An Accessible Information Matrix and the Design of an Accessibility Toolkit

Package for Re:source - Deliverable 1

Date: 21/03/2001

1. Background

1.1 During 2000/2001, as a follow-up to its earlier work for the Library and Information Commission, which largely dealt with visual impairment (with two small Deliverables on hearing impairment and cognitive/physical difficulties), humanITy has been focusing its research on illiteracy in general and cognitive difficulties in particular.

1.2 During the research, we developed four key concepts:

Two models of literacy (Figure 1)
ICT Skills: Basic, Simple and Advanced; Collaborative, Simple and Advanced (Figure 2)
Basic Systems Requirements - A List of Tools (Figure 3)
Accessible Information Matrix, Version 4.0 (Figure 4).

1.3 This Deliverable presents the four concepts in their most updated form and relates them to each other.

2. Four Key Concepts

2.1 Two models of literacy (Figure 1).

The two models of literacy (Figure 1) are included simply as background to the other three sub-Sections. The analysis provides a rationale for the development of the other three concepts.

Fig. 1 Two models of literacy

The Exclusive Position. The more elements there are in an information system, the fewer the people who can operate it at any given level
The Inclusive Position. The more elements there are in an information system, greater is the number of people who can operate parts of it.

2.2 ICT Skills: Basic, Simple and Advanced; Collaborative, Simple and Advanced (Figure 2).

The four lists of skills have been built up on the basis of regular PC operations using standard architecture and applications. In terms of the Deliverable, the individual skills lists are the most relevant but we have included the collaborative lists because it may be that Re:source may become interested in collaborative content creation as part of the ICT training process.

Fig. 2 ICT Skills: Basic, Simple and Advanced; Collaborative, Simple and Advanced.

	Individual	Collaborative
A. Basic	Self tuition Comprehension of symbolic language; expression in symbolic language Arithmetic and calculation in tabular format and in spatial formal Visual discrimination, design and drawing Taxonomy Navigation Content discrimination	Submitting a required response Appending simple, relevant, proportionate, non-integrated content Signposting other relevant sources Understanding narrative/shape Identifying gaps/creative opportunities Suggesting options/elements Adding synchronous/asynchronous content Integrating new content into structure
B. Advanced	Tact and elegance in e-mail writing, Rapid decision-making in network consultation, Restraint in e-group transactions, Clarity in Web page design, Simplicity without condescension in public information The omission of gratuitous ornamentation in all on-screen design Suggesting enhancements outside current structure	Creating the structure Co-ordinating a team Editing product from team Ending/beginning projects Marketing/promoting.

2.3 Basic Systems Requirements - A List of Tools (Figure 3).

The Basic Systems Requirements (Figure 3) was built up on the basis of the skills lists (Figure 2). The first stage was to build up a tools list to complement individual skills. We have not yet been able to assemble a credible table of similar tools for collaborative skills.

There is a Section in Figure 3 for each skill listed in Figure 2a and 2b.

Some of the tools specified have been part of standard PC bundles almost since their inception, some are rarer and some have not yet been developed. None, however, is beyond the scope of current technological capability.

Fig. 3 Basic Systems Requirement – A List of Tools

1. Matching colour coded cable and port labels
2. Clearly identified, large on/off switch	Size important for those with manual dexterity problems
3. 'Sleep'/'Wake' device by any keystroke	Useful for physically disabled people
4. Set foreground/background colour	Of particular use to people with poor vision
5. Set symbol (print) size, font	Particularly useful to people with poor vision
6. Set Sound Pitch and volume for voice out	Particularly useful for people with poor hearing
7. Vary richness of symbolic sub-titling	Default simplest, particularly important for people who have difficulty hearing
8. Variable richness Audio sub-titling	Default richest, of particular importance to people who have difficulty seeing
9. All Media in document simultaneous but discreet	Particularly important to people who use one medium to support another and for those who are deprived of the use of a medium
10. Voice In	Particularly useful for people with physical difficulties, problems writing and spelling
11. Define/Separate Visual Foreground/Background	Particularly important for people with poor vision or with cognitive difficulties
12. Define/Separate Audio Foreground/Background	Particularly important to people with hearing difficulties
13. Define Humour Icon	Particularly important for people without a sense of humour and for people with autism
14. Enlarge Marked Item	Particularly important for people with poor vision
15. Freeze Identified movement	Applies, for instance, to fast-moving right-hand figures, stock market index changes, currency rate changes, digital clock seconds
16. Pause	Like the on/off switch, this must be easy to manipulate and subject to voice in command, particularly useful to people with physical disabilities
17. Set 'Sticky keys'	Particularly useful for people with poor manual dexterity
18. Load personal characteristics file/return to default from any key at any time	Important for any person using settings outside default but vital for disabled people with a variety of variable settings

A. BASIC INDIVIDUAL SKILLS

A1 Self tuition (use of "help" functions and manuals) HELP FUNCTIONS
1. "Help" system	Default to maximum. It is easier for a skilled person to downgrade help than for an unskilled person to upgrade it and the problem may be recursive; without help some people may not be able to get help.
2. Do You Need Help? Following irregular keystrokes or set period of inactivity:	Many systems simply go into 'sleep' or 'rest' mode if they are left for a while and many 'hang up' if they receive confusing keystrokes; the default should be in both situations that the "Help" function kicks in, using its own intelligence to calculate the relative odds of various tasks being undertaken at the time and then ranking them.
3. "Help" offered ranked in closeness of relationship to system's interpretation of task being undertaken	Task ranking may be difficult but it is a better option than presenting the user with a logical sequence of "Help" where the problem at hand may not be obvious to the person in difficulty.
4. Facility to "cancel all" and "start again".	Perhaps the mot important function in a "Help" or any other system; people simply want to untangle everything and start again. Many systems make this very difficult. Even turning a machine off does not create a new start. Particularly useful for people with short attention span
5. Maximum of nine boxes indicating most frequently required help; tick box	This function should be personalised so that the machine ranks the user's difficulties in descending order of frequency over a given time frame. Thus, when a new task is being learned the frequency of problems in the latest phase of activity is ranked rather than problems from earlier sessions.
6. Facility for identifying "Key Word" for help	Key word facilities should be underpinned by a simple 'Thesaurus' function so that the user's description of a problem is matched with the system's terminology
7. Choose richness/complexity/length of "Help" manual;	Default simplest

MANUALS
8. All public sector help and manual functions cleared by a plain English (and other languages) function	There is no reason why this clearance should not be through a rule-based tool specifying complexity of syntax, length of sentence and lexicographic range.
9. General manuals modularised and only parts relevant to functions made accessible	The system should only show the user what she needs to know in any given situation and if the user is not clear the "tick box" approach in Item 5 should be used with the obvious option of ""Other", "Specify" and "indicate key word".
10. Navigation classification variable (see A6), chronological (relating to a series of events in time), sequential (relating to the position of an event in a current process), alphanumeric (relating to a sequence, an ascending order, level of complexity, etc.)	Not all sets of options are best shown through one array and navigation strategy
11. Navigation spatially variable (see A6 below), list, array of up to 9 elements in two dimensions, circular with centre point and radii to circumference	Most spatial arrays are too rigid and do not offer options. The standard menu is too rigidly 'tree'-like. An array of nine or fewer elements can be matched with the telephone keypad. A centre point with radii to a circumference allows for more than nine elements and allows for easy manipulation without implying a hierarchy or a change of hierarchy
12. Navigation by key word	This may result in a report which has a list of several items which must, in turn, be ranked using the system's intelligence
13. Choice between modular/repetitive and cross-referenced/linked	For those who find self-tuition relatively easy, hitting a link from one part of a manual will be relatively simple but some people will need each item of help to be written as if it was a self-standing item. The latter will involve repetition within the system but this will not be obvious to either kind of user

A2 Comprehension of symbolic language; expression in symbolic language (reading and word processing)
1. Multi Functional Word Processor	Default fewest functions
2. Choice of sentence length	Default shortest, particularly useful for people with cognitive difficulties
3. Choice of Syntactic Complexity	Default, simplest, particularly useful for people with cognitive difficulties
4. Choice of Lexicographic range	Default smallest
5. Micro-vocabulary glossaries	Even with small lexicographic range of general words, most subjects have a micro vocabulary of technical words defined by the subject e.g. soccer, conveyance. Particularly useful for people with cognitive difficulties
6. Variable Predictive Word Processing	Default maximum, helpful for all learners but particularly useful for people with cognitive difficulties
7. Variable Spell/Grammar Checking	Default maximum, useful for all learners but particularly for those with cognitive difficulties
8. Variable Thesaurus Function	Default simplest, useful for all learners but particularly young learners and older people who forget words
9. Variable Dictionary Function	Default simplest, matching Lexicographic range in Item 4. above
10. Right Margin/Proportionate spacing Option	Default unjustified right margin, proportionate spacing off, particularly useful for anyone who has difficulty reading
11. Error response service	Logging and then responding on basis of recurrent faults in a session or topic
12. Match words and clip art	Drawings should be simple and may not necessarily overlap with display clip art in A.4 point 2.

A3 Arithmetic and calculation in tabular format (addition, subtraction, etc.); and in spatial format (spreadsheets)
1. Adjustable Arithmetical Calculator	Default all functions off for beginners but adjusted according to aptitude; adjustment by function or by length of integer
2. Select Spatial Representation of Calculation	Pie-chart, bar chart, building blocks, Useful for all learners
3. Spatial Representation of Percentages	Vital for calculation, statistics, risk assessment
4: Colour Representation of Components	Important aid to learning, particularly for those with cognitive difficulties
5. Transfer Units between Groups	Pictorial illustrations of addition and subtraction
6. Two dimensional Frame	For multiplication and division
7. Spread Sheet	Simple addition and subtraction simultaneously in column and row
8. Error response service	Logging and then responding on basis of recurrent faults in a session or topic

A4 Visual discrimination, design and drawing (clip art and drawing packages)
1. Drawing Package
2. Clip Art Gallery
3. Scaleable expansion/contraction
4. Common Object Templates	For filling and then withdrawing
5. Proportion and Symmetry 'shadows'	Outline replicas of drawn elements
6. Clip Art Gallery

A5 Taxonomy (menus, databases and Internet searching)
1. Manual of Taxonomy	Object to class and list by class, cross referenced; multi-dimensional object to classes
2.: Taxonomy Arbiter	Enter any object and class(es) allocated
3. Database	Must correspond with taxonomy manual and arbiter in 1-2 above
4. Search Strategy Templates	Link taxonomy with chronology
5. Search Strategy Prompts	Default set at maximum; key word prompting questions to narrow search
6. Search Report Analysis	List by author, chronology, frequency of use, price, etc.

A6 Navigation (Internet searching)
1. Array Elements in Two Dimensions	Default in grid, maximum 3 x 3 to correspond with telephone key pad
2. List Items Alphanumeric	Lit by author and/or title, select option
3. Lit Items Chronological
4: List Items in Circumference linked by Radii to Central Point	Useful, non hierarchical strategy
5. List Items by Menu/cascading/'tree' structure	Traditional
6. Select navigation Option	Choose between Items 1-5. above and other
7. Sketch Map Web Site
8. Sketch Map Journey	Show succession of links from "Start" to "Present"
9. Re-Orient	Revolve map but keep text horizontal
10. Move Focal Point	Show information 'in play' from the perspective of the item at cursor
11. Alter Scale/'hide' detail	Useful in producing sketch maps

A7 Content discrimination (weighing the value of information without traditional markers like packaging and price)
1. Show Source	E.g. "ac" or "edu" designation
2. Show Author/Publisher/Rights holder	Include classification in authoring tools
3. Show Price
4. Show Web 'hit rate'
5. Show Source	Items go through successive cutting and pasting, requirement for source prompt in authoring tool
6. Show 'Hard' outputs/related products	An item may result from or result in a book, CD, etc.
7. Delete Unsigned/Untraceable data	Many sites do not readily distinguish between signed source material and later marginal comment/rejoinder
8. Show Citation Record	Academic citation, quotes in subsequent documents
9. Show Author's Ranking	Must be written into authoring tool, author's ranking of information and suggested reading sequence

B. ADVANCED INDIVIDUAL SKILLS

B1 Tact and Elegance in e-mail writing
1. Display simple, Legal Notice	Warning: your messages are all subject to the laws of libel, preservation of good character, etc in the country from which they are sent and may be subject to the law of the recipient country
2. Display Etiquette Bullets	No e-mail is secret The same message may be sent to many people of different characters, temperaments, corporate roles, etc. Beware of humour/jokes Only attach where absolutely necessary
3. Tact Word Checker	Assemble dictionary of words and phrases of doubtful tact
4. Repeat Checker	Display repeated phrases
5. Delete Back Messages	Remove all but reply and subject of reply
6. Bar Outward Mail	Default "check one more"

B2 Rapid decision-making in network consultation
1. Rules	Point user to rules being used for Internet consultation and/or decision making
2. Document Analysis	Requires prompt in authoring tool, e.g.: Background Evidence/Factors pro and Con Statement of decision to be made Form of reply required
3. Urgency/Importance	Indicate level of urgency/importance of decision
4. Authority	Indicate who has the authority which meets your requirements for a decision
5.: Deadline	Show decision deadline
6. Penalties	Show penalties for not meeting deadline
7. Circulation	Although no e-mail is confidential, show intended circulation list
8. Rank Messages	Use Intelligent Agent to rank messages according to recipient behaviour or other criteria
9. Automatic Response	Make automatic response based on criteria
10. Automatic Selection	Automatically delete on basis of given criteria.

B3 Restraint in e-group transactions
1. Summary	Note all the points in B1 & B2
2. Collect and Collate	Gather and sort all messages since last download
3. Select Frequency of Interaction	Default to hourly/daily/weekly, etc.

B4 Clarity in Web page design
1. Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)	Consult and follow the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) guidelines of the World Wide Web Consortium (www.w3.org/wai)
2. Accessibility Authoring tools	Use WAI authoring tools
3. Text Tool	Transform complex, graphics site into text site and add "alt" tags from prompts in tool
4. Delete Background
5. Delete Metadata
6. Delete Commentary/Background/ Epigraphy	Requires prompt in authoring tool to create tags

B5 Simplicity without condescension in public information
1. Display Etiquette Bullets	E.g.: All citizens are equal Regardless of social class/economic status, each person has one vote Ask for no information without a reason Do not ask a question without a reason.
2. Tick Boxes	Supply tick boxes for quick answers
3. Flow Charts	Delete portion of form if given answer makes it non applicable
4. Write In	Always provide write in space in addition to established options
5. "Help"	Show "Help" function clearly, together with its terms and conditions; see A1 1-7.
6. Thanks	Thank participants
7. Report Conditions	Indicate date, circulation, and nature of report/feedback.

B.6 The omission of gratuitous ornamentation in all on-screen design
1. Create/render Simple Source File	Reduce any file to simplest form with tools
2. Mark Up Language	Mark Up file, separating style from content; use style sheet
3. Links	Write links to background, illustrations, etc.

2.4 Accessible Information Matrix, Version 4.0 (Figure 4).

2.4.1 The Accessible Information Matrix (Figure 4) is an attempt to present ICT functional limitations and information systems requirements at right angles to create a matrix. Boxes of the matrix then contain suggested technique and tools for making systems more effectively useful for people with functional limitations. Where appropriate, tools from Figure 3 are shown in brackets in Figure 4. Not all tools shown in Figure 3 are specifically relevant to Figure 4.

2.4.2 HORIZONTAL AXIS, AIM 4.0

Traditionally, the demographics of barriers to ICT access have been divided into three broad categories: economic deprivation, lack of adequate education and/or training and physical or mental disability. In ICT terms it is much more helpful, given what we know about the falling price of ICT access, to eliminate the economic factor and to divide access barriers into four broad groups based on functional limitations in the areas of cognition, physical dexterity, hearing and sight.

Cognition - Cognitive difficulties with ICT systems may arise from congenital or acquired learning, developmental or behavioural difficulties or from a shortfall in education or training. The etiological analysis may be interesting but what actually counts is the manifestation of a difficulty in interaction with a system, such as:
Limited vocabulary
Short attention span
Lack of discrimination
Incomprehension of irony
Inability to tell right from left.

It may well be that careful remedial education will ameliorate some of these manifestations - and many others not listed - but the systems design has to assume that problems such as these are use inhibiting and that, therefore, the system must take account of them rather than all remedial action being firmly placed with educators and trainers. This is one of the basic assumptions of consumer electronics as opposed to specialist systems.

This particular group of people with functional limitations is the largest of the four but is also the most difficult to count and classify functionally. The single, biggest element is likely to be those who lack an adequate working vocabulary and syntax to understand and contribute to the available data in cyberspace. The OECD Survey indicates that, in the case of UK, 20% of the population can be considered illiterate (OECD 2000[1]) but

Physical Dexterity - The demographics of functional, physical disability are very difficult to aggregate because they combine statistics on severe disability (for epidemiological or benefits purposes), automobile accidents causing severe but temporary incapacity, mild but chronic disabling conditions such as arthritis and simple clumsiness. It is further complicated, for instance, by the fact that a severely physically disabled person may have no lower limbs but still, therefore, potential highly effective access to an ICT system.
Hearing - Problems with hearing are not particularly problematic in the context of a contemporary ICT system which primarily functions for the purposes of word processing, spreadsheet analysis, database management and simple drawing but its importance will increase as ICT systems place more reliance on sound to supplement moving picture content.
Visual - There was a time in the 1980s when the terms "blind" and "computer programmer" were very closely associated but the replacement of command line systems with graphical user interfaces (GUIs) such as WINDOWS has radically changed the situation and the growing hegemony of the static and moving image will present additional problems. These are not simply confined to the obvious problems of physically seeing an image; there is the additional problem of image interpretation, or visual literacy, where an understanding of visual irony, allusion and illusion is required.

Of the four broad groups the first is the most difficult to quantify in terms of age. Some cognitive difficulties are congenital or manifest themselves in childhood, some are persistent through poor opportunity and lack of motivation and an increasing number are caused by ageing. Of the other three, there are some generalisations which hold in most cases:

Contrary to our 19th Century image of paediatric disability, most functionally disabling conditions increase as a percentage of the population with ageing; that trend is due to accelerate to a point where inclusive design becomes a matter of mutuality rather than altruism (Christie, I. 1999)[2]
The number of sufferers of any condition is in inverse proportion to its severity
Benefits and epidemiological taxonomies obscure the extent of the problems of ICT interaction
Most people with functional limitations with ICTs do not self classify and are not classified as either "Excluded", "Deprived" or "Disabled". There are, too, a large number of functional problems with ICTs that can be negotiated relatively easily - team players can optimise their task allocations and line managers can delegate - nonetheless, the usual broad definitions of deprivation or skills deficit are only the most visible manifestation of an underlying problem.

2.4.3 VERTICAL AXIS, AIM 4.0

Accessibility - the capacity of the system to deliver information to the senses. This is the most familiar to disabled people but it has wider ramifications. In an ideal system each piece of information is delivered in the maximum number of media where each medium can deliver the information as a self-standing strand.
Apprehension - the ability of the system to communicate to the user the intention of the author of the content. Examples of this might be the clear establishment of lexicality (the order in which the information is to be processed); weight (the relative importance the author assigns to elements of content, the establishment of what is essential and what supportive) and authority (the degree to which the user can rely on the content). This allows the user, particularly a user with a narrow skills base, a slow acquisition and interpretative rate or someone in a hurry to process the information with maximum efficiency in order to reach a clear and simple conclusion.
Transparency - the ability of the system, taking the previous two factors into account, to separate style from content, foreground from background, source from criticism/commentary and peer reviewed criticism and commentary from ad hoc comment and 'virtual' marginalia. This aspect presents particular problems when authors deliberately employ irony, ambiguity and other deliberately misleading devices, permissible in creative content but not, for instance, in Government information.
Navigation - the ability of the system to facilitate simple data location through the optimal balance between elements in an array and the number of steps required. (Stringer and Carey, 2000)[3].
Interaction - the ability of the system to facilitate user feedback to meet the requirements of the interrogator.
Expression - the ability of the system to facilitate the creation of and to collect unsolicited intellectual content.

Fig. 4 - ACCESSIBLE INFORMATION MATRIX (AIM) Version 4.00

	Cognitive	Physical	Audio	Visual	General
Accessibility	Easy On-Off (basic systems requirement) Freeze frame (basic systems requirement) Voice-In (basic systems requirement)		Variable: Volume, Pitch, Signing, and Richness of Subtitling. (Basic systems requirement) Freeze frame (basic systems requirement)	Variable: Font, Size, Contrast, Colour (basic systems requirements) Speech out Audio sub-titling (basic systems requirement). Freeze frame Delete metadata (B.4.4) All media simultaneous but self-standing. (Basic systems requirement)
Apprehension	Define/ separate/ delete foreground/ background (B.4.1) Select font/print size/ lexicography/ document length/précis (basic systems requirements; A.2..2, A.2.3., A.2.4.) Simple graphics Prospective/ retrospective précis Links to simplified further data (B.6.3) Turn off proportional spacing and create unjustified right margin. Create humour icon . (basic systems requirement)		Define/ separate foreground/ background sound (B.4.4).	Précis for Speech output. Delete metadata (B.4.4) ‘Alt’ tags (B.2.3) Define/ separate/ delete foreground/ background (B.4.4.)	Determine: Lexicality, Status, Weight of Content; icon for humour/ irony (basic systems requirement)
Transparency	Remove background: Isolate, Mark, Drag key elements, Slow/stop frame delivery (basic systems requirement) Create/ render simple source file (B.6.1)		Remove background channel (s) (basic systems requirement) Remove background. (Basic systems requirement) Separate style from content. (B.6.2)
Navigation	Show alternatives (special, alpha numeric and chronological) (A.6.1, A.6.2, A.6.3) Maximum 9 elements in array. (A.1.5) Simple switching (basic systems requirements).		Combine: Telephone Audio with Visual Screen.	Combine Telephone Audio with Visual Screen	Avoid “trees”. Provide “back”/ ”forward” option
Interaction	Simple instructions. Prefer tick box to write-in.	Prefer tick box to write-in. Differentiate commentary from options. Voice-in (basic systems requirement) Differentiate between response list and Background/ Notes
Expression	Intelligent spell checking/ parsing/ thesaurus (A.2.8, A.2.9) Predictive Word- Processing (A.2.6) Predictive voice-in		Text- messages	Voice-in / Voice-out (basic systems requirements) Clearly mark welcome flag for comments
Fitness	Make “undo” non threatening So called “Sticky Keys” (basic systems requirement)				Load temporary file for work Install any characteristic (basic systems requirement) Return to default at any point in operation. (Basic systems requirement)

3. Discussion

3.1 The division between the attributes in the AIM 4.0 (Figure 4.) and general tools and techniques is arbitrary. As has been pointed out, there is no rational way of making a division between those who have functional limitations with ICT and those who do not. Nonetheless, some distinction has to be made if it is specified that a particular tool is required to guarantee a legal level of accessibility. This is an extremely difficult area which requires further consideration by all those providing public sector information.

3.2 The subject of collaboration for content creation is not central to this Deliverable but it is important both for personal growth and economic development.

3.3 Although they are becoming more widely known, the technologies of outline/shape/face recognition and haptics have not been included in this Deliverable. The first set of technologies will be particularly important for people with cognitive difficulties, the second for people with visual impairments.

3.4 Account is not taken in this Deliverable of heuristic middleware, the ability of a system to base its operations on the behaviour of identified users. This work should be considered as a natural follow up to the report “Enhancing Access to Library Based ICT Services for Visually Impaired People” (see www.peoplesnetwork.gov.uk/project/viper.pdf

[1] OECD: Literacy in the Information Age. Final Report of the International Adult Literacy Survey. OECD, Canada. 2000

[2] Christie, I.: An inclusive future? Disability, social change and opportunities for greater inclusion by 2010. Demos, London 1999.

[3] Stringer, R. and Carey, K.: The Power of Nine. A Preliminary Investigation into Navigation Strategies for the New Library with Special Reference to Disabled People. Library and Information Commission, 2000.

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