TODAY'S WINDOWS, MIRRORING DARK SHADOWS FROM THE PAST.

                          By Charles H. Crawford.

Some may recall the story of John Henry. The fabled "steel drivin' man"
who finally became irrelevant as the technology of processing changed to
automation. In fact, history is replete with the displacement of people as
market forces, automation and other innovations have simply erased the
need for their participation. While books, folk songs, legends and other
popularized ways of fondly remembering these people as somehow heroes in
an age of indifference to the human consequence, the fact remains that
they were ultimately cast to the shadows as the social order bathed in the
sunshine of" progress". Will this same fate befall those computer users
who cannot see the screen as graphical user interfacing paints a bright
future for all but those for whom there is no access? In short, the blind
John Henrys of the computer era may soon find themselves more of a
historical conversation piece rather than ongoing dynamic contributors to
the future, if real and substantial attention is not paid to the graphical
user interface problem now.

    Just as John Henry relied upon his hammer, the blind computer user
takes text based interfacing through synthetic speech output systems and
runs the machine like a charm. As did John, many blind end users have seen
the new technology coming and yet somehow have determined that their
methods will not be totally erased and might even be superior in a number
of circumstances. To the extent that information processing can be
accomplished through either a graphics environment or through text, there
is every reason for them to be correct. In fact, old John Henry knew that
he could swing that hammer and do the same thing as the machine, but the
ultimate nonsense of his belief killed him in his futile attempt to keep
up. Clearly, the use of graphical interfacing and the multitude of
programs being developed for it will only outstrip the best text
applications and ultimately make them irrelevant. Like John Henry, those
who pretend that text based interfacing will remain highly competitive,
are deluding themselves and will soon find that it's too late for them
unless real and considered action is taken.

    Would John Henry have become as legendary if he had learned to run the
machine? Perhaps not in the same way, but his family would have eaten, his
home would have remained in his name and the social fabric would have been
strengthened rather then strained between the demands for greater
productivity and the strife of holding on to skills that came hard but
needed to be modified or eliminated.

    Before entering the arena of what can be done, let's afford John Henry
with one major victory! His humanity and common thread with so many others
in the evolving society tempered the raging bull of capitalism. The
"bottom line" suddenly had to include some real consideration of the
people who worked to produce it. This very real philosophy of applied
justice may well have relatively slowed progress in the economic sense,
but has produced a society in which the human equation has not been
destroyed. Thank you John Henry and the perhaps millions, who have raised
the hammers of human rage to crush the arrogance of those who counted
people in the same category with disposable inventory.

    The solution to inclusion of the blind computer user in the graphical
interfacing equation is simple, but not a proportionate positive
investment to the enhanced bottom line. If a company develops a graphical
interface in competition with other companies, then both the time taken in






development and marketing can either spell good news or doom for the
product. These cold realities are powerful arguments against placing so
called "hooks" in the software for speech synthesis programs to latch on
to. The common company response then often becomes, "it's a good thing to
do and we'll work on it after...". In short, there is little if any
economic incentive for companies to even think about speech access when
the entire field is moving faster than most people can comprehend. To add
to the situation, the reality of graphics as a fascinating visual medium
has a hypnotizing effect upon developers who can become so caught up in
the graphics as to completely forget what little they might have heard
about speech output design.

    As did the descendents of John Henry, the blind and otherwise disabled
computer using communities have sought legal protection from the excesses
of capitalistic thinking. From the early civil rights protections afforded
disabled people within the parameters of entities receiving federal funds
to the recently enacted "Americans with Disabilities Act", the legal
rights of disabled  people have been established, but with insufficient
enforcement. this will change as even now the first waves of displacement
of blind computer users is being seen on the horizon.

    Soon the more or less passive view of blind workers will change to
anger as more and more software becomes inaccessible and less and less
work is available. Soon the courts will see actions brought for violations
of civil rights and wrongful terminations unless immediate attention is
given the problem by the computer industry as a whole. In short, Soon the
new John Henrys will not compete with the software, but demand it be made
usable by them.

    the bitterness, litigation costs and many other negatives of the above
can be avoided. the computer industry could set standards for icons and
other graphics which would allow speech systems to access the screen
information. They did it with the American Standard Code for Information
Interchange and yet they react with bewilderment when confronted with the
problem of accessibility to graphical user interfacing. With all due
respect, how can it be that an industry with the intelligence to create
impressive new technologies can show such singular ignorance to
alternative output systems? The answer has more to do with money than
technology and therefore the response without prompt action from the
industry will have to be the potential loss of money as an incentive to
change.

    The computer industry will need to develop and implement universal
standards for graphical interfacing or have them imposed by court order or
federal law. Every producer of hardware and software will have to make
their products accessible through the use of the standards or face the
inability to sell them. This is the solution that in the short run may
slow development, but in the long run and as an industry wide expense,
will only enhance the bottom line. Either the Industry does it now or be
forced to do it later.

    In conclusion, accessible graphical user interfacing is a technical
challenge well within the means of the industry to resolve, but no
resolution will occur until there is a sufficient outcry from the blind
John Henrys facing a world they can participate in, but have been denied
the tools to do it. Every blind end user, every disabled person with a











commitment to progress, every computer industry employee with a sense of
responsibility and every citizen with a desire for a just society must
take the action to write the President of the United States and demand
action. The time is growing shorter each day and John Henry is looking
straight into the guts of a machine that has no understanding of who he
is. The federal establishment has made feeble efforts to correct the
injustice, but the reality is as cold as the unemployment lines that may
soon become the home of thousands of blind people. The time is now and the
need for the letters is clear. The greater the pressure upon the federal
establishment, the sooner the problem will be resolved and the lesser the
human and economic toll extracted will be in a technology race that has
somehow forgotten a group of people it has empowered in the past, but has
ignored in it's rush to the future.