Screen Readers’ Evolution and Their Current Usability

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Table of Contents

Introduction
The History of Screen Readers
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion
Recommendations
References

Introduction

In contemporary occidental countries where human rights made comparatively notable progress, accessibility is one of the crucial criteria by which technologies should be judged. The disability rights movement, growing popularity of digital devices, and visual interfaces prompted the creation of assistive technologies providing access to information for excluded groups of the population. The main goal of this paper is to create a comprehensive picture of screen readers’ evolution and their current usability. The study results constitute a linear account of the instruments, technologies, and events that caused the advance of assistive technologies and screen readers specifically, outlining their history. The principal method used in the study is outcome-based information evaluation that helped to construct the account. The research led to conclusions apropos of the current state of assistive technologies and recommendations that can be followed to enhance accessibility.

The History of Screen Readers

Low vision is a condition that may interfere with even trivial daily activities in vexing ways. Limited peripheral and central vision, unfocused vision, tunnel vision, and augmented vulnerability to light affect how people interact with their environment on a day-to-day basis. Different visual impairments are an increasingly growing health problem, with millions of United States citizens affected. Moreover, with the current lifestyle that the majority of people adhere to, the number of affected will possibly grow. One of the challenges that low vision may pose is the usage of new technologies, computing devices in particular.

Several inventors and researchers contributed to the progress in the domain. Among them is Jim Thatcher, the creator of the first screen reader (Ademi & Ademi, 2018). Alistair Edwards advanced the software with Soundtrack, one of the pioneering word processors with an auditory interface, and Ted Henter, a programmer who founded Freedom Scientific, a company that revolves around assistive technologies, created JAWS (Lazar et al., 2007). Despite the advancements, several gaps are still present in the research of assistive technologies, such as a lack of coordination between medical professionals and developers of assistive devices. This was noted by the lack of literature devoted to the topic in the last years. This paper aims to synthesize the history of screen readers that contributed significantly to the ever-evolving domain of assistive technology.

Materials and Methods

Considering the specifics of the research paper, its focus on the history of screen readers, and the assistive technology’s evolution, outcome-based information evaluation seems like a suitable method for the research. It serves to estimate to what degree historical advances in combination with technological ones resulted in the creation of screen readers and their current state of development. An array of research papers and scholarly articles from different periods is the principal material basis for the paper, as it allows for the construction of a historical account based on evidence from each temporal stage.

Results

TTS and Speech Synthesis as the Precursors of Screen Readers

With the rapid growth and expansion of digital technologies over the second half of the last century, computing devices have seemingly reached almost all spheres of human existence. Being able to access digital information may even be one of the primary criteria for life quality and the right of every citizen. Nevertheless, modern technologies, as an average user knows them, are unable to satisfy the needs of a large number of society members, even in developed countries (Evans & Blenkhorn, 2003). The struggle for accessibility and the origins of screen readers are traced back to the pre-PC era to the elaboration of Text-to-Speech (TTS) technologies, which were actively pursued even before the Second World War (Ademi & Ademi, 2018). Nowadays, screen readers became one of the most utilized subtypes of assistive technologies.

Text-to-speech rendering is one of the primary methods that set in motion the research that finally made screen readers possible. Although screen readers differ significantly from TTS, the principles of speech synthesis act as a cornerstone for the history of the technology in question (Edwards, 1989). Ademi and Ademi (2018) state that the TTS process is based on the artificial production of speech, which first attempts are documented in the eighteenth century. Nevertheless, the focus on the use of TTS in screen reading technologies to enhance accessibility was formed during the last century.

Speech synthesis is another technology that provided a foundation for the creation of screen readers. Christian Kratzenstein produced the first mechanical speech synthesizer in 1779 – the machine’s performance was limited to five long vowels (Nguyen et al., 2018, p. 349). This result was significantly improved over time in other models. The introduction of Voice Operating Demonstrator (VODER) in 1937 by the Bell Telephone Laboratory – a manual electronic machine created by Homer Dudley – was the next step towards screen readers (Nguyen et al., 2018). It should be noted that at that stage, the voice quality and the level of intelligibility were rather low, and the usage of the instrument was overcomplicated – it even had a pedal to modulate the speech (Nguyen et al., 2018). These two devices and the in-between ones demonstrated the ability of technology to generate a voice’s semblance and inspired the future of accessibility and assistive technologies.

The history of the speech synthesizing devices is not limited to the borders of the United States, although a significant part of inventions was made here. Nguyen et al. (2018) note that apart from synthesizing English, an array of different, predominantly European languages were involved in the process. For instance, software that could synthesize Italian named MUSA was introduced in 1975 (Nguyen et al., 2018, p. 350). The interest in other languages and the progress made abroad pushed the Bell Telephone Laboratory to produce the first, not monolingual TTS mechanism in 1997, based on their research on multilingual synthesis (Nguyen et al., 2018, p. 351). In this way, the history of screen readers and the advance in the area extends over several countries, incorporating research and technologies directed at various languages.

The Creation of First Screen Readers

The discussed above mechanisms serve as the basis for the first screen readers that are founded on the principles of transforming text into speech. Ademi and Ademi (2018) describe their usage in this way, “using keys combinations, and the user can move through the user interface and read all the texts available on the screen. The user can use the keypad to enter the text that is transformed into speech by the screen reader and is read aloud” (p. 1334). Jim Thatcher is the inventor of IBM Screen Reader (1986), which is considered to be the first one and was destined for the DOS operating system (Ademi & Ademi, 2018). It was followed by IBM Screen Reader 2, which, unlike the first IBM screen reader, had a graphic interface (Mynatt, 1997). The two applications, despite their limitations, gained particular popularity inside the IBM company.

Initially, the software was designed for personnel with vision impediments at IBM and primarily was not commercial. The users could control IBM Screen Reader 2 with numeric keys – this fact made it the first one of its kind (Ademi & Ademi, 2018). IBM and IMB 2 became the pioneers in the area of assistive technologies that focuses on rendering textual content in speech. Their expansion was prompted further by the growth of activism, primarily concentrated on the rights to access information (Scotch, 1989). IBM and IMB 2 screen readers were a vast improvement compared to the speech synthesizers produced by the Bell Telephone Laboratory in matters of speech quality and intelligibility.

By the end of the nineties, a variety of technologies designed to help visually impaired users emerged. Frank Audio data produced screen readers that used a modified keyboard to determine the part of the text to be spoken with a couple of sliders, with one moving horizontally and the other vertically (Edwards, 1989). Vert is an example of screen reader adaptation that was obtainable in several versions – they differed in quality of the performance and price (Edwards, 1989). The soundtrack, developed by Edwards (1989), represents an attempt to develop a word processor with an auditory interface and had two versions. According to the creator, the initial evaluation of the product revealed that it was difficult to navigate since the users had trouble recalling the arrangement of the internal elements in the windows (Edwards, 1989). Nevertheless, Soundtrack was declared usable, and Soundtrack 2 came with several improvements (Edwards, 1989). The screen readers produced by Frank Audio data, Vert, and Soundtrack facilitated the lives of visually impaired users of the late twentieth century and laid the ground for their more advanced counterparts.

Societal Context of the Era

The disability rights movement generated suitable conditions for the expansion and commercialization of assistive software and applications. The creation of the first screen reader in the middle of the eighties followed the passage of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act (Scotch, 1989). The act was supposed to protect disabled groups from discrimination encountered in programs and employment practices provided by the federal government or with its assistance. Section 508 centered on the right to access governmental sites and their usability for the people with impairments – the act established essential guidelines for accessibility (Olalere & Lazar, 2011). Olalere and Lazar (2011) emphasize that in U.S. law, the notion of accessibility is still defined by Section 508. Even though it does not concern private organizations, Section 508 motivates companies that are interested in cooperating with the federal government to enhance their web accessibility.

Recent Developments

Section 508 had a noticeable impact on the sphere of digital accessibility – it served as an incentive for its market to grow and encouraged attempts to screen readers’ improvement. For instance, BrookesTalk is a browser instrument that structures the content on a page, and thus creates a coherent digital environment for visually impaired users (Lazar et al., 2007). JAWS is a screen reader designed by Freedom Scientific, a company that centers around digital accessibility products (Lazar et al., 2007). The instrument allows its users to access a page in a non-sequential way by incorporating commands that enumerate available frames (Leporini & Paterno, 2004). VoiceOver has recently become another major player in the assistive technology market, following JAWS. On the other hand, NVDA is distinguished from the enlisted screen readers by its free access. Window-Eyes is another prominent screen reader developed by GW Micro – both Window-Eyes and JAWS work based on Microsoft Windows and attract the majority of visually impaired users (Lazar et al., 2007). In this way, establishing legislation concerning digital accessibility seems to be one of the most salient stimuli for the wider variety in the screen reader’s market today.

Discussion

The assistive technology uplift that happened in the eighties is a result of years of activism and policy enforcement. The IBM company improved screen readers and made them ready for broader usage and shifted towards their commercial manufacturing. Despite the accomplished progress, digital accessibility is a sphere that needs extra efforts and attention from Web developers. For instance, Section 508 compliance remains a problem almost fifty years later. The research conducted by Olalere and Lazar (2011) shows that, on average, 2.27 accessibility guidelines are violated per the home page of a federal website (p. 307). Web accessibility is even equalized to the notion of usability when people with different disabilities are concerned – it embodies the idea of inclusion and equal opportunities (Freire & Paiva, 2007). A memorandum on Transparency and Open Government that took place in 2009 requires openness and governmental information availability to all citizens (Olalere & Lazar, 2011). Nevertheless, it is still violated by the disregard for guidelines provided by Section 508.

Recommendations

Compliance with the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is one of the major steps that could help in digital accessibility promotion. Requiring each federal site to have an accessibility statement is one of the ways to promote it (Olalere & Lazar, 2011). The inclusion of information about the issue into public discourse, for instance, by dedicating research to the matters concerning digital technologies promoting accessibility, is another method to bring attention to the problems that need to be solved. Universal usability is still far from being reached, as it takes visually impaired users longer to accomplish tasks on the Web (Lazar et al., 2007). This signals a lack of understanding from the Web developers of the problems that a part of users encounters daily. Web accessibility should be incorporated into general Web education – the process in which screen readers could play a role, providing not visually impaired users with an experience that some face daily.

References

Ademi, L., & Ademi, V. (2018). Visually impaired students education through intelligent technologies. Knowledge International Journal, 28(3), 1133–1138.

Edwards, A. (1989). Soundtrack: An auditory interface for blind users. Human-Computer Interaction, 4(1), 45–66.

Evans, G., & Blenkhorn, P. (2003). Architectures of assistive software applications for Windows‑based computers. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 26(2), 213–228.

Freire, A., & Paiva, D. (2007). Using screen readers to reinforce web accessibility education. ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, 39, 82–86.

Lazar, J., Allen, A., Kleinman, J., & Malarkey, C. (2007). What frustrates screen reader users on the web: A study of 100 blind users. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 22(3), 247–269.

Leporini, B., & Paterno, F. (2004). Increasing usability when interacting through screen readers. Universal Access in the Information Society, 3(1), 57–70.

Mynatt, E. D. (1997). Transforming graphical interfaces into auditory interfaces for blind users. Human–Computer Interaction, 12, 7–45.

Nguyen, T. V, Nguyen, B. Q., Phan, K. H., & Do, H. Do. (2018). Development of Vietnamese speech synthesis system using deep neural networks. Journal of Computer Science and Cybernetic, 34(4), 349–363.

Olalere, A., & Lazar, J. (2011). Accessibility of U.S. federal government home pages: Section 508 compliance and site accessibility statements. Government Information Quarterly, 28(3), 303–309.

Page, T. (2016). GOV.UK assistive technology survey 2016. Accessible Digital Documents.

Scotch, R. K. (1989). Politics and policy in the history of the disability rights movement. The Milbank Quarterly, 67, 380–400.

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