer Norberg, a 
>senior program manager lead on our HID team.
>
>--Steven
>
>----------
>We want all users to be able to experience 
>Windows 8 Metro style apps on their desktops, 
>laptops, or the new touch-capable devices. This 
>includes people with disabilities who rely on 
>assistive technologies to use the PC.
>
>About 15% of the world's population has a 
>disability1. In the United States alone, 49.6 
>million people have a disability2 and 45 million 
>in Europe3. When it comes to interacting with 
>computers, these disabilities affect individuals in a number of ways:
>    * Visual impairments include color vision 
> deficiency, low-vision and blindness – all of 
> which may impact the individual’s ability to 
> see content displayed on the screen.
>    * Mobility impairments include arthritis, 
> cerebral palsy, Parkinson’s disease, multiple 
> sclerosis, and paraplegia, which impact the 
> ability to use the keyboard and/or mouse to interact with the PC.
>    * Hearing impairments include conditions 
> ranging from mild hearing loss to total 
> deafness, and impact the individual’s ability 
> to experience audio content generated by the computer.
>    * Cognitive impairments impact an 
> individual’s learning and language skills, the 
> ability to comprehend words, and difficulty 
> with memory, solving problems, or perceiving sensory information.
>
>The rates of individuals with disabilities are 
>also increasing across the world due to the 
>aging population and increases in chronic health 
>conditions. One of the consequences of the 
>global aging phenomena is the impact it will 
>have on the workforce. For example, in the US, 
>workers aged 55 and older are anticipated to 
>increase from 18.1 to 23.9 percent by 20185. 
>That is more than one in five workers. 
>Functional limitations as a result of aging (for 
>example, presbyopia, the gradual loss of the 
>eyes' ability to focus actively on nearby 
>objects, a condition that usually becomes 
>noticeable in one’s mid-40s and continues to 
>worsen until around age 65) will impact an older 
>workforce’s ability to use technology that isn’t 
>easy to see. As a result, there will be an 
>increase in the number of working-age adults who 
>are likely to benefit from the use of accessible technology.
>
>New technologies and designs are especially 
>difficult for people with disabilities to adopt 
>because many new technologies are not made 
>accessible when they are first released to the 
>public. We have heard this concern about 
>previous versions of Windows and we want to 
>ensure that everyone can experience Windows 8 
>right away by providing a comprehensive 
>accessibility platform for the desktop and Metro style features.
>
>Our accessibility goals in Windows 8 are to:
>    * Improve the assistive technologies that 
> are components of Windows, and provide a good 
> experience with the Metro style UI.
>    * Provide developer tools that have baseline 
> accessibility built in, so that accessible 
> Metro style apps are available in the Store.
>    * Engage assistive technology vendors (ATVs) 
> to adopt Windows 8 and build upon the accessibility scenarios.
>
>Each of these goals and audiences are discussed in detail in this blog.
>
>
>Past investments in accessibility
>
>
>
>Before we look forward, let’s look back on the 
>history of accessibility in Windows. In past 
>releases, we established a foundation called UI 
>Automation (UIA). UIA is used by developers to 
>provide information about their code, and it’s 
>how assistive technologies (ATs) access and use 
>the information from the developers applications.
>
>We’ve also shipped ATs as components of Windows:
>    * Narrator is Windows’ built-in screen 
> reader that allows people with visual 
> impairments to interact with their system and 
> applications. User feedback on previous 
> versions of Narrator has consistently been that 
> it needs to respond faster, read more controls, and support more languages.
>    * Magnifier is a tool in Windows to make 
> text and graphics large enough to see for 
> people with low vision. This was initially 
> shipped in Windows 98, and was updated 
> significantly in Windows 7 with the ability to 
> magnify the full screen. This change received 
> positive feedback. However, there were still 
> issues with Magnifier, as it sometimes 
> conflicted with settings for High Contrast colors.
>    * Speech recognition initially shipped in 
> Windows Vista to aid people with mobility 
> impairments to navigate and use their PC. User 
> feedback on this feature has been really 
> positive, telling us that the accuracy in 
> speech recognition is good, it transcribes your 
> voice to text quickly, and it is able to handle some uncommon words.
>    * On-screen keyboard has been available to 
> those with mobility impairments since Windows XP.
>
>While these Windows ATs cover a range of 
>impairments, Windows depends on the rich 
>ecosystem of AT vendors to cover the broad 
>diversity of disabilities, and fully supports 
>innovation in the ecosystem. This does not 
>change with this new release of Windows. While 
>we have focused on improving the ATs that we 
>provide as Windows components and are providing 
>support for new scenarios like the Metro style 
>UI, we are also continuing to provide a rich 
>platform and ecosystem where AT vendors can thrive.
>
>
>Accessibility improvements in Windows 8
>
>
>
>With each new release, we collate and respond to 
>user feedback. It is clear that users want 
>richer AT offerings to be included with Windows 
>8. In this release, we invested in the following 
>areas to support this feedback:
>    * We redesigned Narrator to improve its 
> performance so that it quickly reads out what you have selected.
>    * We added morel languages and voices to 
> Narrator to support additional countries and preferences.
>    * We updated components and features within 
> Windows to leverage UI Automation that allows them to be read by Narrator.
>    * We updated UI Automation (UIA) with more 
> text patterns and document content so that 
> Narrator can use it to read the outputs from applications.
>
>We focused the above improvements specifically to address two key scenarios:
>    * Installing, setting up, and configuring 
> your PC: Using an existing Windows 7 PC, turn 
> on Narrator by opening Ease of Access and 
> selecting Narrator. Then go to the webpage that 
> hosts the Windows 8 download and install point 
> (<http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/br229516/>download 
> Windows 8 Developer Preview here), and walk 
> through the setup with Narrator speaking to 
> you. There are still a few bugs in the process 
> that we are working on. But this now provides 
> you with the ability to install using Narrator.
>    * Narrator has some new configuration 
> options in Windows 8. You can select a voice, 
> change the speed at which it speaks, create 
> customizable commands, and specify some other aspects of Narrator’s behavior.
>
> 
><http://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-01-29-43-metablogapi/5074.Narrator_5F00_3DA1A618.jpg>
>    Tap twice with 3 fingers to review the full set of touch gestur
>       Narrator main screen to configure settings
>    Right out-of-the-box with a new Windows 8 
> tablet, you will be able to press the Windows 
> logo key and Volume Up to launch Narrator and 
> walk through the setup of your machine. Whether 
> you’re blind, have low vision, or are fully 
> sighted, you’ll be able to start experiencing a 
> Windows 8 tablet from the moment you get it.
>    * Web browsing: Previously Narrator didn’t 
> say much on webpages, and it was slow. But with 
> the updates in Internet Explorer to leverage 
> text patterns built into the UI Automation 
> platform, and with additional performance 
> updates, Narrator keeps up with you as you 
> explore text on a webpage. Narrator provides 
> you with the ability to continuously read a 
> page (Use the Windows logo key + Alt + \ to 
> invoke the reading) and then responds quickly 
> to commands such as Ctrl, which will instantly 
> stop Narrator from speaking. This allows you to 
> interact with a control like a hyperlink 
> (Windows logo key +Alt + Enter tells Narrator 
> to select the hyperlink, and Windows logo key + 
> Alt + Space navigates to the linked page).
>
>In addition to addressing user feedback, a 
>significant amount of work went into making sure 
>that Metro style apps could also be accessible.
>
>
>Evolving the accessibility platform for developers
>
>
>
>Making Windows accessible while features are 
>being built is challenging, and doing this while 
>introducing a whole new development platform is 
>even more difficult. However, we wanted users 
>with disabilities to enjoy Metro style 
>experiences right away (compare this to the 
>Win32 platform, which took many years and 
>multiple releases to become accessible).
>
>As a start, we updated our accessibility 
>foundation with support for industry standards. 
>By supporting standards from the Web 
>Accessibility Initiative, Accessible Rich 
>Internet Applications (ARIA), HTML5, and XAML, 
>it is easier for developers to code 
>accessibility into their applications and for 
>the ATs using UI Automation to consume the 
>information that makes accessibility scenarios work on Windows 8.
>
>This is in contrast to previous releases, where 
>AT vendors used different “creative” ways of 
>getting information from the system, in order to 
>manipulate it and present it to their users. 
>While a variety of approaches can provide rich 
>experiences for users, it also creates a problem 
>when non-standard approaches have to change in a 
>new release. This is why we needed to create a 
>strong foundation within the platform that 
>leverages the existing coding standards (to 
>which developers should adhere), and that can 
>also be consistent from release to release. AT 
>developers who use the platform can then 
>reliably get accessibility information and don’t 
>have to do any special tricks or coding.
>
><http://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-01-29-43-metablogapi/5460.clip_5F00_image004_5F00_7F4785C9.png>
>Users, with 2-headed arrow to Assistive Technologies (screen re
>Diagram of developer, platform, and AT required 
>to provide information to the user
>
>With a consistent platform, developers of Metro 
>style features within Windows can now leverage 
>the standards and platform to ensure their 
>components are accessible. While the features 
>are designed, developed, and tested, we 
>continually track the progress made towards 
>accessibility. When we released the build for 
>the Windows 8 Developer Preview, the team had 
>been working on accessibility. However, we still 
>had bugs that impacted High Contrast, keyboard 
>navigation, and programmatic data for the ATs to 
>consume. We are by no means done, and we 
>continue to drive the accessibility requirements 
>across the team to ensure we meet our goals. In 
>each public release of Windows 8, you will see 
>improvements being made in this area.
>
>The Metro style UI is a new experience for 
>Windows, and gives us an opportunity to present 
>accessibility settings in a new way. This 
>opportunity allowed us to simplify and optimize 
>the key settings that people with disabilities 
>depend on to manage their experience.
>
>For example, we have a new way to toggle 
>settings for high contrast, which is easier to 
>discover and simpler to apply. We also made it 
>easier to adjust the size of UI elements to be 
>bigger, and take care of the DPI scaling 
>settings for you, so you don’t have to manage it 
>manually. We think simplifying these settings will help a large set of users.
>
>
>Developers creating and selling accessible apps
>
>
>
>With Metro style apps, developers have an 
>incredible opportunity to improve the 
>accessibility ecosystem by creating and selling 
>apps that meet a 
><http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh452679(v=VS.85).aspx>baseline 
>of accessibility.
>
>Fortunately, developers don’t need to learn new 
>technologies to make their apps accessible. We 
>rely on existing standards to reduce the 
>learning curve for building accessible apps. 
>HTML apps rely on the public HTML5 standard, 
>which includes 
><http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/aria>ARIA (a markup 
>schema designed for declaring accessibility 
>information). Likewise with XAML apps, we use 
>the well-known markup schema used by similar 
>platforms like Silverlight and Windows 
>Presentation Framework (WPF). Additionally, the 
>dev platform and tools shipped for Windows 8 
>support making an accessible app through every 
>step of the development process:
>    * Creating: When creating a project using 
> one of the 
> <http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh465293#project_templates>project 
> templates from Visual Studio Express, the code 
> is accessibility-ready. This means that you can 
> immediately use it with a screen reader 
> (Narrator), it is fully usable with a keyboard, 
> it works well in High Contrast mode, and it is 
> visually accessible for text contrast and 
> color. This gives the developer a great 
> starting point towards building an accessible app.
>    * Coding: During coding of an app, there is 
> additional support offered by the platform and tools:
>        * Use Visual Studio Express IntelliSense 
> to type 
> <http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/aria/appendices#quickref>accessibility 
> attributes quickly and declare accessibility information in the markup.
>        * Accessibility support is built into 
> the Windows 8 controls. In most cases, all you 
> need to do is define a good 
> <http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh452677(v=VS.85).aspx>accessible 
> name.
>        * Use the Dev Center 
> <http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh452681(v=VS.85).aspx>guidelines 
> and 
> <http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/windowsapps/site/search?query=accessibility%20or%20%22high%20contrast%22%20or%20aria&f%5B0%5D.Value=accessibility%20or%20%22high%20contrast%22%20or%20aria&f%5B0%5D.Type=SearchText&ac=8>samples 
> to learn best practices and copy/paste accessible code.
>
>At this point you are probably thinking: how can 
>these efforts possibly work for interactive 
>games or HTML5 Canvas based apps? You’re right; 
>there are still classes of apps in which 
>implementing accessibility will be more 
>challenging than just leveraging the tools and 
>templates. To help address these cases, we will 
>continue to work with the developer community, 
>post custom solutions, and expand accessibility guidelines with more examples.
>    * Testing: When your app is ready for 
> testing, use the Windows SDK accessibility 
> testing tools to validate the markup. The Dev 
> Center documentation also offers guidelines 
> about 
> <http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh452726(v=VS.85).aspx>testing 
> a Metro style app for accessibility.
>    * Selling: Once the app is complete, if it 
> meets the baseline accessibility scenarios, you 
> can declare it as accessible during the Windows 
> Store publishing process by selecting the 
> Accessibility check box. This will allow users 
> looking for accessible apps to easily find them in the Store.
>
>When developers build an application for Windows 
>8, they should follow this process and ensure 
>their apps do the following to reach the accessibility community:
>    * Support the standards. Ensure people with 
> low vision or those who are fully blind can use 
> a screen reader such as Narrator to accomplish 
> the main scenarios offered by the app. The 
> screen readers will leverage UIA and the 
> standards discussed above to get information from the apps.
>    * Make keyboard shortcuts. Ensure people 
> with mobility impairments or users of screen 
> readers that prefer keyboard navigation can use 
> a keyboard to interact with the app and its UI 
> elements. This includes navigating with the Tab 
> and arrow keys; activations with Spacebar and 
> Enter keys; and the use of shortcuts (access keys and accelerators).
>    * Support high contrast and “make it 
> bigger.” Ensure people with moderate visual 
> impairments can distinguish the UI and text 
> with sufficient text contrast ratios, and a 
> good high contrast mode; and respect layout 
> settings when the “Make everything on your screen bigger” mode is active.
>
>For more information, check out this //build 
>presentation on 
><http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/BUILD/BUILD2011/APP-843T>creating 
>accessible Metro style apps, and get started creating your own app.
>
>
>Discovering accessible Windows 8 apps
>
>
>
>Users will be able to set an accessibility 
>filter in the Windows Store that will allow them 
>to discover the apps that have been declared 
>accessible by the developer. Additionally, users 
>will be able to provide comments and ratings to 
>help each other find the apps that are most 
>accessible, and to help the developer understand 
>how well they did in making their apps accessible
>
>
>Adapting accessibility features for new form factors
>
>
>
>One of the most exciting changes in Windows 8 is 
>the introduction of touch-only devices into the 
>Windows family. And, as with all form factors 
>that Windows supports, we want these new 
>touch-only devices to be accessible. As a 
>result, we spent a considerable amount of time 
>planning what it would take to make our Windows 
>ATs useful on touch-only devices, mainly through 
>the adaptation of the Magnifier and Narrator features.
>
>
>Magnify your screen and navigate using touch
>
>
>
>Magnifier can be used in different ways, but one 
>of the most popular ways to use it is with 
>keyboard shortcuts (Windows logo key + and 
>Windows logo key -). However, on a touch-only 
>device, you don’t have the keyboard available to 
>input shortcuts, so we had to figure out how to 
>make Magnifier work well in this scenario. We 
>wanted to create a touch-based solution that was 
>simple, fast, and unobtrusive. If you’ve used 
>Magnifier before, you may have experimented with 
>different modes in Windows 7. We chose to focus 
>on full-screen mode for touch because of the 
>data we gathered through the Customer Experience 
>Improvement Program, which showed full-screen 
>mode was the most commonly used. It’s also the 
>best mode to leverage touch gestures because it spans the whole screen.
>
>One of the great benefits of using touch is that 
>you can directly interact with everything on 
>your screen. There’s no need for separate 
>devices like a mouse and keyboard – just touch 
>exactly what you want. The downside we’ve heard 
>from users who rely on magnification is that it 
>can be hard to see and touch simultaneously 
>because your hand is on the screen and it blocks 
>you from seeing what’s behind it. But the entire 
>goal of Magnifier is to help users see the 
>screen – not to hinder. Therefore, one of our 
>design principles for touch-enabled devices was 
>to make sure that you can control Magnifier 
>entirely from the edges of the screen.
>
>When you start Magnifier on a touch-enabled 
>device (in the Ease of Access panel, set 
>Magnifier to start when you press the Windows 
>logo key + Volume up), you will immediately 
>notice a border that appears around the edges of 
>the screen. We know you will need to access all 
>areas of the screen, so we made it easy to move 
>the Magnifier around the screen using these 
>borders. Simply drag your finger along the 
>border to move Magnifier in that direction. When 
>the border disappears, you are at the edge of the screen.
>
><http://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-01-29-43-metablogapi/6786.Magnifier_5F00_73DE3660.jpg>
>Two images: On the left is a close-up view of Start screen with
>
>
>Drag your finger along the border to move around 
>the screen. Borders disappear when you reach the edge of the screen.
>
>The plus (+) and minus (-) buttons in the 
>corners allow you to zoom in or out. We also 
>built in support for multi-touch zoom using 
>these same borders. Moving two fingers closer 
>together or farther apart on the border allows 
>you to quickly change the zoom level.
>
>When you are zoomed in, sometimes it’s confusing 
>to know where you are on the screen. To remedy 
>this, Magnifier has a preview feature that shows 
>you exactly where you are in the context of the 
>entire screen. Activate this by tapping with a 
>thumb or finger on opposite borders at the same 
>time. The preview will zoom out to show you 
>exactly what part of the screen you’re on, then 
>it will zoom back in to your current location.
>
><http://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-01-29-43-metablogapi/1680.Full_2D00_screen_2D00_preview_2D00_in_2D00_Magnifier_5F00_7CFF59A8.jpg>
>Start screen with small rectangle highlighted to show the area
>
>
>Tap on two opposing borders at the same time. 
>Full screen preview highlights where you are on the screen.
>
>You can even drag the highlighted region while 
>it’s zoomed out to move the Magnifier around the screen.
>
>Most importantly with Magnifier, you don’t need 
>to change the way you interact with your device 
>to use it with touch. Once it’s turned on, it 
>will work with all of your apps. For users with 
>low vision who have trouble seeing their 
>devices, Magnifier makes it easy to see the screen and touch it, too.
>
>
>Explore and learn the UI with Narrator
>
>
>
>In Windows 8, Narrator has been redesigned to be 
>substantially faster and support many new 
>features. To support Narrator on touch-only 
>devices we’ve implemented a standard way to 
>launch Narrator, by holding down the Windows 
>logo key and pressing the Volume Up button. Once 
>Narrator is running, you can use Narrator’s 
>built-in touch commands to explore the screen and control your device.
>
>If you’re blind, then the challenge with touch 
>is that there’s no way to find something on the 
>screen without activating it. On a Windows 8 
>device, Narrator addresses this challenge by 
>allowing you to drag a single finger around the 
>screen. Narrator will read what is under your 
>finger but won’t activate it. Users with vision 
>will notice that the Narrator cursor will follow 
>your finger as well. We refer to this as 
>“exploring.” A good way to understand this is to 
>imagine there is a sheet of glass on top of your 
>screen – Narrator will allow you explore what is 
>underneath by touching the glass but without 
>touching the screen directly. Once you’ve found 
>the item you’re looking for by exploring with a 
>single finger, you can activate it by tapping anywhere with a second finger.
>
>Your browser doesn't support HTML5 video.
>Download this video to view it in your favorite media player:
><http://video.ch9.ms/ch9/8f07/7f89f824-fa21-4375-8443-9ff201608f07/EnsuringAccessibility2_high_ch9.mp4>High 
>quality MP4 | 
><http://video.ch9.ms/ch9/8f07/7f89f824-fa21-4375-8443-9ff201608f07/EnsuringAccessibility2_low_ch9.mp4>Lower 
>quality MP4
>
>These are just two examples of ATs that are 
>shipping with Windows 8 and that are now 
>optimized for touch-only devices. There are many 
>other improvements across all the Windows 8 ATs, 
>but we will save that to discuss at a later time.
>
>
>
>Onboarding assistive technology vendors
>
>
>
>There are many scenarios and a wide range of 
>impairments to cover, and so we’ve engaged and 
>partnered with AT vendors to ensure we are 
>creating the best and most comprehensive 
>experiences for the disability community. The 
>assistive technologies that ship in Windows 8 
>will work across both the desktop and Metro 
>style UI experiences, to provide seamless access 
>to the PC. People who need advanced AT features 
>may need or want to purchase solutions from 
>specialty Assistive Technology vendors (AT 
>vendors) to meet their specific needs.
>
>AT vendors create sophisticated ATs that can 
>provide richer experiences to the disability 
>community. For example, they may provide 
>in-depth support for specific applications and 
>for legacy applications. The ATs shipped in 
>Windows may not work well with apps that do not 
>support industry standards or platform 
>technologies, including for example, legacy 
>applications that do not implement UIA.
>
>In Windows 8, we invested heavily in building 
>the foundation for the new Metro style UI and 
>adopting the industry standards that will 
>benefit application developers, ATs, and the disability community.
>
>By providing a standardized way of getting the 
>information, ATs can work with the standards 
>that app developers are used to, but more 
>importantly, AT vendors can rely on these 
>standards to be supported through multiple 
>Windows releases, to ensure their ATs don’t 
>break with each release. Since the //Build 
>conference, we have partnered with leading AT 
>vendors to help them get started with Windows 8. 
>This has included support for previously used 
><http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_driver>mirror drivers and UIA support.
>
>We continue to sync up with the AT vendors to 
>ensure that their questions are addressed, and 
>we are working toward the common goal of an accessible Windows 8.
>
>Windows 8 has been an incredible opportunity for 
>us to improve our accessibility support. Not 
>only have we evolved the platform, we have 
>introduced new opportunities for developers to 
>broaden their application’s reach into the 
>disability community. We have also focused a lot 
>of attention on the ATs that are included with 
>Windows 8, not only improving performance and 
>language support, but also enabling new form 
>factors including touch-only devices. We 
>continue to be very committed to a rich and 
>innovative third-party ecosystem, and with more 
>standardized and consistent interfaces, we hope 
>to help the ecosystem continue to innovate on Windows.
>
>If you are a user with accessibility needs, we 
>think you will like what we have done. If you 
>are a developer, build an accessible app and 
>reach a larger spectrum of users! If you are an 
>AT vendor, come work with us and refresh your 
>applications using our platform. This is an 
>exciting and compelling release that will change 
>how people of all abilities interact with PCs.
>
>There is still work to be done in Windows to 
>meet all the accessibility needs, but we would 
>like to encourage people to try out the Metro 
>style experiences with our free, updated Windows 8 ATs.
>
>-- Jennifer Norberg, Lead PM, Human Interaction Platform team
>
>Data
>    * WHO: 
> <http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs352/en/>Disability 
> and health: Fact sheet Number 352
>    * US Census: 
> <http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/cb11-ff14.html>Profile 
> America Facts for Features
>    * European AT Report: 
> <http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/cf/document.cfm?action=display&doc_id=606>Analysing 
> and federating the European Assistive 
> Technology ICT industry, March 2009 (PDF)
>    * 
> <http://blogs.msdn.com/controlpanel/blogs/posteditor.aspx/lifekludger:%20The%20Touch%20Barrier%20–%20Accessibility%20and%20usability%20issues%20around%20touch%20technologies>Lifekludger: 
> The Touch Barrier – Accessibility and usability 
> issues around touch technologies
>    * 
> <http://bls.gov/oco/oco2003.htm>Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 Edition