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“Please drag the slider to complete the puzzle.” How long does it take to complete this action on your mobile phone? Many people can “defeat 98% of people” in just a fraction of a second. But for Shang Lei from Changsha City, Hunan Province, this is an arduous task. He is visually impaired and uses his mobile phone not to “see” but to “listen”. The screen reading function of the mobile phone cannot instruct him to complete such a simple verification action.
Slider verification, face recognition, sequential click verification… these simple operations are nothing more than a deep “digital gap” for the approximately 17 million visually impaired people in my country. They are eager to build a smooth “digital blind road” on the Internet as soon as possible.
Some small obstacles are “digital gaps” that are difficult for visually impaired people to solve.
“With the help of the screen reading function, I can handle most banking services through mobile banking. However, the mobile applications developed by some banks are incompatible with the screen reading function, so it is impossible to handle business on the mobile phone.” Engaged in massage work for the blind in Beijing Wang Yang said that taking password input as an example, some mobile applications disrupted the key sequence and disabled the screen reading function for security reasons, so he could not enter the password independently.
The screen reading function is an indispensable tool for visually impaired people when using mobile phones. Through the information provided by screen reading, the visually impaired people know how to operate next. However, many mobile applications do not consider barrier-free adaptation during the product design stage and are incompatible with the screen reading function.
He Chuan, vice chairman of the China Blind Association, skillfully opened the mobile app and an advertisement popped up. He waited patiently for the advertisement to finish playing before continuing. “Nowadays, many apps have pop-up ads on the screen, but the methods to turn off or skip the ads are different. It is easy to enter the ad page by mistake and have to wait.” Although He Chuan's eyes have light sensitivity, he can't see the phone clearly. It was too difficult for him to accurately find the hidden “×” and “skip” on the advertisement screen.
In order to attract more users, mobile app developers frequently iterate and upgrade, striving to make operations simpler and smarter. But this is sometimes not good news for the visually impaired.
For a while, Shang Lei hated “sliding bars”. “Many mobile applications have sliding bars. For example, some hospital registration applets use the sliding bar to select the department and time. If the sliding bar does not have built-in focus, the screen reading function cannot be recognized, and the department or time cannot be selected, nor can it be registered. No.” Shang Lei said.
The difficulties faced by the visually impaired in the digital age are often difficult for ordinary people to empathize with. “Nowadays, many hospitals have set up self-service machines, which can register, pay, print examination reports, etc., which ordinary people find very convenient. However, these self-service machines are designed with touch screens and do not have voice broadcasts. We can touch them. But I couldn't use it, so I had to go to the manual service window and queue up.
“I am most afraid of going to the hospital for medical treatment. In order not to trouble others, I usually ask a juror to accompany me. The fee is 300 yuan for half a day. The price is not cheap, but there is nothing I can do.” Wang Yang said. Most of them are minor obstacles, but they prevent the visually impaired from enjoying the convenience brought by information technology and intelligence.
Shang Lei often shares his life on social media, Wang Yang started using smartphones more than ten years ago, and He Chuan is a “heavy mobile phone user”… Despite the difficulties, Shang Lei, Wang Yang, He Chuan and more People with disabilities are still trying to figure out how to use mobile phones. Not only because mobile phones bring them convenience, but more importantly, they desire to live independently and freely and do not want to be left behind in the information age. They hope to be able to access and use information equally and conveniently like ordinary people, and to better integrate into society.
The motivation of enterprises and other entities to promote information accessibility needs to be improved
The interview found that the digital obstacles encountered by the visually impaired are not technical problems. The reason is that some companies or institutions do not understand the needs of the visually impaired, and some give up on accessibility modifications due to product safety considerations.
Guangdong Shenzhen Information Accessibility Research Association is a social organization that has been established for many years and is committed to assisting in barrier-free construction and aging-friendly transformation. Yang Wei, secretary-general of the research association, said that taking navigation as an example, judging from the feedback from the visually impaired, outdoor navigation can basically meet their daily travel needs. They are more in need of indoor navigation in public places such as hospitals and shopping malls.
In recent years, many hospitals have built in-hospital navigation systems, but most of them use screen display lines. The smart navigation service system officially launched by Beijing Chuiyangliu Hospital in October 2023 is equipped with a voice function, which displays the location information of the hospital's outpatient clinics, emergency rooms, wards and other regional facilities by floors, down to water dispensers and cash machines, and the positioning is accurate to meters . The navigation will provide automatic voice reminders at every intersection, turn, layer change, etc.
“The main consideration in the design is that patients may be holding prescription orders in their hands. If there are voice prompts, they don't have to look at their mobile phones all the time.” Zhao Yipeng, an engineer at the hospital's information center, said that now it seems that the visually impaired will also benefit from it.
According to Wang Li, director of the Digital Management Research Department of the Institute of Industry and Planning of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, the concept of universal design has not yet been popularized, which is also one of the important reasons for information barriers. “Universal design requires that when designing and developing products, full consideration should be given to ease of use by everyone. Currently, software and hardware product developers and designers still lack universal design concepts, and usually make barrier-free modifications after product development is completed. This not only increases This reduces the difficulty and investment cost of later transformation, and also causes many deficiencies in experience.
Since many application software are adapted through technical patches for accessibility, once the system is upgraded, they may no longer be adapted. “In the past, I often used an app to buy tickets, and it was always smooth. But after the app version was updated, the calendar interface could no longer be read,” said a visually impaired person.
Enterprises are the main body in promoting information accessibility. “These issues are closely related to the lack of enthusiasm of enterprises to participate in information accessibility construction.” He Chuan often communicates with enterprises on behalf of the visually impaired group, asking them to help modify operational designs that are not in line with information accessibility. However, few companies take the initiative to carry out barrier-free transformation.
Experts say that the current input-output ratio of smart products for people with disabilities is not high, mainly because accessibility needs have not been effectively stimulated. Wang Li believes that my country's information accessibility work is still in its initial exploration stage, with a small number of operating entities and insufficient application scenarios for people with disabilities. The information consumption needs of people with disabilities need to be stimulated, and the entire industry has not yet formed a mutually beneficial and sustainable development industrial ecosystem.
It is necessary to further strengthen the popularization of information accessibility education in the whole society
For enterprises and institutions to understand the needs of the visually impaired, the shortcut is to establish user thinking and smooth feedback channels. Wang Yang once reported a password input problem to a bank, but the result was not ideal. “Customer service staff usually transfer the call to my account bank, but the account bank cannot handle application development issues and can only report them to the higher level.” Wang Yang said.
“The main reason why the secure keyboard cannot read the screen is that the bank is worried that the password will be leaked and affect financial security. For the purpose of prioritizing security over accessibility, setting the secure keyboard is incompatible with the screen reading function.” Yang Xiao said, but security and For accessibility reasons, setting up a secure keyboard is incompatible with the screen reading function. “Yang Xiao said, but security and accessibility are not necessarily in conflict. For example, it can be set to “users can only read the screen broadcast by inserting headphones”, or all characters can be broadcast as “asterisks” instead, which can be solved. This question.
“Complaints and suggestions always come to nothing.” Shang Lei said that he once left a message on the “Leader Message Board” of People's Daily Online, reflecting that a certain application has launched a caring version to facilitate people with disabilities, but the loving version lacks some functions. Shang Lei said that he called customer service for a long time, “but to no avail.”
Of course, continuous feedback will also have a positive effect – the Changsha Municipal Transportation Department invited Shang Lei to participate in the accessibility test of Changsha's bus guidance system, and his suggestions were later adopted. “We can use a mobile phone to connect to the guidance system, and the mobile phone will give voice prompts as to which bus is entering the station. If multiple buses are arriving at the station at the same time, I can use the 'shake' function on the mobile phone to have the nearest bus report its route number. The driver on the bus also knew that a blind person was coming to ride. As of the end of September 2023, 40% of the buses in Changsha have been equipped with new guidance systems, basically covering areas where the visually impaired work more and travel frequently.
There is also a ride-hailing app that since 2019 has successively invited user representatives from different groups such as the visually impaired, hearing impaired, and physically disabled to work with relevant corporate teams to hold regular “barrier-free seminars” and held them for the first time in 9 cities across the country. A batch of 25 visually impaired testers were recruited to continuously conduct barrier-free testing of application functions and travel services.
In September 2020, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the China Disabled Persons' Federation jointly issued the “Guiding Opinions on Promoting Information Accessibility”, pointing out that information accessibility refers to the use of information technology to compensate for the problems that exist in body functions and the environment. differences, so that everyone can access, interact, and use information equally, conveniently, and safely. It is proposed to focus on key beneficiary groups, focus on eliminating barriers to information consumption, terminal equipment, services, and applications, enhance product service supply, and complement the Shortcomings in information inclusion.
“In recent years, great progress has been made in the construction of information accessibility, and the public is becoming more and more aware of information accessibility.” Yang Wei said, “But we often hear some companies or institutions report that they don’t know what to do. It is necessary to further strengthen the popularization of information accessibility education in the whole society.
Barrier-free implementation of information still depends on corporate innovation and promotion
“Enterprises play an indispensable role in the construction of information accessibility.” Yang Zhu said that in the end, for information accessibility technology to be implemented and supported and used by the majority of visually impaired groups, it still depends on enterprises to carry out technological innovation and market promotion.
In September 2023, the Barrier-free Environment Construction Law was officially implemented. For the first time, a separate chapter set forth requirements and regulations for the accessibility of information exchange, which attracted widespread social attention. However, information accessibility construction covers a wide range of people, involves many links, and spans a wide range of fields, requiring enterprises to invest more manpower and funds.
The Accessible Environment Construction Law clearly states that “promoting the application of new scientific and technological achievements in the construction of barrier-free environments through financial support, government procurement, tax incentives, etc.” However, currently in the field of information accessibility, corresponding financial support, tax incentives, etc. There are still few policies. Some experts suggest that relevant departments or localities can formulate some policies or measures that can be implemented concretely, and propose clearer stage goals and implementation methods.
“For example, include the accessibility of Internet applications in the government budget or set up special funds to support the accessibility transformation of Internet applications that are closely related to the lives of people with disabilities; select outstanding cases of Internet application accessibility, and companies with outstanding contributions will be Policies such as evaluation, credit management, and social responsibility evaluation support the research and development of digital technology products for people with disabilities through a funding mechanism led by financial assistance, mainly social financing, and involving multiple parties, and also support universities, research institutions, etc. to strengthen Cultivation of talents with information accessibility.
With the guidance of the law, information accessibility work will have a direction to promote. In response to the problem of bank information barriers that have been reported by the visually impaired, at the end of 2023, the Beijing Supervision Bureau of the State Administration of Financial Supervision (hereinafter referred to as the “Beijing Supervision Bureau”) guided the Beijing Banking Association to issue the “Visually Impaired Consumers in the Banking Industry in Beijing” Service Standards” (hereinafter referred to as the “Service Standards”), clearly includes 10 items including voice prompts for the new face recognition link and blind reading screen software playback functions. Among them, in response to security issues that banks are more concerned about, the “Service Standards” have launched a “white list” system. If a visually impaired customer applies to be included in the “white list”, when the amount of mobile banking transactions does not exceed 50,000 yuan, graphic verification is not required. code for verification.
According to the person in charge of the Beijing Supervision Bureau, as of the end of March this year, 9 banking institutions out of 31 Chinese banks in Beijing had met all online banking service standards. Each banking institution has its own strengths in product development, information construction and customer service. They will share experience and work together to improve industrial service capabilities.
Industrial connections and the leading role of leading enterprises cannot be ignored. Some readers suggested that the free opening of information accessibility technology patents or technology sharing can be encouraged to reduce the technology costs of small and medium-sized enterprises. “By holding information accessibility trial demonstrations, innovation competitions and other activities, business entities can be encouraged to explore application scenarios and business models for digital technology to serve people with disabilities, so as to stimulate the endogenous power of industrial development.” Wang Li said that vigorous efforts should also be made Promote universal design concepts and guide enterprises to incorporate universal design concepts throughout the entire process of software development, functional design, and iterative upgrades.
“For people with disabilities, mobile phones and tablets are also important assistive devices in daily life. However, very few information equipment are included in the list of assistive devices.” The relevant person in charge of Honor Terminal Co., Ltd. proposed that when the government formulates the list of assistive devices, The auxiliary role of information products can also be considered. Allowing disabled users to enjoy relevant subsidies can also guide companies to focus on developing information products with accessibility functions. “We also hope that relevant agencies can regularly release some information on the needs of visually impaired users, especially information related to consumer terminal companies.”
Layout design: Wang Zheping
“People's Daily” (Page 7, April 29, 2024)
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