From the web page http://www.artictech.com/howprog.htm
By Artic Technologies


            How to write blindness friendly programs.

  How to write application programs that Screen Access programs
                            can read!


    This section is intended for product developers and custom
  programmers who would also like their efforts to qualify for
  purchase by the US Federal government (which requires software
  to be adaptable for use by blind people). RELAX! Most of the
   work has already been done for you by Artic and a few other
  companies. All you have to do is follow the few SIMPLE rules
    listed below and be consistent with low level programming
               techniques from version to version.

    IF YOU FEEL THAT YOU MUST BREAK THESE RULES TO MAKE YOUR
  PRODUCT PERFORM BETTER THEN WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU ALSO
 INCLUDE SUPPORT FOR MICROSOFT ACTIVE ACCESSIBILITY WHICH ALLOWS
          US TO GET AT THE TEXT SOURCES YOU ARE HIDING.

    A SIMPLE APPROACH: CLOSE YOUR EYES AND IMAGINE HOW A BLIND
                 PERSON WILL READ YOUR SCREENS.
  * FIRST LOOK AT YOUR SCREEN LAYOUT AND HOW THE INFORMATION IS
                            GROUPED
  * NOW CLOSE YOUR EYES AND DESCRIBE HOW YOU WILL NAVIGATE THE
        SCREEN AND ACCESS INFORMATION FROM THE KEYBOARD.
   * ARE THERE ANY SECTIONS YOU CANNOT ACCESS BY DIRECTING THE
                            CURSOR?
  * ARE THERE UNRELATED TEXT STRINGS ON THE SAME LINE THAT WILL
           BE READ TOGETHER IN A LEFT TO RIGHT MANNER?

  RULE 1: MAKE SURE THAT EVERY MOUSE ACTION ALSO HAS A KEYSTROKE
                          EQUIVALENT!!!
    This should be a common sense design rule for every good
  programming effort since taking your hands off the keyboard to
   click a mouse is a slow down even for sighted people. It is
terribly inefficient for blind users who must first probe around
    looking for the right object to click on! This sin is very
   common in both professionally written and amateur programs.

 RULE 2: PLACE FIELD NAMES TO THE LEFT OF THE DATA FOLLOWED BY A
                              COLON!
    Many data bases and forms are setup by people trying to be
  creative. Hence, screen layouts can become very confusing and
  impossible to sort out automatically by screen access unless
  some common sense rules are used. FIELD NAMES SHOULD BE READ
BEFORE THE DATA IS SPOKEN SO PLACE THE FIELD NAME TO THE LEFT OF
    THE DATA. TERMINATE THE FIELD NAME WITH A COLON SO WE CAN
  DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE DATA AND THE NAME IF THE USER WANTS TO
                     HEAR THE DATA REPEATED.

       RULE 3: AVOID SIDE BY SIDE TEXT IN COLUMNAR FORMAT.
We are pretty good at tracking most screen activity (without you
  guys even knowing we are watching what you do), but we can't
  read your mind trying to figure out where column breaks occur.
This makes us combine unrelated text from two columns that falls
                on the same line. THINK ABOUT IT!

    RULE 4: DO NOT BYPASS SYSTEM SERVICES FOR POSTING TEXT IN
                            OBJECTS.
   If this was a perfect world and the look and feel of modern
computers would remain constant for more than 6 months at a time
  then the job of screen access developers would be much easier.
  What happens instead is that new techniques are always being
    explored by programmers to get around the sluggishness and
    constraints that an operating system imposes. This usually
forces a programmer to bypass fundamental services and go direct
  to a resource to speed things up. THIS IS THE NUMERO UNO SIN!
    Screen Access programs cannot speak text if you hide it!

       RULE 5: USE THE PROVIDED OPERATING SYSTEM CONTROLS.
    We cannot zig and zag with you if we don't understand your
                      proprietary mechanism?

        RULE 6: DO NOT CONVERT TEXT INTO ARTISTIC BITMAPS.
         How well do you think speech works with pixels?

        RULE 7: DO NOT DO BIZARRE THINGS WITH KEY CODES!
  Hey 3270 guys! I'm mostly referring to you. How in the heck do
    you think we can speak the keyboard if you have assigned
                       proprietary codes?

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End of Document