Building an ＂information blind road＂ to make information accessible to everyone.
Not only the blind, but nearly 600 million people in China have obstacles in obtaining information.
Li Hongli, born in 1990, is a visually and hearing impaired person. He overcame all kinds of difficulties through self-study and became one of the earliest full-time information barrier-free engineers in China. The picture is provided by the interviewee
Many public welfare activities for the visually impaired will take the song "You are My Eye" by the blind singer Ricky as the background music. Many blind people are quite disgusted with this. People with disabilities, such as the blind, the deaf and the elderly, prefer to help themselves with the help of technology, information and other auxiliary means, rather than relying on anyone to be their "eyes" or "mouth"
Everyone may face certain obstacles in obtaining information because of aging, sudden injury or language barrier. Information barrier-free construction can not only meet the needs of disabled groups, but also enable healthy people to enjoy its convenience.
Recently, a blind singer told a story about his experience of defending rights in Weibo. Not long ago, he went to China Bank Shenzhen Shahe Sub-branch to apply for a debit card. After the staff of the bank confirmed that he was blind, he refused to accept it. Later, the bank publicly apologized to the singer for this matter, but the apology did not mention how to solve the problem of blind people going to the bank for business in the future.
For the visually impaired, the singer’s experience is not special. Just a few days after he defended his rights in Weibo, another blind man went to Shunde Xingui Sub-branch of Agricultural Bank of China to handle online banking business. He was told that according to the document issued by Guangdong Head Office of Agricultural Bank of China, "blind people can’t handle online banking and all kinds of card business, but only passbook".
After being rejected by China Bank, the blind singer came to China Merchants Bank Overseas Chinese Town Sub-branch, and the staff quickly helped him with the related business. He indicated that he intended to transfer all the money from China Bank to China Merchants Bank account.
However, the blind Yang Yongquan is not so optimistic. He told Xinhua Daily Telegraph that he had applied for the credit card of China Merchants Bank, and the relevant procedures had been submitted online before. Finally, he needed to sign at the bank outlet for confirmation, but he was rejected by the bank because he could not sign because of visual impairment.
Finally, Yang Yongquan went to China Construction Bank and Guangfa Bank to set up a credit card. Yang Yongquan’s family helped him sign the signature column, he pressed his handprint next to the signature, and the bank staff recorded the whole process on video. "So, what’s the use of just apologizing? There are ways to solve this and there are precedents. " Yang Yongquan told reporters.
Because there is no uniform mandatory provision, no matter the four major state-owned banks such as China, agriculture, industry and construction, or commercial banks, different regions or even different branches in the same region have different attitudes towards blind people’s business.
According to the statistics provided by Shenzhen Information Accessibility Research Association, 52% of the visually impaired people in China do not have credit cards. One of the main reasons is that banks require cardholders to sign their own names. This is easy for healthy people, but most visually impaired groups can’t do it independently, so they are rejected by banks.
Nowadays, many financial services can be handled through the Internet and mobile APP, which saves most people the trouble of queuing at business outlets. This is even more important for disabled people who are inconvenient to travel. Some people with disabilities said that just as barrier-free ramps need to be built at the entrance of bank outlets for people with disabilities who use wheelchairs to enter, networks and mobile apps also need to set corresponding interfaces and optimize information accessibility, so that people with disabilities can enjoy Internet finance and other information services equally with healthy people.
However, in recent years, the awareness of information accessibility in China has gradually improved. How has it been implemented?
Banks are "unfriendly" and blind people regard buying lottery tickets as financial management.
In fact, most blind people have jobs, and many people are starting businesses, so it is inevitable that they need to deal with financial institutions.
Two years ago, Xinhua Daily Telegraph published a report entitled "Information Accessibility: Let the Blind" See the Expression Pack ",which introduced that visually impaired people can use social apps such as WeChat, take-away apps such as Meituan and shopping apps such as Taobao on their mobile phones by reading screens.
Nowadays, with the efforts of some IT engineers, visually impaired people can also use QQ to grab red envelopes, and "see" emoticons through text description, and enjoy the fun of the "internet plus" era.
Food, clothing, housing and transportation are only the most basic consumer needs. Disabled people, like everyone else, also have financial management and office needs. When the corresponding enterprises and institutions realize that there is such a special group among their service groups, they should take immediate action to carry out barrier-free transformation of products and services.
Jiao Yigang chatted with blind technicians during massage, only to know that blind people also have financial needs, and it is not easy to meet them.
The co-founder of Shunshou Technology is a marathon enthusiast. Every time he runs, he goes to the "Lao Wang Tuina" shop in the community for massage. When chatting with Lao Wang once, Jiao Yigang asked him how he spent all the money he earned. I didn’t expect Lao Wang to say that he spent a lot of money on lottery tickets every month, which was his main way of managing money.
"haven’t you thought about managing your finances well and then expanding the size of the massage parlor to make your life better?" Jiao Yigang, who has been committed to developing a mobile internet financial platform, never thought that someone would manage money in such a "simple and rude" way. However, Lao Wang told him that for their visually impaired groups, the door of the bank is not easy to enter, and online banking and wealth management apps are not very friendly.
This unintentional conversation left a deep impression on Jiao Yigang. When the wealth management APP "Notes on Hands" that they worked hard to develop got the C round of financing, he immediately asked the team to carry out information barrier-free transformation of the product and make "Notes on Hands" a wealth management APP that is easy for people with disabilities to use.
"A popular concept in the field of Internet finance in recent years is inclusive finance. I think’ information inclusion’ is the basis for the realization of’ inclusive finance’. We must first enable all groups to share financial information equally. " Jiao Yigang said.
According to a survey conducted by Shenzhen Information Accessibility Research Association on the financial needs of visually impaired people, among the surveyed groups, 57% of the visually impaired people will spend more than 1000 yuan on financial management every month, and 44% will invest in financial management through third-party payment platforms.
On December 12th last year, when all commercial organizations were striving to create another consumption frenzy after "double 11", Penghua Fund launched the first information barrier-free financial management APP product in China fund industry-the barrier-free optimized "A+ wallet". According to Luo Xinqiang, mobile product manager of e-commerce department of Penghua Fund, after barrier-free optimization, most functions of this APP can be effectively read out after the screen reading auxiliary function of the mobile phone is turned on, so that the blind can easily use it.
Previously, even if the voice assistant system of the mobile phone was turned on, the blind man touched the controls of the "A+ wallet" and read only a string of codes. For example, "more" will be read as "more/button"; In the payment process, "confirm" or "cancel" will only be recognized as "button". For the blind, it is impossible to complete the operation.
"In the past, financial management focused on serving middle and high net worth customers, but almost everyone had financial needs, and many users’ financial needs were not met." Gao Peng, vice president of Penghua Fund, said that at present, the financial needs of people with service barriers are not enough, and Penghua Fund is willing to take the lead in the domestic Public Offering of Fund industry.
Yue Lei, a blind singer, and his friends jointly founded Hefei Wuyinge Culture Media Co., Ltd., which specializes in training in the field of music and art. In order to start a business, he went to the bank to apply for a loan, but he was also stuck in the signing process. The bank told him that if he could not sign, he could go to the notary office for notarization. However, when he went to the notary office, the notary office also asked him to sign …
Yue Lei, who is also the vice chairman of the Shushan District Blind Association in Hefei, told Xinhua Daily Telegraph: "People still don’t understand the visually impaired groups. In fact, not only do most of us have jobs, but many people are starting businesses. Because we study music and massage more, many people choose to open stores after graduation, and it is inevitable to deal with financial institutions. " Although most of the existing online banking and wealth management apps can be completed with the help of family members, Yue Lei still hopes to achieve completely independent operation. "After all, wealth management is directly related to privacy issues".
After employment and starting a business, the disabled group will have the needs of office management in addition to financial management. Before August 2016, the smart mobile office platform that currently serves 5 million enterprise users was "nailed" to the visually impaired group of as many as 17 million people in China, but it was almost completely unusable.
Shi Jiarui, the head of the nailed iOS&Mac team, learned by chance two years ago that there were also visually impaired users using their products, which made him feel incredible. It’s not only the blind people who use nails to make him feel fresh. The first thing he didn’t expect was: "Can blind people also use mobile phones? In my cognition, when it comes to blind people, I can almost only think of blind massage. " Shi Jiarui told reporters embarrassedly.
As an IT technician who develops around iOS and Mac, Shi Jiarui has always known the auxiliary function of Apple’s mobile phone called Voiceover, but he didn’t know what its application scenario was before. He was "really ashamed" when he learned that visually impaired people tried to use Voiceover to use nails and encountered many obstacles.
It took less than a month for the technical team to carry out the information barrier-free transformation of "Nail". Shi Jiarui told Xinhua Daily Telegraph that it was not difficult, just patience and care. "If I had known that there was such a group in use, I would have supported it earlier. In particular, if information accessibility can be considered from the beginning, there is no need for post-remediation to generate additional costs. "
Internet giants such as Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, which have been involved in information accessibility construction before, are constantly using the latest technology to improve the accessibility optimization of their products.
For example, Tencent uses big data to enhance the OCR recognition function that can convert pictures into words, which can improve its description accuracy. Nowadays, people are keen to forward screenshots to each other on social media. Previously, it was difficult for the blind to figure out what the screenshots were, but now with the more accurate OCR function, the blind can also read the text and information in the screenshots.
With the increase of media reports and the improvement of the awareness of rights protection of disabled groups, more and more institutions and enterprises are beginning to contact the concept of information accessibility and try to do something. On December 21st, 2017, internet society of china Information Accessibility Working Committee was established in Beijing. The first batch of members include more than 50 institutions and enterprises in various fields such as People’s Daily Online, Xinhuanet, Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu, Iflytek and Xiaomi.
Huang Clarification, vice chairman of internet society of china and chairman of internet society of china Information Accessibility Working Committee, said that the main work of the Committee in the near future is to study and formulate technical standards for information accessibility of mobile intelligent terminals, and to promote consensus on information accessibility construction for government affairs, public services, commerce and other fields.
Barrier-free is abnormal, and some software can’t be used once it is updated.
Some enterprises only regard information accessibility as giving love and doing public welfare, and information accessibility has always been a dispensable thing.
"In fact, there are always technical standards for information accessibility." Zhang Kun, chief expert of Shenzhen Information Accessibility Research Association, said that the relevant international standards were created as early as 20 years ago.
In 1994, Tim Berners Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, founded the World Wide Web Alliance "W3C". As the most authoritative and influential international neutral technical standards organization in the field of Web technology, "W3C" established the Web Accessibility Promotion Organization as early as February 1997, and began to formulate a series of standards, specifications, detection methods and skills on Web accessibility, and cooperated with governments, enterprises and other institutions around the world to promote information accessibility standards on a global scale.
There are similar provisions in the relevant laws and regulations of our country. For example, the Law on the Protection of Disabled Persons revised in 2008, the Technical Requirements for Accessibility in Website Design updated by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in 2012, the Outline of the 13th Five-Year Plan for Accelerating the Well-off Process for Disabled Persons promulgated by the State Council in 2016, and the national standard Principles for the Design and Setting of Public Information Guidance System Based on Accessibility Requirements implemented by the former AQSIQ and the National Standardization Administration Committee all contain information accessibility.
"Unfortunately, although the relevant regulations have been published, there is little mention of disciplinary measures after violating the regulations. This lacks a mandatory binding force. " Zhang Kun told Xinhua Daily Telegraph that due to the lack of legal constraints, it is not necessary for many institutions, especially enterprises, to build information accessibility, but it has become a plus item and an optional topic.
Especially in the early stage of development, many institutions selectively ignore the construction of information accessibility because of the shortage of funds or manpower. Even if some relevant remedies are made, the improved functions of the product are often covered again after the version is updated because the standards are not established and are not included in the normative process. Looking back on the information barrier-free construction in recent years, Zhang Kun believes that although the number of enterprises and institutions that understand this concept is increasing, on the whole, it can only be said that it is a "spiral upward" trend.
In an interview with Xinhua Daily Telegraph two years ago, Li Zhongyang showed reporters how blind people use Didi to take a taxi. But now, he told reporters that not long ago, a version of Didi was updated, which caused some functions to be unable to be read aloud, which made the visually impaired group unable to use it. "We people can only tell each other: Don’t update the version!"
In an interview, Shi Jiarui, who was nailed, constantly stressed to reporters that it is "a sentimental and meaningful thing for them to make barrier-free transformation for products, which has nothing to do with KPI." Gao Peng of Penghua Fund pointed out that the accessibility of "A+ wallet" is to fulfill the social responsibility of enterprises and to use their main business ability and financial technology level to carry out information poverty alleviation.
For the barrier-free optimization of China Ping An’s official website, in the view of the relevant person in charge of the brand propaganda department of China Ping An Insurance Group, "Ping An Property & Casualty should fulfill its social responsibility and contribute to public welfare undertakings."
However, in Li Zhongyang’s view, it is precisely because some enterprises only regard information accessibility as giving love and doing public welfare that they are influenced to take this opportunity to further optimize their products. "Because they always have the concept of charity, information accessibility always seems to be a dispensable thing. Today, this version has been changed, and tomorrow’s version has been updated and forgotten. Like a bear breaking a stick, it will not be done well. "
In the United States, Australia, Japan, including Hong Kong, China and other countries and regions, the accessibility and equality of information resources used by disabled groups are also written into relevant laws and regulations. Enterprises that fail to do a good job in accessibility will not only face the trouble of litigation, but also be very likely to accept severe punishment.
There have been hundreds of lawsuits about barrier-free technology in the United States, including not only providers of information products and services, but also providers of public entity services, such as Macy’s, Bank of America, Disneyland and so on.
Under this pressure, relevant institutions have to take the initiative to consider information accessibility from the beginning of construction. "This will certainly increase the corresponding cost, but if it is done sooner or later, it is better to do it first." Zhang Kun made an analogy to the reporter of Xinhua Daily Telegraph. "Just like a residential building, if there is no elevator at the beginning of construction, it will have to be installed later, which will not only greatly increase the cost, but also destroy the infrastructure."
The construction of information accessibility is not all trouble. Some enterprises have even tasted the sweetness from it, and regard information barrier-free construction as the driving force for innovation. In IBM, Microsoft, Facebook, Google and other enterprises, the foundation of information barrier-free construction is not public welfare, but research and development.
Wang Fuming, who was the first president of IBM Global Information Accessibility Center, said that many employees in IBM are disabled. One of the totally deaf Russian engineers, because he can’t hear and speak, has a strong sense of innovation in order to let himself cross the obstacles he faces, and therefore has more than 300 invention patents. "He inspired me a lot, because his point of view and angle when solving difficulties are different from ordinary people, and this is actually a good opportunity for innovation."
More than ten years ago, when IBM established the information barrier-free center, Wang Fuming, who was sent from the sales position, had no concept of information barrier-free construction. However, after working with the blind, deaf and other disabled people for a period of time and seeing their innovative vitality, she clearly realized: "Information accessibility is not just a public welfare behavior for disabled groups, but an opportunity for innovation and development, which is the long-term focus of enterprise survival and competition. Because the essence of science and technology is to overcome obstacles and solve problems. "
Nearly 600 million people have different degrees of information access barriers.
People with disabilities most want to help themselves with the help of technology, information and other auxiliary means, rather than relying on others as their "eyes" or "mouths"
At present, the research on information accessibility is mainly based on helping four groups to overcome obstacles: visual impairment, hearing impairment, physical impairment and cognitive impairment, but the research is not limited to serving disabled groups, but everyone.
According to the statistics of Tsinghua University Institute for Barrier-free Development, there are 85.02 million people with disabilities, 205 million elderly people and nearly 300 million people with low education (children and migrant workers) in China. The total population of nearly 600 million people has different degrees of information access barriers, accounting for nearly half of China’s total population.
Many public welfare activities for the visually impaired will take "You are My Eye" by blind singer Ricky as the background music. However, during the interview, the reporter of Xinhua Daily Telegraph found that many blind people were quite disgusted with this. People with disabilities, such as the blind, the deaf and the elderly, prefer to help themselves by means of technology, information and other auxiliary means, rather than relying on anyone to be their "eyes" or "mouth".
Yang Yongquan and his friends have developed a screen reading software called "Crossing the Crossing" together since ten years ago, which can be used by both the blind and the elderly who are dazzled. He told reporters: "Now when people talk about information accessibility, the first thing that comes to mind is the blind and the disabled, which makes this concept too narrow. In fact, the concept of information accessibility is very broad. Although it is more necessary for the blind, it applies to everyone. "
"Like barrier-free ramps, although they are designed for disabled people who use wheelchairs, healthy people who push strollers and shopping carts can also use them. Barrier-free ramps can provide convenience for everyone." For example, Zhang Kun said, "When you go to a foreign country where the language is not fluent, if the information accessibility is not good, you can’t identify municipal information such as public transportation through icons, then you will immediately become a member of the’ cognitive impairment’. At this time, do you still feel that information accessibility has nothing to do with yourself? "
He pointed out that everyone may face certain obstacles in obtaining information because of aging, sudden injury or language barrier. In particular, many countries and regions are facing the problem of aging, which will inevitably increase the social cost of providing for the aged. However, if the self-care ability of the elderly can be improved through the construction of information accessibility, the social cost of providing for the aged will be effectively reduced.
More than ten years ago, an old man asked Zhang Kun to help him buy a computer. The request was very strange: it was mainly used for watching movies and listening to music, so it had to have pictures and sound, but it didn’t need to be able to surf the Internet, CD-ROM drive or keyboard. Zhang Kun said that he didn’t have this kind of computer and didn’t buy it for him.
Ten years later, when tablet computers such as iPad went on the market, he realized that this was what the old man wanted. "So meeting the special requirements of disabled groups is actually the trend and direction of future scientific and technological development."
"When products and services are continuously optimized for information accessibility, healthy people can also enjoy convenience. People want to operate more simply and lazily. " Li Weixing, vice president of Xiaomi MIUI Department, believes that "for this purpose, there is not much difference between disabled groups and healthy people, and the boundaries will become more and more blurred."
A product manager of Xiaomi wrote on his blog: "Let everyone enjoy the fun of science and technology" put forward by Xiaomi is not an empty slogan. We need to fully consider the use of different people in product design so that anyone can use our products smoothly. " Therefore, in his view, optimizing products to support information accessibility is by no means doing good or even giving alms to any group, but just "being responsible for the products designed by yourself".
Huang Qing, chairman of the Committee for Information Accessibility in internet society of china, stressed that at present, China is moving from a cyber power to a cyber power, and in order to truly benefit the 1.3 billion people in China, it is necessary to ensure that all groups, such as the elderly and the disabled, have equal access to information, which should be the development direction pursued by a society where everyone benefits and information is equal. (Yin Pingping)