As a disabled student, and a former assistive technology assessor who would step in when the dyslexia study skills tutor was ill, I see an opportunity to improve Word.

1. Have word count zones which have an optional warning message / block on exceeding the set word count.




2. Assign a word count and colour to listed topics, and have alerts.

I would support students to look at the marking criteria percentage for each topic, the overall word count, calculate the word count for each topic, and allocate each topic a colour.

This worked really well and students liked it.

I feel that Word could be further developed to facilitate this, and just "simple" word count zones.

Please vote if you agree!

Thanks.
Sarah

1. Engineers need to identify what the customer's issue is and always come back to the customer until it is solved. For example, Windows 10 updates are repeatedly failing so make sure the customer has a solution to enable them to gt working system again.


2. Other companies let support staff toggle the customers' assistive technology on and off so the customer can hand over their PC to the engineer with no blips.


3. Support staff on the Disability Answers Desk need to be better trained in the needs of visually impaired customers. I use 3rd party magnification software to give me access so ordering me to switch to Narrator is wholly inappropriate - not the engineer's fault but a training issue.


4. Email offers simple reliable communication so the Disability Answers Desk needs to have a monitored email address where customers can have a dialogue over complex issues. I am blind and cannot turn off my assistive technology software and still keep using my PC so I am screwed! I want to contact the Disability Answers Desk to try to get access to a new version of Windows 10 from the Store but email accounts are not routinely monitored at present. I am thus writing via the legal department here in England which is inefficient and difficult. Given it will cost me $300+ to buy Windows 10 and get it installed, it would seem I would be better off buying an Apple Mac as Apple does not erect silly barriers to stop disabled people communicating with it easily.

I switched back to a Windows PC after 15 years of Mac ownership because Apple's post Mac OS X 10.6.6 scroll bars were reduced in width, and had their up/down arrows removed. This was a major accessibility / ease of use mistake. Over the years, the negative online comments have persisted.

To my dismay, Postbox Inc, whose e-mail client I have a lifetime license for have released Postbox 7 for Windows - with Mac style inaccessible scroll bars. Postbox Inc claim that people called for this change, and worryingly, refuse to acknowledge that it has accessibility implications.

Please Microsoft, make it impossible for developers to include this inaccessible type of scroll bar in their software before more software vendors make the same disastrous move.

Thank you.
Sarah

Microsoft should consider purchasing the ZoomText and JAWS divisions of Vispero in order to integrate them into the Microsoft accessibility team. These divisions of Vispero already produce software that is exclusive to Windows, and this is the next logical step in making Windows accessible for everyone. This would add a lot of talented folks to the Narrator, Magnifier, and Disability Answer Desk teams.

There would be no more need for teams from Microsoft and Vispero to communicate back and forth on accessibility issues. Everything would be done in house, similar to how Apple implements accessibility on their devices and systems. When Microsoft releases new software, it would work immediately with Narrator and Magnifier because all the folks responsible for accessibility would be working together with the same tools and software at the same time. There would be no more long periods of time in which you wait for your accessibility software to be updated to take advantage of new Microsoft technologies. Products like Microsoft Office could potentially work much better than they currently do because everyone would be on the same page at all times.

This would also be better for agencies and other organizations that currently spend thousands of dollars on this software. Everyone would save money while continuing to receive support from Microsoft, the company that knows how its software works and can provide the best technical support. Accessibility would be built into the system, so there would be no more need to install a third party tool unless someone preferred to use something like NVDA. If users wanted extra speech synthesizers such as Eloquence and/or Vocalizer, they could either be built-in or offered as a free download or for a small fee.

Many of your ideas related to one type of disabilty. However many people experience multiple disabilities and the products mentioned don’t seem to take this into consideration. Even this like for those experiencing heating impairments. You are using written captioning. Many people who are profoundly deaf struggle with the written word and would benefit from signing being incorporated into any technology they use. Also those who use their eyes to access technology, this is phenomenal but again many people will struggle with this because of stigmatisation etc or the pupils just not being picked up properly. What is the solution then?. My own son has tried Tobii eyegaze and when he was young it seemed to be the perfect solution but whe. He trialled it a few years ago it just did not work and he had to revert to micro dot system. Can this be incorporated into your software usage. Also conner is also deaf so how do the solutions for deafness work with physical access issues?

First of all,thanks to Microsoft for coming up with Eye Control accessibility feature. I am working on using this with my autistic son who is currently using RPM techniques (Rapid Prompting Technique) to communicate. Ex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c05Qq5WQew

Here are some suggestions that could help try and adopt for kids with autism.

Please provide keyboard customization including
1) Keyboard with fewer options: Initial display could have options of A-I, J-R, S-Z or Numbers; Upon selection display the corrsponding limited set of keys.

Ex: <a rel="nofollow noreferrer" href="https://growingkidstherapy.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/GKTC_Black_Set-of-3-Stencils.png">https://growingkidstherapy.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/GKTC_Black_Set-of-3-Stencils.png</a>

       <a rel="nofollow noreferrer" href="https://growingkidstherapy.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/GKTC_Stencils-All.png">https://growingkidstherapy.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/GKTC_Stencils-All.png</a>

2) More dwell time options (time input?)
3) Option to eliminate predictions on the keyboard (This could distract autistic kids).

I have been using word prediction software for over two decades, have beta tested, and had an article published on it's appropriate use.

It was always taken for granted by myself and friends who also have CP never questioned it’s future. It always worked in ANY active application, something taken for granted.

Now, with the advent of the "sandboxing" of applications, use of word prediction is hit and miss. As I only have very limited use of speech recognition and a very slow keyboard rate, this is deeply concerning.

Microsoft, you know that WordQ 5 and Soothsayer are the big players in word prediction. Please let their development teams have code, restoring access to any active application, and full access to applications for those dependent upon word prediction.

Thank you.