At Apple's fall event in September 2017, Zhu Zi from China made a surprise appearance in a promotional video.
The footage showed Zhu Zi, along with a chaperone, running past landmarks in Shanghai.
Zhu Zi's full name is Zhu Yunhua, and she lives in Shanghai in '89. He has a congenital genetic disorder that causes him to use his eyes, but that doesn't stop him from loving technology products. For example, when he runs and works out, he uses his Apple Watch for navigation, healthy heart rate and pace. Apple reached out to him for a promotional video because of that, too.
When the video first started to play at the Apple conference on Sept. 12, he was still switching live feeds all over the place, and then his phone kept vibrating, and his friends were even more excited than he was: "You're on the Apple conference, look!"
When Zhu Zi can't see, he generally relies on his sense of hearing and touch to complete the operation of electronic products. There are very few people in the visually impaired community who pay attention to Apple's press conference like he does. He often says, "It's too slow, it's too slow," as he demonstrates the operation of daily apps to an interface news reporter.
The visually impaired use cell phones, not with any special version, but with screen-reading software to read the information on the app. It can be said that the screen reader is their "eyes" - text, buttons, pictures, all of which can be read.
There is Voice Over in iOS, and Talk Back in Android, and there are professional commercial screen readers on the PC, such as Scramble.
And screen-reading software relies entirely on the individual tags on the app. If the app forgets to add tags during development, or adds tags that are not compatible with screen-reading software, the result will be "no tags added".
You can see how difficult it is to use screen readers.
Common gestures are as follows: click to read the screen, double-click to activate the item. Take iOS as an example, open Settings/General/Assistive Functions/Voice Over, you can close your eyes and try it, a new world begins.
Interface news reporter just want to find WeChat to open a chat window, try at least 5 minutes: countless times to find the wrong tab of WeChat, not selected, selected not activated properly, can not find the person, mistakenly touched the point to open a file system began to frantically read the contents of the file, can not find the return in where. Finally had to pause VoiceOver via Siri and cut back to normal mode.
This is all too much for the average person to bear, but it's the norm for the visually impaired. According to the China Disabled Persons' Federation, the number of visually impaired people in China is currently around 13 million, or about 1 percent of the country's population.
April 7, 2016, according to a report on the basic situation of visually impaired users on the Internet in China released by the secretariat of the China Information Accessibility Products Alliance, 63 percent of visually impaired people believe that the Internet is of great value, and that Internet products have changed their way of life to a certain extent.
Technology has given them new eyes. But we can do better.
1. A life changed by the Internet
Wishzi's life was saved by Internet products.
When traveling, navigation maps are of great help. Don't underestimate the fact that going out is such a simple thing, but for many visually impaired people, it is a big challenge.
Early, Zhu Zi a lot of places do not recognize, not particularly dare to go. Not even knowing the basic directions, let alone the dangers on the road. Nowadays, map navigation can at least provide an approximate direction; DDT can come to the doorstep to pick up Zhu Zi out of the house; and WeChat and Alipay have solved the trouble of recognizing banknotes.
Beginning with a Dopod Windows Smart Phone in high school in '07, Zhu Zi's growth has been accompanied by rapid iterations and updates of smart products. The phone slowly changed from Android to Apple, and when interviewed by the interface reporter Zhu Zi took the latest iPhone X.
In iOS, the screen reading VoiceOver is the underlying service, Zhu Zi can complete the whole process of activating, configuring and normalizing the use of a new iPhone by himself. But on Android, because it needs to be paired with a third-party commercial screen reading software, you have to rely on a friend to help install and activate it. Open the software before you can use it.
The bigger problem is that Android commercial screen reading software, need Root access. In the past two years, as the Android version is getting higher and higher, Root access is getting tougher and tougher. And regardless of how many programs crash and die in between. Without making a sound, Zhu Zi's world went back to darkness.
The situation of various software is not much better. Nowadays, many Apps, consider more still is the interface aesthetics, a lot of buttons, controls, are drawn through the graphics. It looks good, but it's not friendly or easy to read for the visually impaired. For example, there is no way to click on the OK and Cancel buttons.
The e-commerce apps are even worse. E-commerce products attract users with large promotional information, colorful advertisements, and poor compatibility with screen-reading software. Visually impaired people have a particularly bad experience.
During the International Day of the Blind in October 2017, Cai Cong, a visually impaired person who became famous for "Odd Man Out," deliberately recorded a video to spread the idea of information accessibility. He deliberately mocked in the video, "I feel sorry for you guys, I didn't realize that you usually have to watch so many ads until I used the e-commerce app."
What broke Zhuzi the most was the CAPTCHA.
CAPTCHA is a common feature used by various websites and apps when registering and paying, in order to distinguish between malicious interference from machines. But security and ease of use are inherently incompatible.
Picture recognition class CAPTCHA is okay, Zhu Zi find a friend to look at can be solved, but encountered the kind of slider dragged to where the CAPTCHA, Zhu Zi really at a loss. If the website design has the sense of information accessibility, next to add voice verification, is the biggest mercy to Zhu Zi.
At this point, users spit out the most is the picture verification of 12306. Users with normal vision also have a high chance of picking the wrong one.
During the Spring Festival in January 2016, Chen Bin, a visually impaired person, was unable to buy a train ticket for his hometown through the 12306 website due to the blockage of the graphic authentication code, and a petition was filed against the Railway Corporation and three other units to the People's Court of the Haidian District of Beijing City, requesting the court to order the defendants to commit themselves to the information accessibility modification of the website.
Hundreds of visually impaired people previously wrote a joint letter to the General Administration of Railways requesting information disclosure and optimization of the picture verification mode, but have not received a reply.
Zhu Zi now buy tickets will have to use third-party ticketing products, such as Ctrip, Flying Pig, where to go, but from time to time there is a lag in information, after paying the ticket failure; if you go to the train station to buy, you will have to pay more than others the cost of time.
The case of visually impaired people being overwhelmed and suing the company is not the first for the railroad. Since 2013, visually impaired people have been through various channels to NetEase cloud music feedback, the product's information accessibility do hard to use. None of them have responded.
In 2015, along with the outbreak of the Apple XcodeGhost incident, when the visually impaired again tweeted that they hoped that cloud music do accessibility. The person in charge of NetEase Cloud Music at the time, the microblogging name of the person in charge of the "teacher mother" finally appeared, and replied strongly as follows:
Cloud Music's arrogance and shirking the attitude of the microblogging caused a microblogging war of words for a while, and the person in charge of the product does not pay attention to this can be seen.
2. Tech companies on the move
Like NetEase's response, many people misunderstand the concept of "information accessibility", believing that the population is small, not worth the effort, and not cost-effective.
To make matters more difficult, most developers are not disabled and don't understand the needs of people with disabilities; in addition, accessibility is not included as a necessary process in the development and testing process, which has led to a lot of apps not being able to maintain a stable accessibility situation.
The term "information accessibility" is derived from the term "accessibility," which refers to the ability of any person to access and utilize information equally, conveniently, and without barriers under any circumstances. It is only in recent years that China has begun to embrace the concept of information accessibility.
Zhang Kun, chief expert of the Information Accessibility Research Institute, told Interfax News that around 2002, there were organizations in China that were developing assistive tools for people with disabilities to use information technology, and around 2006, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) organized the development of technical standards for websites.
To date, there have been seven relevant standards, including the replacement, and still continue to develop. around 2008, information accessibility refers to assistive technologies, methods and tools for people with disabilities to use the computer Internet.
One of the most common misconceptions is that information accessibility is not just for the visually impaired. Elderly people, color-frail color-blind people and even anyone can get help from information accessibility. It is a factor that should be taken into account from the very beginning of the design of a product and has to do with the concept and awareness of the product manager.
Gu Linglei, a visually impaired engineer, mentioned in one of his comments that a product that doesn't support a class of people from the start is itself a huge bug.
"It's more of a conceptual thing here, and if the manufacturer looks at it as an enhancement of a product's ease-of-use, it's geared toward more than the visually impaired population but rather reflecting the value of a product. value." Liu Biao, technical director of the Information Accessibility Research Association, told Interface News.
According to data from a 2015 sample survey of people with disabilities conducted by the China Disabled Persons' Federation, there are more than 16.91 million people with visually impaired disabilities in China. Due to the relatively low threshold for using mobile devices and their ease of use, surfing the Internet with devices such as iPhones has become a major source of information for the visually impaired.
Compared with ordinary users, visually impaired users rely on such devices and apps on them to a greater extent, and their loyalty is also higher.
Sumo, a product engineer at Nail, believes that product information accessibility is not that complicated. It's not about developing a new "version for the blind". Rather, it's about optimizing the product and labeling it in a way that makes it easy for screen readers to recognize.
At first, Nail's support for screen reading was not good. When the Shenzhen Information Accessibility Research Association approached Nail and raised bugs, the Nail team realized it needed to make changes.
After a month or so, the Nail product team put in a lot of spare time to walk through the whole process. Nail version update fast, often about 3 weeks to update a version, Shenzhen Information Accessibility Research Association will be every few months to send a test results, and then Nail team regularly fix bugs, constantly updated.
But starting with the first accessible version and ending with 0 to 1, product managers naturally take into account the need for information accessibility in every version update.
Hammer Technology held its fall launch event in Chengdu on Nov. 7, releasing its latest system, Smartisan OS 4.1, which brings 131 new features and 63 optimizations. One of them is the 1.0beta version of the Accessibility Mode, which is specially designed for people with disabilities. For the first time, Hammer Technology has brought the concept of "information accessibility" to the average user.
Hammer product director Zhu Xiaomu told interface news reporter, in addition to the standard screen-reading function of the general cell phone, Hammer cell phone has three specially designed for the visually impaired:
Zhu Zi told the interface news reporter, open a picture, the current VoiceOver, although it can not read out the specific information, but it can tell an approximate, including the time to take pictures, the model, the screen, and the general information. approximate information. For example: curly haired dog, the top has text, full angle slash 95, the center of the screen and so on similar to this description. There's no way to make a particularly precise description.
"When our engineers hear that this product is for the visually impaired, they will work very actively with it, even overtime, and have a strong sense of team identity, and they will think that this is a great cause. This is something we didn't expect before, and the overtime is also spontaneous behavior, the attitude are very good, help our company team cohesion." Zhu Xiaomu said.
But the status quo for most domestic phone makers is that Google itself made Android with integrated accessibility features, but many of the customized versions of the system in China removed those features, so that part was missing for many makers at the very beginning.
Companies like Hammer and Nail that have been able to communicate smoothly with the Information Accessibility Research Institute to make accessibility improvements are still in the minority. Zhang Kun, chief expert of the Research Society, told Interface News, "Many products have not yet integrated information accessibility into the necessary processes of product development and maintenance, and accessibility is difficult to maintain a continuous and stable state."
3. To live, not just survive
Now Zhu Zi is working as an experience guide in an experience center called Dialogue in the Dark. She's been following the progress of information accessibility for a while now. The museum is professionally protected from light.
Interface News reporter once experienced eating in total darkness. In the darkness there is a sense of fear, need to mobilize all the body's perceptual ability to distinguish what kind of food, where the location. That kind of concentration and sensibility is not normally found when we hold a cell phone while eating carelessly.
Wishing Zi hopes that the experience in the dark will make users cherish the opportunity to have light more.
On one occasion, Zhu Zi went to the supermarket to buy something and encountered a salesperson who asked him tangentially, "Can I get a massage cheaper at your place?" In the general public's mind, "blind massage" is the main employment opportunity for many visually impaired people.
The job as an usher is one that Zhu Zi has been interning for more than two years, going through layers of interviews and training. Now, with the spread of information accessibility, more and more visually impaired people have more choices and employment opportunities.
Cai Yongbin is the testing director of the Shenzhen Information Accessibility Research Association. The visually impaired need more hours of study than normal people to work as professional testers. At the craziest time, Cai Yongbin started learning code from 6-7am every day until 6-7pm at night. Having memorized 300 lines of code, "I dreamed about this."
Early in 2014, Cai Yongbin online "saw" the Information Accessibility Research Association in the national recruitment of visually impaired engineers. After the resume interview, successfully entered the profession. In 2014, the concept of information accessibility in China was not yet widespread, and the products at that time, including Taobao and Alipay, were difficult to use. There were few products to collaborate and test.
By now, there are at least 30-40 products with the Shenzhen Information Accessibility Research Association. But finding bugs, looking for bugs, asking questions to the product, optimizing the user experience for the visually impaired, it's an endless thing. Essentially it's no different than the constant improvement of any product's user experience.
Early interactions were very simple and crude. There may have been only one or two actions. Now long press, side pull, with two fingers to do the action, the operation has been very different. In Cai Yongbin's vision, the future user experience for the visually impaired will be closer and closer to the able-bodied. In the future, coupled with wearable devices, can make up for more perceptual deficiencies.
Because of the high cost of learning and the technical threshold, the employment of visually impaired engineers is still a very small proportion of the population. The job training provided by the Federation of Disabled Persons is still dominated by massage and acupressure, or some people are also engaged in similar jobs as piano tuners. Test engineers have opened up new employment channels for them, but it's not enough.
"I have so few options to choose from, if my eyesight is good I can go for painting and photography. But now, it's still too narrow. Inside so few choices, IT is my favorite." Cai Yongbin said helplessly.
According to Zhu Zi, at present, Apple occasionally recruits visually impaired employees, Tencent development App sometimes recruit visually impaired test group. But a lot of testing is not recruiting full-time employees, just part-time testing before the product goes live.
According to Zhang Kun, chief expert of the Information Accessibility Research Association, in developed countries such as Europe and the United States, there are mandatory legal requirements, and information accessibility has become a norm that Internet companies must consider.
In the basic law, there is the Disability Discrimination Act, a basic bill, the government is required to achieve accessibility in the communication, information technology, transportation, education and other industries and fields. Section 508 has also been introduced to provide maximum support and policy incentives for government procurement of accessible services and products. At the same time, the authorities of each industry will also introduce relevant regulations to guide and support accessibility, such as the communications industry, there is the "21st Century Communications and Video Technology Accessibility Act", which gives accessibility guidelines and policy support direction.
Information accessibility is supposed to be a right, not a favor. These mandatory and policy-encouraging regulations are an enabler for the development of information accessibility. However, the country has not yet formed a sound policy, industry norms, and even more lack of professionals.
For all of us: even the healthiest people have to grow old, have to receive information inconveniently, have family and friends in need of help. Therefore, the significance of information accessibility is not only to allow people with disabilities to have equal opportunities to integrate into society, but also about you and me.