Description of technology

Dolphin is the producer of EasePublisher authoring software and EaseReader content player. The Publisher is for creating E-books with images, text, and audio. The Reader is a synchronized text player for multi-sensory access to E-text and E-books in a variety of formats, including the Daisy consortium standard (digital talking books) with unique content management and search features. These tools are intended for those with learning needs and related disabilities as well as a full range of mainstream commercial markets.

Got involved in access technology issues through

John has been involved with access technology for some time as part of the Dolphin team. He is the developer for the Reader and Publisher, which were natural extensions from Dolphin’s work in the access arena for individuals with visual impairments. With a compelling British accent, John says, “I basically took the good bits out (of existing Daisy Consortium tools) that I thought would be needed and redesigned a tool that allowed the creation of content in a much easier way… it made sense to synchronize text and audio together… it would work for everybody.”

Intrigued by

John is interested in the relationship between accessibility in the form of building architecture and access and that of information technology access. He has seen important gains for individuals with special needs arising from the Disability Discrimination Act in the U.K. Although he says “the snowball’s on the move,” he still believes legislation should be “toughened up slightly” as a process for ensuring still greater access.

Finding out about needs

Dolphin utilized an existing beta test group together with a newly created one in the early stages: “We needed a group that understood and had grown up with it who were slightly blinkered, and we also needed a group who were completely fresh as opposed to being preconditioned.” The company examined users of existing tools in the Daisy Consortium in the U.K., “So basically we had to understand what it was we already had, what was out there, and what people were doing with it.” Through diligent inquiries, John discovered people were using those limited tools to create “audio-only” content, despite a need for integrated text and audio, because it was too difficult to synchronize text and audio content. That set John to task.

Seeing the world in new ways

John wanted to create software that would meet the needs of a wide variety of end users. He cites limitations in the interface design of other earlier products: “That was one of the problems in the earlier tools, people were thinking about the use for a particular market [i.e. visual impairments]…therefore it doesn’t really matter whether the software looks good or whether aesthetically we get this right… They are never going to see it.” John counters that, “Believe it or not, software has to look good.” Making it look good is just the beginning – with the Reader’s interface designed to look like a recognizable media player - “Joe Public could use the tool and the accessibility features without even realizing that they were using features from the visually impaired market. All parties think it’s for them.”

On design principles

As a designer, John is adamant that transparency be a central principle of his work, “The Reader is designed so that when the content is on the screen and you are playing the content you should be concentrating on the content. It is a transparent tool because you are not interested in it, you are interested in what it’s doing for you.”

On users

John’s ‘design-for-market’ approach is linked closely to his views on end users, “First of all, we don’t think of them any differently than anybody else. We had to design a product that would work in the mainstream, with all of the constraints that go with it, and was completely accessible.”

On training and use

Thoughtful features are included in help functionality in the software. For the Reader,”The help file is a Daisy file in the player so it actually plays back to the user and they can navigate around and add bookmarks and searchability.” In the Publisher, sample projects are provided to permit learners to test functionality and manipulate content without the demands of developing new material “from scratch.”

Views on the market

John is insistent on a market-oriented view on accessibility: “Now we talk about accessible content, we also had to think about price point…. There is no good in creating software that is accessible, that is designed for all and yet no one can afford to buy it. We had to make sure it was accessible from that point of view.”

Success indicators – making a difference

“The research that has been done so far with the content that’s been produced within the schools has shown an increase in student’s learning efficiency.” Moreover, as the Reader is usable by a wide range of individuals, John stresses that, “There’s been an increase in interactivity between the students. For example, a visually impaired student can now turn to their friend and say, ‘where are we,’ because they are all using the same content with the same player. They can help each other.” John says this results in a decrease in reliance on support aides.

Wants to know more about

John has special interest in users and the operant conditions in which they find themselves. He wants to know what users are doing, “what they want to do and what they can do.” He indicates, “In order to design anything properly, you’ve got to understand who it’s for. And you’ve got to understand where it’s going to be used, when, and how.”

On new horizons

Views on emerging horizons center on awareness in the engineering community: “Designers tend to think about the voltage issues within a main supply so that it runs on 110 or 240, but don’t tend to think about whether someone can see the end result or not. As more people become aware, then I think there will be less need for companies like us because it will be built into the project from the start.”

Provocative views & quotes

For an engineer, John possesses a profound ability to allow technology to facilitate “what the user wants to do” rather than attract attention to itself. His unique capacity for insight into the relations between technology and content, and their relative importance, was evidenced in the use of the word “content” 38 times in the space of a brief interview. And while “seamlessness” is a concept that you often hear when talking to technology designers, John takes connections to a special level of intimacy with the Reader: “It becomes part of the content without the user realizing.”