Information Builders' Response to Applicable Subparts of Part 1194 of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act

Responses to the following assertions relate exclusively to applications built with Information Builders' FOCUS for S/390 product and to the FOCUS for S/390 product itself, hereafter referred to as FOCUS. Other Information Builders products are discussed under separate cover. It is assumed here that a FOCUS application is accessed via a terminal emulator on the user's personal computer on which accessibility software may also be running. Information Builders neither markets nor recommends any particular emulation software or accessibility tool, nor warrants the interaction among these third-party products.

A) When software is designed to run on a system that has a keyboard, product functions shall be executable from a keyboard where the function itself or the result of performing a function can be discerned textually.

All interaction with FOCUS is controlled via the keyboard. Mouse or other GUI methods of access are not applicable. Information is displayed only textually – without images, icons, or other GUI-oriented objects.

B) Applications shall not disrupt or disable activated features of other products that are identified as accessibility features, where those features are developed and documented according to industry standards. Applications also shall not disrupt or disable activated features of any operating system that are identified as accessibility features where the application programming interface for those accessibility features has been documented by the manufacturer of the operating system and is available to the product developer.

The operations of accessibility products running on the local machine are completely transparent to FOCUS. Settings declared by accessibility products or by the local operating system are never overridden by FOCUS.

C) A well-defined on-screen indication of the current focus shall be provided that moves among interactive interface elements as the input focus changes. The focus shall be programmatically exposed so that assistive technology can track focus and focus changes.

The cursor position is the consistently reliable indication of a screen's focus, that is, the item on the screen that will be affected or influenced by the next keystroke. The style and blink rate of the cursor is completely controlled by the local operating system. Where "simulated" windows are generated by FOCUS, the cursor positioned in that window indicates its focus. Tabbing among fields on a screen always follows the logical order of left-to-right within top-to-bottom flow; the order may be altered by specific application logic and an alternate-key scheme.

D) Sufficient information about a user interface element including the identity, operation, and state of the element shall be available to assistive technology. When an image represents a program element, the information conveyed by the image must also be available in text.

Character labels that identify fields on the screen (such as to the left of or above the element and followed by a colon) may be arranged with FOCUS in any fashion appropriate for delivery to the user by the accessibility software. The state of an element is determinable, such as blank, zero, or a populated value. Images do not apply to FOCUS.

E) When bitmap images are used to identify controls, status indicators, or other programmatic elements, the meaning assigned to those images shall be consistent throughout an application's performance.

Bitmap images do not apply to FOCUS.

F) Textual information shall be provided through operating system functions for displaying text. The minimum information that shall be made available is text content, text input caret location, and text attributes.

FOCUS is fully text-oriented. The cursor always indicates the input location, and text attributes of fields are controlled either automatically by the product (such as an alpha string typed in a numeric-only field) or conditionally controlled by the application logic.

G) Applications shall not override user selected contrast and color selections and other individual display attributes.

FOCUS does not interfere with, nor override, contrast and color selections made by the user via local operating system or emulator settings. Applications themselves may be constructed to offer user-selectable color combinations for specific elements used in the application.

H) When animation is displayed, the information shall be displayable in at least one non-animated presentation mode at the option of the user.

Animation does not apply to FOCUS.

I) Color coding shall not be used as the only means of conveying information, indicating an action, prompting a response, or distinguishing a visual element.

Color may be used to enhance understanding and draw attention, but in no case is it required by FOCUS nor is it the only method available to identify a situation while interacting with an application.

J) When a product permits a user to adjust color and contrast settings, a variety of color selections capable of producing a range of contrast levels shall be provided.

FOCUS offers flexible color customization of an application's presentation. If desired, every element on every screen may be dynamically color-coded under user-selectable criteria. Color contrast is entirely under the control of the local operating system.

K) Software shall not use flashing or blinking text, objects, or other elements having a flash or blink frequency greater than 2 Hz and lower than 55 Hz.

FOCUS neither defines nor influences the rate of blinking or flashing text. This is controlled by the local operating system or emulator software, and is completely transparent to FOCUS. In no case is blinking or flashing required for any element.

(L) When electronic forms are used, the form shall allow people using assistive technology to access the information, field elements, and functionality required for completion and submission of the form, including all directions and cues.

FOCUS provides, or allows the design to include, the cues needed by users to complete and submit a data entry screen. These include field cursor position, logical tab flow and/or context-sensitive help keys.

A) At least one mode of operation and information retrieval that does not require user vision shall be provided, or support for assistive technology used by people who are blind or visually impaired shall be provided.

Third-party assistive technology tools are required for visually impaired persons to interact with FOCUS. Use of these third-party tools is completely transparent to FOCUS.

B) At least one mode of operation and information retrieval that does not require visual acuity greater than 20/70 shall be provided in audio and enlarged print output working together or independently, or support for assistive technology used by people who are visually impaired shall be provided.

Third-party assistive technology tools are required for visually impaired persons to interact with FOCUS. Use of these third-party tools is completely transparent to FOCUS.

C) At least one mode of operation and information retrieval that does not require user hearing shall be provided, or support for assistive technology used by people who are deaf or hard of hearing shall be provided.

Sound is not employed by FOCUS, other than a simulated bell to indicate that an error condition has occurred. At those times, either a product-generated message appears at a predefined location on the screen to indicate and describe the error, or the application can be designed to generate such a message.

D) Where audio information is important for the use of a product, at least one mode of operation and information retrieval shall be provided in an enhanced auditory fashion, or support for assistive hearing devices shall be provided.

Sound is not employed by FOCUS, other than a simulated bell to indicate that an error condition has occurred. At those times, either a product-generated message appears at a predefined location on the screen to indicate and describe the error, or the application can be designed to generate such a message.

E) At least one mode of operation and information retrieval that does not require user speech shall be provided, or support for assistive technology used by people with disabilities shall be provided.

Neither speech delivery nor speech recognition are employed by FOCUS. Third-party speech tools are required for such an effect and they are completely transparent to FOCUS.

F) At least one mode of operation and information retrieval that does not require fine motor control or simultaneous actions and that is operable with limited reach and strength shall be provided.

FOCUS employs only standard keyboard actions. Third-party keyboards that incorporate assistive concepts such as non-repeat keys are completely transparent to FOCUS. Simultaneous keyboard actions, such as holding CNTL while pressing another key, are rare occurrences and may be mapped to a single keystroke via the local machine's keyboard control panel or emulator software. These settings are completely transparent to FOCUS.

A) Product support documentation provided to end-users shall be made available in alternate formats upon request, at no additional charge.

Documentation is provided in both hard copy, as bound manuals and paper addendums such as technical memos, and fully duplicated in PDF format, which is readable by assistive technology tools and are provided free of charge on request.

B) End-users shall have access to a description of the accessibility and compatibility features of products in alternate formats or alternate methods upon request, at no additional charge.

Information about accessibility features and assistive compatibility of FOCUS is provided in both hard copy and PDF formats upon request at no additional charge.

C) Support services for products shall accommodate the communication needs of end-users with disabilities.

Information Builders' Customer Support Services is accessible to customers in several modes of interaction – by phone (also TTY) and via fax, plus through Internet e-mail and our customer support Web site.