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The Japanese Blind ICT Network (JBICT) is currently running their fifth annual survey on Assistive Technology usage preferences of users with visual impairments. As I discovered it only this year, naturally I read through the results of the 2024 edition with the help of Google Translate. Some interesting patterns: 1. The survey was distributed through many channels including mailing lists, Line chat groups (the leading instant messaging app in Japan(, X and, if I understand correctly, a local Braille magazine. Most respondents were in their 40's and 50's with a stark difference even towards respondents in their 30's and 20's. 2. PC Talker, the locally manufactured screen reader with some 30 years of history, is still the leader, however NVDA and Narrator are winning some ground too. Most respondents admit to using a combination of two or three screen readers, the most popular combo being PC Talker, NVDA and Narrator. Interestingly enough, the reason most given for sticking with their primary option is being used to it rather than added features or exemplary app support. 3. iPhone definitely dominates the market which cannot be said about the Mac. Two users are still running Raku F-03, an early smartphone manufactured by Fujitsu in the 00's with a screen reading capability, compatible with I-Mode, the predecessor of current Web but with many modern features we associate with smart technology such as video, payments etc. I might have gotten the model wrong in which case, my apologies. One of those users owns this phone alone while the other uses it in parallel with an iPhone. 4. The adoption of Word as a text editor is super marginal compared to some local options, many of which are linked so can be tested. Outlook is the second email client next to a local option. Browsing email from the provider's website is more popular than Thunderbird and Becky was used by just a couple users. 5. OCR and image recognition apps are used primarily on mobile devices for reading mail, product packaging and social media photos rather than books. The apps we all know like Seeing AI, Envision and Be My Eyes are far more popular than Japanese products. jbict.net/survey/at-survey-04 - I'd be happy about insights, feedback and corrections from Japanese users - I'm just a geek exploring whatever can be found with the means available to me. #Accessibility #A11y #Blind #Japan

第4回支援技術利用状況調査報告書

掲載：2025年3月9日 更新履歴 2025年5月21日 「Windowsで利用しているスクリーン・リーダーの数」の集計結果の表およびグラフ直後のコメントが誤っていたものを修正しました。 修正前：Windows用のスクリーン・リーダーを利用している210名のうち、128名（60.95パーセント）が複数のスクリーン・リーダーを併用していることが分かりました。 修正後：Windows用のスクリーン・リーダーを利用している199名のうち、137名（68.
jbict.net
#a11y #Accessibility #blind #japan

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in reply to Paweł Masarczyk

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Paweł Masarczyk

As an addendum: the most popular Braille display is Braillememo, which as I understand is a tiny display of 16 cells which perhaps bigger options available, with a feature of coupling more of them together to create a bigger one, kind of like sighted users handle things on multiple screens. Braillesense is pretty popular, Focus is way down and I was surprised how few users of Seika displays there are.
in reply to Jakob Rosin

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Paweł Masarczyk

@jakobrosin Some time ago I was exploring the different advent calendars on accessibility and web design that @aardrian keeps recommending each year and there was the Japanese one - interesting resource by the way. Anyway, the JBICT network was referenced there and I followed the link and that's how I found their podcast which mostly posts interviews with exhibitors at the annual show of blindness products in Tokyo. I subscribed and transcribed some of that with Whisper which is how I got the rough idea of the products like Braillememo. They posted an episode on the results of the survey last week and had a link in the show notes - I need to take a peek into the episode itself as it might provide more context. The Raku phone is something I learnt from somebody I met through the ICC camp when I was researching the accessibility of I-Mode.
@Adrian Roselli @Jakob Rosin
in reply to Mikołaj Hołysz

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Paweł Masarczyk

@miki @jakobrosin I guess you could have some degree of difference in one country or the other if, for instance, someone developed a suite of self-voiced apps that a lot of people have come to use over the years, or some other factor that affects the general usage pattern. I guess this would have been more of a wild ride in the 80's/90's where each country had three local screen readers for Dos and one or two odd hardware synths plus Apollo. Czech Republic is my favorite example of this - a dos-based notetaker with dialup support at the beginning of the 90's, the biggest blindness organisation hosts its own BBS, accessible public transit schedules on Dos, a Symbian app to support two or three blindness libraries by 2007...
@Mikołaj Hołysz @Jakob Rosin
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