17 Aug Helpkidzlearn

27 Jul The Challenges of Surfing While Blind

The Challenges of Surfing While Blind–taken from the Wall Street Journal

My seeing-eye dog can’t help me with your website. Please code it for accessibility.

By

DeAnn Elliott

July 26, 2015 6:39 p.m. ET

8 COMMENTS

The other day while going about my business on the Internet, I hit a brick wall: a map of the United States.

I was diagnosed at 28 with retinitis pigmentosa and declared legally blind at 41. I no longer see the screen well enough to use my mouse to point and click. But with a standard laptop and some software that reads the screen to me in a voice that sounds like Stephen Hawking’s, I can accomplish nearly everything that I once did with a mouse using memorized key commands.

But to make a purchase on this particular website, I was asked to choose my home state not from an alphabetical list, but by clicking on a map. For a blind person, that’s akin to being in a wheelchair and encountering a flight of stairs.

ENLARGE

Photo: Getty Images

A well-designed website that conforms to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG) permits use by people of all abilities. In my case, text labels that identify the buttons and graphical features allow me to “see” what’s on the screen. The code is hidden and need not interfere with the way the website works for sighted customers. But without these features, a site that works beautifully with a mouse is useless to me.

Technology has removed many of the barriers that people with disabilities face in the physical world, making life in the mainstream tantalizingly close. Can’t drive to the mall? There’s Amazon! Can’t read the electric bill? Bank online! As my guide dog and I contemplate the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the landmark civil-rights law signed July 26, 1990, the gap between sight and blindness has never been narrower.

The ADA requires government websites to be accessible. Sadly, the law provides little guidance to the private sector on this point, since it was passed before the Internet became ubiquitous. It applies to a “place” of public accommodation—but is the Internet a place? That question has been wending its way through the courts.

Disability advocates have worked to broaden the law’s applicability, with some success. In April, Harvard University and M.I.T. announced plans to voluntarily make their edX website for online courses compliant with the WCAG after deaf advocates filed federal lawsuits alleging discrimination. In 2010 the Justice Department announced it would consider issuing Web-accessibility regulations under the ADA, though the rule-making process lumbers on. With the number of websites growing rapidly, change isn’t coming fast enough.

“More than 50 percent of the websites on the Internet are either inaccessible or unusable for people who use adaptive technology,” Brian Charlson, director of technology at the Carroll Center for the Blind in Newton, Mass., told me in his office a few months back.

The consequences range from inconvenient to significant. When I can’t place an online order at my favorite Vietnamese noodle shop, I get Chinese instead. If a task is urgent, I pester family and friends for “favors.” When they hover over my screen to help me navigate around a virtual barrier, I’m keenly aware that my charge-card number and the details of my transaction are on display. At work, unequal access in an increasingly networked economy contributes to an unemployment rate that’s more than twice as high for people with disabilities—and that’s not counting many who have given up looking for work.

Recently I met a Web programmer who confessed that she omitted accessibility features because they weren’t explicitly required. Deadlines were tight. Budgets were tighter. Most customers liked the graphics. I appreciated her candor.

I explained that making a site accessible shouldn’t be seen as a bother. Rather, compliance helps a company reach the largest number of customers. As techno-savvy baby boomers age into vision and hearing loss, many more people will need accommodation. Companies that fail to adjust risk squandering years of accumulated goodwill.

Further, accessible websites often perform better in search results, since images are tagged with descriptive text. These features benefit people who have limited English proficiency or are using technology in places where they have difficulty reading the screen.

Several organizations, including the nonprofit Carroll Center, offer accessibility consulting to help businesses. “The changes are often cheaper and easier than people think,” Mr. Charlson says. There are three levels of WCAG conformance, and though the highest level might look intimidating, settlements to accessibility lawsuits usually recommend the middle one.

In the 25 years since the passage of the ADA, businesses have removed brick-and-mortar barriers to their facilities, erecting ramps and installing elevators. Now it’s time to finish the job and tear down the virtual barriers. Besides, I’d rather shop than sue.

Ms. Elliott is a Boston-based disability advocate who blogs for the Carroll Center for the Blind.

15 Jun Download special fonts for Braille and Sign Language

10 Jun Accessible PSAT and SAT online

Thank you Khan Academy once again for providing great study tools for all students and better yet, accessible materials for blind students using talking software and braille displays.

Practice for the SAT and PSAT now–go to: SAT and PSAT online practice

04 Jun Mosen Consulting on all things Blind

Jonathan Mosen hosts FSCast for Freedom Scientific and many many other great things for the education of the blind world–and of the sighted world who create for the blind world

FSCast features news, interviews, and product demonstrations. Hosted by Jonathan Mosen, each episode is a mixture of learning and entertainment. All episodes are archived, and you can download and listen at any time. In the December episode 101, we discuss the 20th anniversary of JAWS for Windows, the Braille selection feature, and Windows tablets running JAWS 16 and iTunes 12 with JAWS. The January episode 102 has just been posted. It includes information about our JAWS 20th Anniversary video project, events at the upcoming ATIA and CSUN conferences, information from Bryan Carver about our Technical Support process, and an interview with Kelly Ford, who tells us about the Microsoft Accessibility Answer Desk, available toll free in a growing number of countries.

Go to our FSCast page to hear these and other podcasts.

If you are seeking an incredible $75 price for Jaws talking software–this is it

Freedom Scientific made some announcements this week via its FSCast podcast, with Jonathan Mosen breaking the news.  If any of you are planning to go to the NFB convention this year, this should be of great interest to you if you own or are considering buying software from Freedom Scientific.
First, ACB convention attendees will be offered slight discounts on FS products. There will be a ten percent discount on Freedom Scientific software. This would cover JAWS, MAGic and OpenBook. Five percent discounts are available on FS hardware products. While Jonathan Mosen did not mention specific products I am assuming that this would cover products such as the Sara stand-alone readers, their various video magnifiers, Braille displays, Plextalk Pocket and even the Pac Mate, if you can justify buying that particular device.
Jonathan explained that Freedom Scientific offers something known as home-use programs for certain organizations, which they started doing last year. This is a program offered to companies which have many software installations for their employees and the home use program allows employees of such companies to purchase a product like JAWS at a considerable discount. Other tech companies do this for certain organizations. As an example, when my wife was a college student the university she was attending was able to offer her new, legal copies of software at very, very inexpensive pricing. Apparently, Freedom Scientific offers similar programs. Jonathan mentioned that organizations such as the IRS, Social Security and some state agencies for the blind are able to offer discounts to their staff. Since NFB uses many copies of JAWS at its headquarters and because it is celebrating its 75th birthday this year, Freedom Scientific is extending this same pricing offer to all registered attendees of this year's NFB convention, regardless of where you work or, for that matter, whether you're employed or not. These offers are only for the duration of the NFB convention and you must actually visit FS at the exhibit hall to obtain their products at this special pricing.
A complete JAWS 16 Home Edition license will be available, under the conditions I've described above, for $75.00. This is not a misprint: that's seventy-five dollars. This is not an upgrade but will get you a brand new JAWS 16 license. If you already own an older  version of JAWS you can upgrade your old version to version 16 for just $50.00. For this offer, it doesn't matter which version of JAWS you own; it can be an upgrade from version 14 or from version 2.0.\
An SMA will cost you $100.00.
New copies of OpenBook are available for $75.00.
MAGic with speech can be purchased for $50.00.
 MAGic SMAs are being offered for $75.00.
I have proofread this message and what you are reading is not a series of misprints.
Also, FS will be demonstrating JAWS 16 with an intro to Windows 10. Since it is possible that we may see Windows 10 released by the end of July it sounds like that JAWS 16 will be able to work with Windows 10, without users needing to go to JAWS 17 to obtain Windows 10 support.
I am personally quite excited about this series of offers. My personal JAWS license is stuck at version 6.0 and, as a trainer, I do need to update my license but frankly cannot afford to do so. However, as I have family in that area I am seriously considering attending my first NFB convention to upgrade my version of JAWS.

For more information about Jonathon Mosen's work, please visit the links below

01 Jun Become a Blind exchange student to America–Pass the word on

Families around the country have had exchange students this year and one particular family of which mom is blind had a blind exchange student from Bosnia for the past year. She explains:  "One of her many talents is a beautiful voice.  She and my husband
wrote this song and he used pictures from her American experience. " Please watch on Youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hz6f03y080&feature=youtu.be

The U.S. State Department is trying to find American blind students to study abroad on one of their scholarship programs.  Try and think of someone you know who could participate in a
study abroad program that can change their lives forever: http://www.miusa.org/news/2015/blindabroad