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Date: Tue, 07 Oct 1997 06:55:34 -0400 (EDT)
From: Ann K Parsons <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Microsoft statement on Internet 4.0 accessibility (fwd)
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Ann K. Parsons
[log in to unmask]

Professional Tutor, high school and adults
English/Social Studies

Bard and lover of words
Head Gardener, GrassRoots MOO

"All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost."
J.R.R. Tolkien


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 6 Oct 1997 17:34:30 -0800
From: Jamal Mazrui <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: "Equal Access to Software & Information:---- web:
     http://www.rit.edu/~easi" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Microsoft statement on Internet 4.0 accessibility

On the web page http://www.microsoft.com/enable/products/ie4.htm
Microsoft has released the following statement about the new
4.0 version of its web browser.

----------

        Accessibility of Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0


Microsoft Internet Explorer is a powerful web browser that
supports many features that aid people with disabilities. It is
available at no charge and is ready for download.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 introduces a number of advances
that make the World Wide Web more accessible to computer users
with disabilities. In particular, several features allow you to
customize the appearance of Web pages to meet your own needs and
preferences. For details on Internet Explorer 4.0, see the
Internet Explorer 4.0 Web Site. For information on previous
versions of Internet Explorer, see accessibility of Internet
Explorer 3.0.

Coming soon! An comprehensive reference guide on how people with
disabilities can get the most out of Internet Explorer 4. This
also includes a guide to using Internet Explorer with the
keyboard.

Accessibility Features

Internet Explorer 4.0 includes many new features that benefit
users with disabilities. Among the most important new features
are:

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* The ability to take control of how the colors, font sizes, and
font styles of all Web pages are displayed

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* The ability to install your own style sheet, which gives you
great control over how documents are formatted on the screen.
For example, you can make headings larger, or highlight
italicized text with a different color.

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* Optional sounds to let you know when pages begin and finish
loading

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* The ability to turn off or temporarily stop animations

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* Additional feedback when browsing with the mouse

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* The ability for Web page authors to include additional
information, such as titles for links within image maps

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* AutoComplete finishes typing long and complicated URL's,
reducing the amount of memory and typing required

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* The ability to disable smooth scrolling and other effects
which can confuse screen reading utilities

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* Dynamic HTML Object Model makes possible exciting new classes
of add-on utilities for Internet Explorer. Some, such as the
Internet Explorer PowerToys, provide important features for
users with disabilities.

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* The Windows Desktop Upgrade, an optional feature of Internet
Explorer 4, allows you to further customize your desktop and
Start menu. You can choose from a range of desktop toolbars, or
even create your own. You can also choose to single-click
instead of double-clicking for the most common operations.

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* Microsoft NetMeeting represents a powerful tool for
individuals who are deaf or hard-of-hearing to communicate and
collaborate more effectively in real-time through the use of
Internet conferencing capabilities on the Internet, corporate
intranet, or school network.

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* and many others

In addition, features carried over from version 3.0 include:

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* The ability to navigate through documents, panes, and links
using the keyboard

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* Display of alternate text when images are turned off

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* The ability to turn off pictures, videos, and sounds

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* Support for the High Contrast option in Windows

Limitations

Before upgrading to Internet Explorer version 4.0, you should
understand the specific places where its behavior differs from
version 3.0. In some cases you may want to disable specific
features in Internet Explorer in order to render it more
accessible, or even continue using version 3.0 until further
advances are made.

Users With Low Vision may want to remain with version 3.0 for
the time being.

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* Some existing screen magnification utilities may not track the
keyboard focus correctly, and so may not display items as they
are selected with the keyboard.

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* Internet Explorer 4 does not support the largest fonts that
were available in version 3.0 when the High Contrast option was
turned on in Control Panel. The same result can be achieved
using custom style sheets, and we intend to provide a selection
of such style sheets in the near future. We do not recommend
users experiment with this feature on their own.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
* Users may have greater difficulty reading the descriptions of
images when the images are not displayed. Internet Explorer 3
allowed the user to choose to display the entire description,
whereas version 4 may cut off portions of those descriptions.
  * However, the strong customization features in Internet
    Explorer 4.0 will be of great benefit to people with
    moderately low vision, and those who use compatible screen
    magnification utilities.

Users Who Are Blind may want to remain with version 3.0 for the
time being.
  * Internet Explorer version 4.0 does not yet fully support
    Microsoft Active Accessibility, the standard for ensuring
    compatibility with accessibility aids such as blind-access
    utilities. Some accessibility aids may not function as well
    with Internet Explorer 4.0 until Active Accessibility
    support is available in the next upgrade, which is expected
    later this year.
  * Internet Explorer users non-standard menus. Some
    blind-access utilities may incorrectly identify these as
    buttons rather than menus. If you choose the Windows Desktop
    Upgrade option when installing Internet Explorer 4.0, these
    menus will also be used in the Windows Explorer and when
    viewing folders. If these cause a problem with your
    blind-access utility, you may want to install Internet
    Explorer without the Windows Desktop Upgrade option.
  * Internet Explorer 4.0 displays lists of check boxes that may
    not be described correctly to blind users. When the Windows
    Desktop Upgrade is installed, these lists will also appear
    in various sections of Control Panel. If these cause a
    problem with your blind-access utility, you may want to
    install Internet Explorer without the Windows Desktop
    Upgrade option.
  * Some existing blind-access utilities do not track the
    keyboard focus correctly, and so may not read items as they
    are selected with the keyboard.
  * Users who rely on the keyboard may have difficulty learning
    to use some features of the Active Desktop, an option
    provided by Internet Explorer 4.0. Most of this
    functionality is available through the keyboard, and
    additional documentation on these techniques will be
    available at this Web site in the near future.

Users Who Rely On The Keyboard may want to remain with version
3.0 or turn off some options.
  * Users who rely on the keyboard may have difficulty learning
    to use some features of the Active Desktop, an option
    provided by Internet Explorer 4.0. Most of this
    functionality is available through the keyboard, and
    additional documentation on these techniques will be
    available at this Web site in the near future. You may want
    to turn off Active Desktop through the Settings on the Start
    Menu.
  * Users who rely on the keyboard may have difficulty learning
    to use some features of the Help system used by Internet
    Explorer 4.0. Most of this functionality is available
    through the keyboard, and additional documentation on these
    techniques will be available at this Web site in the near
    future. Some features, such as the ability to use links
    within help topics, will not be fixed until a future
    release.
  * When navigating to a page, Internet Explorer 4 always resets
    the keyboard focus to the beginning of that page. Internet
    Explorer 3 would allow the user to continue navigating from
    the point the destination of their last link, or from the
    last place they had visited on that page.
  * Internet Explorer 4.0 allows you to navigate through links
    using the TAB key, just as you did in version 3.0. However,
    version 4.0 will allow navigating to objects that are not
    currently visible on the screen. This may result in the
    keyboard focus appearing to "disappear" at times. Simply
    pressing the TAB key additional times will usually bring it
    back into view.

Users Who Rely On Speech Input may want to remain with version
3.0 for the time being.
  * Internet Explorer version 4.0 does not yet fully support
    Microsoft Active Accessibility, the standard for ensuring
    compatibility with accessibility aids such as speech
    recognition utilities. Some accessibility aids may not
    function as well with Internet Explorer 4.0 until Active
    Accessibility support is available.

Users With Cognitive Disabilities. may want to turn off some
options or remain with Internet Explorer 3.
  * Users may have greater difficulty reading the descriptions
    of images when the images are not displayed. Internet
    Explorer 3 allowed the user to choose to display the entire
    description, whereas version 4 may cut off portions of those
    descriptions.

Additional Cautions

  * Use caution when experimenting with the "Format documents
    using my style sheet" option. Errors in style sheets can
    cause serious problems with Internet Explorer. Use only
    style sheets that have been created by professional
    designers. When trying out new style sheets, keep those
    style sheet files on a floppy disk that can be removed in
    case a problem occurs.

Active Accessibility Support

Internet Explorer 3.0 included support for Microsoft Active
Accessibility (MSAA) to the document area. This allowed
accessibility aids to gain more information about the HTML page
without interpreting the screen. For example, even when a
graphic was displayed, an accessibility aid that supported MSAA
could provide information about the graphic that wasn't visible
to the user. Also, tables and frames could be navigated and read
to the user in the proper order.

With Internet Explorer 4.0, the HTML rendering engine was
completely rewritten and greatly expanded support for MSAA was
planned. A major advance of version 4.0 is the new Dynamic HTML
Object Model. This object model provides applications with
access the structure of the HTML page.

Active Accessibility support was implemented as a standalone
component (MSAAHTML.DLL) that would use this object model to
gain more information about the HTML page. This component also
took advantages of new features being built into version
Microsoft Active Accessibility version 1.1.

Unfortunately, during the course of the project, the developers
discovered that the HTML Object Model did not have complete
access to information that is important to accessibility aids.
The Internet Explorer team accommodated as many new features as
possible, but not everything that was needed could be made
available by the time Internet Explorer 4.0 was finished.

Microsoft plans to release a beta version of MSAAHTML in the
near future. This component will support Active Accessibility
for the HTML document area in Internet Explorer 4.0 and for
other applications that use the same HTML rendering engine. We
are working to make sure this release is comparable to the MSAA
support that was present in Internet Explorer 3.0. The final
version will be released in conjunction with an update to
Internet Explorer 4.0 and we expect that to occur before the end
of the year, although that is subject to change.

For the Windows 95 version of Internet Explorer 4.0, the Active
Accessibility Redistribution Kit (MSAARDK.EXE) will distribute
the MSAAHTML.DLL component. This component, along with all the
rest of the MSAA core components will be integrated into Windows
98 and Windows NT 5.0. This will be a new version of the RDK,
called version 1.1.

For More Information

For more information on the features in Microsoft Internet 4.0,
or to download a free copy, browse to the IE home page at
http://microsoft.com/ie/. For users without access to the
Internet, the Microsoft Internet Starter Kit is available in
most computer stores for a small charge.

You can also connect to Microsoft's newsgroup server
msnews.microsoft.com and discuss Microsoft's Internet Explorer
accessibility features in the group:
microsoft.public.accessibility.ieaccess.

(c) 1997 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Legal
Notices.
Last Updated: October 3, 1997