John Williams' Column: Working with PopChart Xpress

John M. Williams
Date: October 17, 2001


 I often work with charts. They are time consuming to create, and
frustrating when transferring from one document to another or from a
document to the web. Since it is difficult for me to create charts,
think how difficult it must be for a legally blind professional.

For years I heard employers say, “Blind people can’t use computers. They
can’t work with charts, they can’t compete with others.” Maybe that was
true once, but not now. In fact, assistive technology via software is
blurring the mainstream communications barriers so finely between blind
workers and sighted workers that it’s impossible to separate assistive
technology from mainstream technology.

A great example of such technology is PopChart Xpress.

For years I have been looking for a program that makes it easier to
produce charts for my blind friends and myself. PopChart Xpress is one
solution. Developed by Corda Technologies in Lindon, Utah, it is an
easy-to-use program that automatically installs JAVA VM 1.3.1 on a
Windows platform in two minutes, and gives users the ability to produce
web-ready interactive, high-quality charts and graphs quickly.

For people familiar with Section 508 of the 1998 Rehabilitation Act,
PopChart programs provide charting and graphing solutions that meet
federal 508 accessibility requirements. Under Section 508, as of June
26, 2001, vendors selling hardware and software to the federal
government must provide accessibility features in their products, unless
providing accessibility creates an undue financial burden to the vendor.

PopChart Xpress is compatible with the JAWS (Job Access With Speech)
screenreader. By combining the magnification feature on computers and
JAWS while using PopChart Xpress, legally blind workers can both see and
hear the information on charts. This combination doubles their
opportunity to produce materials efficiently and independently of
others.

How does it work? Once I inserted the CD and followed the loading
instructions, very quickly I was looking at web-ready, interactive,
accessible charts and graphs. Using the PopChart Wizard, I familiarized
myself with different graph options, including stocks, vertical bar,
horizontal bar, pie, line, line bar combo and an x-y plot.

The program is so well designed with templates for easy usage that a
novice in using charts and graphs will have little difficulty mastering
the program. The template is a pre-built PopChart with a graph, legend
and title box that allows you to choose a number of graph styles. The
program helps you build your own graphs from ground zero. The tool bar
provides access to key functions, and, after an hour of working with the
templates and the PopChart Wizard, I created my own graphs with relative
ease.

Since PopChart Xpress lets you use charts from other spreadsheet
programs, I copied data from an Excel spreadsheet and pasted it in.
Since data can be manually entered, this feature gave me an opportunity
to be creative and alter the graphs and charts. As a result, I easily
changed the title of the chart in front of me, added text and altered
the appearance of the chart to make it look like an original. In
addition, I created charts with the same information but with different
appearances, such as a pie graph and a horizontal bar. If I wanted, I
could easily add pop-up text and drilldown functionality. (Drilldown
allows you to click on a part of the graph to see additional
information.) When I finished with my charts, I saved the files, just as
I would any other file, and later e-mailed them to an accountant.

Inserting the charts into a web page is easy with PopChart Xpress. I
simply opened my web publishing tool and pasted the contents of the HTML
file where I wanted the chart displayed. I used Microsoft’s FrontPage
when transferring the graphs, because it does not require any knowledge
of HTML drag and drop operations.

I also used PopChart Xpress-created charts in a PowerPoint presentation.
It was easier to cut and paste the charts into the PowerPoint
presentation than it was to use the chart found in PowerPoint. In the
past, I have not had such good fortune with other PowerPoint
presentations. The ease with which a user can use these charts in
PowerPoint presentations strengthens the program’s user value.

I encountered only one difficulty worth mentioning. When loading the
program, I found that you must type the Xpress keyword in capital
letters, or you are denied access. This process should be explained in
the instructions or the program should be altered so lower case letters
can be used.

Anyone familiar with inserting tables and graphs into documents using
Microsoft Word or any other word processing program will find PopChart
Xpress a joy to use. I can see the program being used by students,
teachers, scientists, businesses, law enforcement, social scientists,
politicians, economists ­ just about every profession using charts.

At $295, PopChart Xpress is a cost-saving program, and a bargain for
organizations and individuals working with graphs and charts. With the
recent price reduction (down from $795), it is inexpensive enough to be
sold in Staples or other retail stores where it belongs. This is good
news for the consumer, because the program saves time and labor, and
increases productivity and efficiency. I believe PopChart Xpress can
enhance educational and job opportunities for millions of people who are
legally blind.

PopChart Xpress requirements include Windows 95, 98, 2000, ME or Windows
MT 4.0 or later. You need 50 MB of available space, 64 MB of RAM and an
Intel Pentium or faster processor and a CD Rom drive. You can also use
it with a Macintosh. The requirements for a Macintosh are Mac® with OS 9
or OS X (recommended), OS 9, 23 MB available disk space, 64 MB RAM.
Supported browsers: Netscape® 4.0.6 or higher, Internet Explorer® 4.5 or
higher and any G3 Processor with CD-ROM Drive.

This program is also available as a server application (PopChart [D])
for web sites requiring a high number of charts and/or graphs that
access data in a database.