Google Docs recently changed the way they render text (from HTML to something called Canvas).
The important thing to understand is that this change took away ALL of the information that accessibility tools needed to be able to work in Google docs.
Speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and word prediction all relied on HTML rendering in Google Docs, so this was a colossal change for assistive tool developers and students who rely on these tools every day to read and write.
Google gave software developers many months’ notice that this change was coming, but the path to keep assistive tools going in Google Docs proved to be a major endeavour while the timer ticked towards Google moving to 100% Canvas—effectively removing the lifeline fallback option. That lifeline was removed just recently and stopped some accessibility tools in their tracks.
I recently sat down with Kevin Johnston VP Engineering North America at Don Johnston Inc.—who also happens to be Don Johnston’s son—to talk about why and how Snap&Read and Co:Writer continued to work. It was my first time meeting him, and he was delightfully warm and kind, so I felt okay about admitting that I didn’t really understand much about his department and what they do.
Research and Development is the name of it, and as it turns out, the good folks of R&D work very very hard: constantly tweaking Don Johnston’s software in response to the many changes in the many platforms (Chrome, Google Docs, LMSs, etc) that Snap&Read and Co:Writer work with and responding quickly to any user problems that arise.
These people are the reason the tools work day in and day out, and it’s no easy feat.
But their work is done with heart: when it comes to assistive technology, Kevin’s utmost priority and passion is helping students with disabilities.