As the Chair of American Council of the Blind’s Information Access Committee, I, along with Eric Bridges—ACB’s Director of Advocacy and Governmental Affairs—travelled to Redmond in order to attend a roundtable discussion that Microsoft held on October 26, 2010. The Notes below provide a summary of that day-long discussion. We recognize that this summary will raise a number of questions, requiring us to provide some technical discussion and an analysis. While this analysis of the discussion and thoughts on the future of the Windows Phone 7 platform will be forthcoming, we want to make available to our members and the community the summary that Microsoft provided. The summary represents quite accurately the discussions and the results of those discussions.

We appreciate and welcome your discussions surrounding this important issue. Indeed, it was in response to many of your concerns that ACB’s Information Access Committee drafted and passed a resolution at the 2010 convention in Phoenix that addresses Microsoft’s future and product accessibility.

Here, without further comment, is the meeting summary:

Hello All,

I would like to thank each of you for taking the time to travel, in many cases, great distances to Redmond, Washington to meet with members of Microsoft’s mobile and accessibility teams. Your engagement, feedback, and guidance are genuinely appreciated.

As a follow-up to the Mobile Accessibility Roundtable, I wanted to provide you with summary notes from the event and a statement from Andy Lees, President of Microsoft’s Mobile Communications Business, outlining Microsoft’s accessibility goals for the Windows Phone operating system. Please feel free to share the statement with your members and constituents.

Overview of the event:

The Mobile Accessibility Roundtable was a daylong event held on October 26, 2010, at Microsoft’s corporate headquarters in Redmond, Washington, U.S.A. The event included guests from the following organizations representing the blind and low-vision communities: National Federation of the Blind, American Council of the Blind, American Foundation for the Blind, CNIB, Royal National Institute of Blind People, Vision Australia, and ONCE. Microsoft’s participation included facilitated dialogue and presentations by: Andy Lees, President of Microsoft’s Mobile Business, Rob Sinclair, Microsoft’s Chief Accessibility Officer, Chuck Bilow, Microsoft’s Senior Program Manager responsible for Windows Phone accessibility, and me, Richard Suplee, a Senior Product Planner in Microsoft’s Mobile Communications Business.

Current status of Windows Phone 7 (WP7):

At the Roundtable event, Chuck Bilow and others discussed some of the technical features of WP7, as well as some of the challenges we have faced in bringing this new product to market. Some of these points, outlined below, are important to keep in mind as we continue the dialogue about the future of WP7:

• Windows Phone 7 is a fundamental top-to-bottom rewrite from previous Microsoft mobile operating systems and in many ways is like a first version product. It is an entirely new operating system and user interface. Therefore, no applications from earlier Microsoft mobile operating systems will run on Windows Phone 7 and features had to be re-created for use on the new platform. No handset that currently runs Windows Mobile 6.5 can run the Windows Phone 7 operating system. There is no upgrade path to Windows Phone 7 for the Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system, the current hardware or existing applications. Windows Phone 7 is a new platform from the ground up.
• We are not yet where we want to be with accessibility features in Windows Phone 7. With that said, we are able to support a number of eyes-free calling scenarios, contrast and color adjustments, and pinch and zoom support in e-mail, web-browsing and Office applications. The eyes-free calling support utilizes wired headsets, speech recognition and text-to-speech in its Voice Activated Dialing scenario.
• With this first release, because of the inherent increased complexity, it was not feasible to build some of the infrastructure we need to support a screen reader (for example, multi-tasking, inter-process communication, and user interface focus). These features impact the ability to support many types of applications, including accessibility applications like a screen reader.
• Because this is an entirely new system, we are still examining how best to implement certain functionality. For example, we are still examining how to enable simultaneous applications (i.e., multi-tasking) in the Windows Phone operating system. This limitation in the V1 platform does not allow applications to run in the background and control touch input or any other aspect of the user interface. The initial operating system lacks features such as Copy/Paste, support for enterprise scenarios, some email and web browsing plug-ins, and some assistive technologies like traditional screen readers.

Feedback from guests at the event:

• The highest product priority is for Microsoft to enable a built-in screen reader that works across the Windows Phone experiences. The screen reader should be free to users and work “out of the box” on all Windows Phones.
• In addition to a built-in screen reader, Microsoft should provide programmatic access for developers, including assistive technology (AT) vendors, to extend the capabilities of the built-in screen reader.
• Microsoft should work with its original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and mobile operator partners to promote the availability of Windows Mobile 6.5 phones with optional screen readers until Windows Phones have a screen reader.
• The Microsoft mobile team should use the Microsoft’s Windows Phone “Chassis spec”, the hardware guidance Microsoft provides to OEMs, to help promote accessible hardware. The example given was using the chassis to ensure Microsoft’s OEM partners use displays with sufficient screen contrast.
• Attendees expressed some skepticism in Microsoft’s current capacity to build a high-quality screen reader, but felt if Microsoft applied sufficient research, design, and usability resources to the problem, Microsoft should be able to enable a high quality screen reading experience.
• The Microsoft mobile engineering team should incorporate input from people who are blind to ensure a high quality screen reading experience is enabled.
• Microsoft should engage with external groups that represent the blind community to test and review the accessibility features Microsoft enables.
• Accessibility information is not available on the Windows Phone website and should be.
• Microsoft should continue a dialog with the assembled group.
• Guests also provided rich planning information during a device ecosystem workshop and mobile accessibility futures sessions. This information will be used by Microsoft’s mobile planning and user research team for building out “Day in the life” portraits and scenario development.

Next steps:

• Provide a meeting summary with guest feedback from the Roundtable and a statement from Andy Lees. Below is a statement from Andy Lees, President of Microsoft’s Mobile Communications Business, that you should feel free to share with your members and constituents:

Microsoft’s goal is to deliver platforms, products, and services that are accessible. We recognize that there is more we can do in this respect, and our goal is to develop Windows Phone into a compelling option for people who are blind or visually impaired. Windows Phone 7 is exciting because it introduces an entirely new way for consumers to interact with their mobile phones. It is a complete change from Microsoft’s past mobile systems – different than anything else on the market. This new approach presents both challenges and opportunities for visual accessibility. The Windows Phone 7 operating system already provides some features that enable basic accessibility for blind and low-vision users. As we move forward, we will continue to make Windows Phone handsets easier for blind and low-vision individuals to use. These plans include further expanding use of speech functionality to create a better eyes-free phone experience, and building on this technology to enable screen reading functionality specifically tailored to the one-of-a-kind Windows Phone interface. Looking to the future of mobile computing, we believe there is a great opportunity to embrace new technologies to help all people better navigate their world. We hope to shape and define this future in partnership with the blind and visually-impaired communities.

• Microsoft will host an additional Mobile Accessibility Roundtable at the beginning of the next major Windows Phone product planning cycle. This will give the blind and low-vision communities an opportunity to provide feedback and priorities as Microsoft develops its next plan of record for Windows Phone. The next Roundtable would likely be at least a year away.
• Microsoft will extend its Windows Phone testing program to include individuals within your organizations. We will send details after our next Windows Phone testing program is established.
• Microsoft will communicate accessibility updates through the Trustworthy Computing team’s newsletter (Accessibility Update). This could include information on operating system updates, new third party applications or new phones.

On behalf of Microsoft, thank you again for participating in the Mobile Accessibility Roundtable. We think the Roundtable was a positive step towards a richer engagement between Microsoft and your respective organizations and the blind and low-vision communities you represent.

Richard Suplee
Senior Product Planner, Microsoft