John M. Williams

While access to information on desktops and the web Web is a major challenge to people with vision and cognitive disabilities, there are companies working on solving this problem, and although information access may not be totally solved for people with disabilities, progress is being made.

Corda, a data visualization software development company, knows that people with disabilities need access to information if they want to compete educationally and professionally with their able-bodied peers when using computers and accessing the World Wide Web. The firm's philosophy is to provide blind, visually impaired and people with cognitive disabilities easy access to information through descriptive text. According to Corda's CEO and Founder Neal Williams, "We believe in universal access to information technology for everyone because it is sound business, and it is morally right."

The Internet has over delivered on its promise to bring us information. Waves of figures, statistics, stock movements, and other data flow endlessly across screens. Since the amount of data sighted people see is overwhelming for them, consider the frustration blind people and people with cognitive disabilities face as they process voluminous tons of information.

Corda's data visualization solutions deliver dynamic interactive charts and graphs that visually clarify data for web sites. Because the firm supports universal accessibility for everyone, it supports Section 508 of the 1998 Rehabilitation Act and its benefits to people with disabilities.

Section 508 requires that when Federal departments and agencies develop, procure, maintain, or use Electronic and Information Technology (EIT), they must ensure that the EIT allows federal employees with disabilities have access to and use of the same information as able-bodied Federal employees.

Section 508 also requires that individuals with disabilities outside the federal government seeking information or services from a Federal department or agency, have access to and use of information provided to EIT individuals without disabilities.

This law went into effect June 21, 2001.

When referring to blind people and people with visual impairments requiring information access, what kind of numbers are we talking about? The American Council for the Blind estimates 800,000 visually impaired persons are using the Web. Estimates on the number of visually-impaired individuals range from 6.5 million to 10 million. One way these individuals have web access is by using descriptive text.

Corda's descriptive text feature on its produdcts give blind people, visually impaired individuals and people with learning disabilities access to the same information contained either in a chart, table, graph or pie as sighted people.

Where has Corda been successful with its descriptive text?

Using a screen reader the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has gone live with its "Cancer Mortality Maps and Graphs" web site utilizing PopChart.com, a hosted internet chart publishing service. The NCI site allows a visitor to find and view the cancer mortality rate at the national, state or county level for any of the 40 cancers tracked and sort by age, gender, time period, and ethnic background. With all of the capability of the site, there are over five million different chart and graph combinations that can be requested and viewed from the database. CORDA provided custom development for the site. The large amount of information is available for searching using the drilldown feature so that specific data can be accessed with a mouse click. D-link descriptive text is attached to each graph so that either blind or visually impaired individuals can understand the contents of the graph with the use of a screen reader. The drill down feature is also active with the D-link descriptive text.

"As a somewhat visually-challenged federal employee, I have a special appreciation for D-link's functionality. PopChart gives visually-impaired individuals the ability to see graphs with the use of descriptive text. I am pleased that PopChart enabled the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Mortality Maps & Graphs web page to be the first at the National Institutes of Health, to be compliant with the Federal Information Technology Accessibility Initiative (Section 508)," said Dan J. Grauman, Computer Specialist, NIH. Grauman is legally blind in his left eye.

Consumers see merit in Corda's products for the disability community. Terry Holloway saw Corda Demonstrated at a TASH conference in December in Boston. A teacher, Holloway has a learning disability and is legally blind. She says, "Corda's programs belong in the education field. Its descriptive text feature is pricelss priceless to students with vision and learning challenges. The firm's programs can enhance learning and make developing charts and graphs fun."

Other consumers see Corda's programs as saving time, money and increasing productivity. Jonathan Ruby, administrator, New York public schools, says, "The ease which Corda's programs allow users to develop charts makes the product vital to administrators who live off charts."

There are ambivalent consumers who are adopting a let's wait and see attitude on the benefits of Corda's software in the private sector. One is Leslie LeRoy, advocate for increased usage of assistive technology in business. She saw Corda's products demonstrated at TASH's conference and told me, "The test on the value of this software for me comes when I can speak to a totally blind person using the product in an office setting." Corda does not currently have a blind person using the product to create charts and graphs.

One of the company's most noted products is PopChart Xpress, an easy-to-use program that automatically installs JAVA VM 1.3.1 on a Windows platform in minutes and gives users the ability to produce web-ready interactive, high-quality charts and graphs quickly. PopChart Xpress is compatible with the JAWS (Job Access With Speech) screen reader. By combining the magnification feature on computers and JAWS while using PopChart Xpress, legally blind workers and people with learning disabilities can see and hear the information on charts. This combination doubles their opportunity to produce materials efficiently and independently of others.

The NET features join PopChart's list of current attributes like Flash and SVG images that have drilldown, and popup information to assist in navigating through data. Dynamic Graphs graphs can be combined to form Decision DashboardsTM. TM Wireless and handheld devices are supported with Flash or WBMP output. PopChart works with any database and any browser, and with Best Image Fallback, the highest quality image is always delivered to the browser. Many different graphs types are supported in both vector and bitmap images.

The firm's programs are designed with templates for easy usage so 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 users to choose a number of graph styles. The program helps users build graphs from ground zero. The tool bar provides access to key functions.

Users can use PopChart Xpress to create charts in a PowerPoint presentation. It is easy to cut and paste the charts into a PowerPoint presentation. The ease with which a user can use these charts in PowerPoint presentations strengthens the program's user value.

PopChart Xpress requirements include Windows 95, 98, 2000, ME or Windows MT 4.0 or later. The program is available as a server application (PopChart Server) for web sites requiring a high number of charts and/or graphs that access data in a database.

Corda has a family of PopChart tools and services. They are PopChart Server, PopChart Server Pro, PopChart Server Enterprise, PopChart Express, PopChart Live. and PopChart Builder. All of these tools are 508 compliant.

To ensure accessibility, Corda has reached out to organizations such as the Coleman Institute on Cognitive Disabilities, Carroll Center for the Blind, Perkins School for the Blind and Vocational Rehabilitation Services for the Blind in Utah.

Corda's software is affordable and start at $295 for the desktop application of PopChart Xpress. Server based products start at $1500.

For information visit corda.com.