Excerpt from "Everyone Interfaces" *
Originally posted 4/12/99
minor revisions 8/30/99
Figure 1 shows sketches of two phones. One is a standard size cell phone and another is a miniature phone. In both cases the phones are designed to be cross-disability accessible and can be used by individuals with low vision, blindness, hearing impairments, deafness, physical and cognitive disabilities. The same features also make the phones useable by individuals who do not have disabilities while they are driving, while they are sitting in a meeting, when they have their gloves on and when they are distracted, as well as in other times or circumstances where they are operating with constraints on their physical or sensory abilities. Some key features and capabilities of the phone are reviewed here.
For individuals who are blind, the phone has a number of tactile and auditory features that provide full access and use of the phone. A plastic ridge is provided just above and below the standard 3x4 button-dialing block, which is found on all touch-tone telephones. The presence of these two ridges along with a tactically distinctive 5 key makes it very easy for individuals who are blind to locate any of the standard dialing keys as well as to separate them from the function keys. All of the keys on the keyboard are adjacent to a tactile landmark and most are adjacent to two or three (including the two ridges, the sides and the 5 key). On the larger phone the menu scrolling keys are also tactily distinct and provide tactile shape cues as to their function. These features not only allow better use by individuals who are blind, but also to facilitate use by all users who are dialing the phone while driving or when their eyes are otherwise occupied.
To provide non-visual access to the display and other keys, the phone incorporates the EZ Access Quick-Help feature (as well as other EZ Access features). Pressing and releasing the green-diamond shaped key located on the top of the large phone (and the side or top of the small phone) causes the contents of the display and any other visual status indicators to be read to the individual. Holding the EZ button down while pressing any of the other keys causes them to be named (but not activated). Pressing them again causes help text or description for the keys to be read out. This provides access by individuals who are blind, people who cannot read, and people with cognitive disabilities as well as providing help functions for each of the keys. This method also allows users who are blind to maneuver and access all of the items in the menus and has the advantage that menu items which are currently abbreviated (especially on the smaller phones display) and sometimes hard to decipher (for all users) would be spoken in full.
For individuals with low vision, the contents of the keys are also presented on the LCD screen in large print. Thus, even the small print on the buttons and keys can be easily seen by those with low vision (or those who don't happen to have their reading glasses).
For individuals who are hard of hearing, the phone has a wide volume range. In addition to allowing the phone to be used by individuals who have hearing disabilities, this extended volume output allows the phone to be used in a speakerphone fashion by all users. The phone is T-coil compatible for those who have T-coils in their hearing aids and a stereo phone jack is provided to allow direct audio or electromagnetic coupling to hearing aids, cochlear implants, headsets and other audio enhancement devices.
For individuals who are deaf, the phone provides a voice over TTY capability. Information received in baudot is displayed on the screen. Messages can also be typed using the keyboard on the phone; a disambiguation routine is available for those instances where a key-sequence could generate more than one word. (For example, 228 could be either "cat" or "bat"). Thus, the phone can be used by individuals who are deaf to receive calls as well as by anyone to make a call to someone who is deaf and using a TTY. The phone also allows for voice carryover so that a person who is deaf but can speak, could speak into the phone and have the return message spelled out on the screen. The message coming back to them could be from an individual using a TTY, from someone who is speaking through a TTY relay service, or in, in the future, through an automated voice to TTY or digital text service within the phone network. For longer or faster typing, a keyboard can be connected to the general purpose connector on the bottom of the phone. The phone also supports digital text messaging in non-TTY formats.
The same audio jack which is used to connect headsets can also be used to direct connect this phone to a full-sized TTY. This would allow individuals to use their cellular phone in connection with a full-sized keyboard for additional speed and convenience. The phone has a built-in vibrator for silent ringing and also displays the line status on the LCD display.
These messaging and silent operation features are useful to individuals who are hard of hearing or deaf. They also allow full use of the phone in a meeting or other situation when the individual can see and manipulate their phone but would not be able to hold it up to their ear or carry on a conversation. Thus, someone with a standard voice telephone would be able to call and carry on a conversation with an individual in a meeting who was using this phone in a completely non-audio fashion.
For individuals who have physical disabilities, the phone has a Touch-and-Confirm and a Delayed-Confirm mode of operation. Both of these modes allow an individual to operate the phone even if they frequently bump or activate other unwanted keys on the way to each target key. With the Touch-and-Confirm mode the individual tries to hit the desired key. If they hit any wrong keys, the keys are ignored. When they finally hit the desired key they confirm it by pressing the green-diamond button.
With the delay activation mode, individuals attempt to hit the desired key. When the desired key is pressed they simply hold their finger on the key and it is dialed. Any other keys bumped along in the process are ignored.
In both modes the current or last activated key is shown in large print on the display and optionally spoken. These functions are useful with physical disabilities and also for individuals wearing gloves, people in situations where they are being jostled or in any other situation where it is difficult to accurately hit individual keys on the phone. The phone also has an optional mounting bracket that allows for custom mounting to car dashboards, wheelchairs, desks or other locations.
For individuals with cognitive disabilities, the phone has a number of features some of which have been described above. The voice output feature, the help feature and the ability to have all the menus read aloud were all discussed previously. In addition, the phone has the ability to be programmed to operate in a number of "restricted keypad" modes. In one mode pressing any key on the large phone (or opening the small phone) will cause it to automatically dial a given number. This number could be a person's home or it can be a service which is designed specifically to provide assistance to individuals with cognitive disabilities or reduced cognitive abilities due to aging. Simply pressing any button on the phone (or opening the small phone) would put them in instant contact with someone who would (via caller-ID) be able to identify them and have a file called up on their computer with full information about the individual so that they could be of assistance or help them call someone else.
Other modes of operation which can be invoked include one which simply provides a series of names which the individual can step through. The names are displayed on the screen and read aloud when the desired name is reached (heard). The individual simply presses the large-green button and that number is dialed for them. These features are useful to individuals' cognitive disabilities. They also can be locked into a phone so that the phone can be provided by a parent to their child or to others (babysitters, etc.) so that they have the phone but are able to use it only with a restricted series of numbers. A side benefit is that it is so easy to use in this mode, no instruction is needed in its operation. It also has the benefit that it is easy enough to use that even in an emergency, an individual can easily use the phone whereas they may be confused or have difficulty in operating an unfamiliar piece of equipment while under high stress.
The cost for adding the above features is quite low because almost all of the features described can be implemented by writing the software that controls the phone's behavior a little differently. The phones would still operate in a standard mode (similar to what they do today) when you first pick them up, but if a user wanted to, they could also invoke some of the special features to make it easier to use in noisy environments, while they were driving (eyes and hands free), or if they had a disability. In many cases, the software for the new phones could be a slight modification of the software used in existing phones.
* Excerpt reprinted with permission of the author from "User Interfaces for All," (in press), Constantine Stephanidis, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc., Mahwah, NJ.
This information is a project of the Trace Research and Development Center, which is funded in part by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research of the Department of Education under grant numbers H133E50002 and H133E980008. The opinions contained in this material are those of the grantee and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Education.