ading system. The system is made up of a text-to-speech synthesizer and a TSR screen review and navigation program. Basic HTML works, without modification, with almost all existing access devices for blind users.
DOS isn't glitzy, but at least most DOS users can still get a dial-up account of some sort, with access to the Web through Lynx. The E-mail and news readers on these accounts are also accessible, even if they are not very convenient. All the software that works on a VT100 dial-up terminal will also work with DOS speech programs. A Unix shell account is accessible because most of the software (e.g., Lynx, Pine, and Tin) is text-based.
There are Windows screen readers now, but developers are still learning how to make them work effectively. Just when Windows 3.1 v
ersions were showing promise, along came Windows 95. Screen readers for Win 95 will not be fully functional till later this year, despite Microsoft's assurance that it wants to make it the most accessible operating system ever. As things are now, blind users have to spend lots of money for Windows access software.
Unfortunately, most of the fancy Internet tools are written for Windows. The really cool new Internet applications, such as Internet phones and RealAudio, require Windows and a SLIP or PPP connection.
The Internet is a great place for blind users because so much of it is text. There is so much reading material that was not available to me before. I can read up-to-date information on all kinds of interesting subjects. I no longer have to wait for recorded talking books on tape or braille material that is out of date by the time it is produced.
Webmasters want to make their sites visually appealing, so they use new tools to make their pages pretty with graphics. Some Web-page desi
gners are also trying to keep their sites accessible to everyone. I have asked site managers for text-only pages and have gotten them most of the time. Microsoft, for example, has been sensitive to this issue in the on-line world. The Web pages for the Microsoft Network were not accessible at the launch, but MSN now has a text-only page.
Webmasters who want their sites open to all platforms provide a great benefit to blind users of the Internet. If you want your Web site, or your product, to reach the broadest community of users, build in accessibility from the ground up. Remember that one person's enabling technology is another person's disabling technology.
Here are some tips for keeping a Web site accessible to blind people:
1. Use alternate viewers
such as Lynx to check the formatting
of your Web pages. Lynx is a good choice because it is
usable by blind people.
2. Be sure that all tags
and anchors have a short text
description.
3. Provide alternatives
for tables and forms.
4. Use Alt-text tags.
5. Provide an alternative text
page if your pages require a
browser that can display cookies and tables, Java, or the
Virtual Reality Markup Language (VRML).
6. In text-only pages,
avoid complicated layouts such as
multiple columns.
7. Be sure to provide text
descriptions for each locator (URL)
in an image map--those regions users can click on to
reference different pages--especially if a text-only page
is not available.
8. Consult the simple guidelines
from the Trace Center's
gopher site in Wisconsin (trace.wisc.edu/) or the Web site
(
http://www.trace.wisc.edu
).
photo_link (44 Kbytes)
The author uses Braille 'n Speak, a PDA with a speech synthesizer that works with screen-reading software on his PC.
Bob Logue lives in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. You can reach him via E-mail at
boblogue@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca
.
A Word Is Worth a Thousand Pictures
