Business Week Online Wednesday, November 12, 2003

A Failing for Apple in the Classroom; Visually impaired students now lack a
Mac screen reader. That could hurt school sales -- and put Jobs & Co. on
the wrong side of the ADA

By Alex Salkever

On June 10, small software developer ALVA Access Group announced that it
would no longer support or build new versions of two products for blind and
visually impaired Apple users. One, inLarge, allows users to zoom in on a
section of the screen, making the letters, numbers, and outlines appear
much larger. It became redundant when Apple included that capability in OS X.

The other program, outSPOKEN, was a screen reader that could speak text and
describe graphics and pictures. Such devices are essential to people with
severe visual impairment who can't use computers otherwise. And outSPOKEN
was the only such screen reader for Macs on the market. So the announcement
elicited a good deal of concern from the blind community.

SWITCH TO WINDOWS? It has also caused concern at Apple (AAPL) headquarters
-- and for good reason. The lack of a screen reader could threaten its push
for one-to-one computing initiatives in big public school systems, where
each pupil gets a laptop (see BW Online, 11/4/03, "A Classroom Comeback for
Apple?").

Apple's largest victory thus far has been a contract with the state of
Maine to give laptops to all seventh- and eighth-grade pupils, a $37
million, four-year deal that Jobs & Co. regularly points to as evidence of
their success in one-to-one computing. Apple execs have touted the
initiative as the future of educational computing in elementary, middle,
and high schools.

Without screen-reader software, however, blind pupils can't use Apple
products and would be forced to turn to Windows products instead (two
viable screen readers for Windows are on the market today). The reason:
School systems buying Apple products today are knowingly purchasing systems
that can't be used by all their pupils, which runs counter to the Americans
with Disabilities Act.

"VERY ANNOYED." Equal-access advocates are up in arms. "I think it's
horrible," says Curtis Chong, president of the National Federation for the
Blind in Computer Science. Giving blind students Apples will "further
isolate blind kids who are already isolated from the basic school
population. I'm very annoyed at Apple," says Chong.

Good screen readers go way beyond the spoken-text capabilities that have
long been a Mac feature. Today, they not only convert text and images to
speech output but can also handle the different command structures and
quirks of hundreds of commonly used programs, from e-mailers to spreadsheets.

School districts would have to buy not only a comparable Windows PC but PC
licenses for all the same software as well. But in some cases, no non-Apple
alternative exists. In Henrico County, Va., where the school district has
leased 28,000 iBooks in the second-biggest one-to-one computing initiative
to date, Apple's iLife suite has become an integral part of class projects.
No comparable suite exists in the Windows world.

LEFT IN THE LURCH. In a worst-case scenario, Apple's dearth of
blind-friendly software could be construed as a violation of federal
accessibility guidelines under the ADA. Chong says some talk of lawsuits
against school districts has already started circulating in the activist
community. None have been filed to date. Maine's Education Dept. says only
three totally blind pupils have been affected by the Apple initiative, and
all have received satisfactory PC substitutes.

Maine may not be a good test case, though. It has a very low percentage of
totally blind students compared to other states. In any case, you can bet
that Dell (DELL), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), and other big competitors have
spotted the issue and will make sure that school tech buyers know that
Apple has a major flaw.

To be fair, the situation isn't entirely Apple's fault. CEO Steve Jobs
himself can't force third-party software companies to continue developing
products they don't want to build. And Apple can't be expected to pick up
the slack for every third-party developer that leaves Mac users in the lurch.

OPEN-SOURCE SOLUTION. Apple claims that it's not ignoring blind users. "A
screen reader is something that's important to us, and we continue to
evaluate our options in that area. Accessiblity is something that has been
important to us through the entire development of OS X," says Chris
Bourden, senior product-line manager for OS X.

Still, this is no ordinary piece of software. And the threat to Apple's
nascent education comeback is real. Apple has acknowledged as much by
recently hiring a software engineer who specializes in screen readers and
mounting a search for new leadership for its accessibility-features group.

The good news: This is a case where Apple can take lemons and make some
tasty lemonade. What it needs to do is build a screen reader and then
release it into the open-source domain, much like it did with the Safari
Web browser.

MONEY-SAVING MOVE. This strategy would have several advantages. First,
Apple would silence critics and eliminate any school-district fears of
lawsuits and bad publicity. Also, by releasing the product into the
open-source domain, Apple would do a huge service to the visually impaired
community. Screen-reader software for Windows costs $800 and $1,300 for
professional licenses -- more, in many cases, than a standard PC. An
open-source screen reader would allow millions of blind users to save money
by buying Macs instead of PCs.

Programming a screen reader from scratch could cost tens of millions of
dollars and would require at least a handful of highly competent engineers.
It's not a trivial undertaking. If Apple wants a quick leg up, it could
always buy an established player such as GW Micro, a small Terra Haute
(Ind.) outfit that makes an increasingly popular Windows screen reader.

Or it could take on the task itself. Once Apple has built the program, two
engineers could probably maintain it with the help of an active open-source
community. A programming group tailor-made for the endeavor already exists.
As part of the GNOME Linux effort, a team of developers has started
building an accessibility module to bring the Penguin to those with
disabilities.

BOOMERS' BLURRY SIGHT. What would such an effort cost Apple? Certainly less
than $30 million. Considering that it still gets close to 40% of its
revenues in education sales and that Jobs & Co. has $4.5 billion in the
bank, that's pocket change.

Still need convincing? Chong estimates that about 5 million Americans right
now are legally blind or suffer serious visual impairment. That number will
soar in the near future as aging baby boomers lose their sight. So, Apple
might need a screen reader to even be considered a viable computer by many
millions of Americans.

Meanwhile, Microsoft (MSFT) is working feverishly on its next-generation
Longhorn operating system. Redmond has sworn that the new version will
provide backward compatibility to Windows screen readers. That'll be a
pretty tough trick to pull off since it involves multiple levels of
interaction between Windows, Longhorn, and third-party applications such as
the screen-reader.

WELL AND GOOD. If Apple gets a reader up and running ASAP and screen
readers on Windows platforms get gored by Longhorn, then Jobs would have an
significant advantage in selling to schools for the same reason he now has
a disadvantage.

In the final assessment, open-sourcing a screen reader for OS X could make
Apple a stronger player in the education field. Equally important, it could
do well by doing good. The move would help sight-impaired kids learn more
effectively. It might help older blind users -- members of a community that
generally lags behind the rest of America in income -- gain better access
to affordable technology. And it would ensure that Apple keeps selling to
baby boomers with dimming vision. What's not to like?


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