How visually impaired people use their Internet connection to see beyond the screen
People all over the world enjoy browsing the Internet, with its attractive designs, colors, games, and video offerings. But did you also know that visually impaired people also enjoy doing the same with their Internet connection, even though they cannot see the Internet with their eyes?
If you are reading this right now with your eyes and without a problem, you are not one of the 25.2 million Americans affected by some form of vision loss. If you are visually impaired, you may be reading this article in very large print or may be ‘talking’ to you thanks to a text-to-speech program that you have installed on your computer.
For those who can see visually, understanding how people with visual impairments ‘see’ most things can be difficult. But imagine for a moment browsing the Internet where every piece of text is a sound, images are white space, and the layout and colors of a web page no longer matter. It is a strange and surreal thought for many of us and yet it is the reality of millions on a daily basis.
Thanks to programs like Microsoft Narrator and VoiceOver, anyone can “see” the Internet. These text-to-speech programs transform text and layout into an audio cyberspace that people with visual impairments trust every time they go online.
Depending on the program used, the software can provide the descriptions of a web page by design, indicating to the Internet user how many lines and columns a page has. If the images contain alt tags that provide more information about the image or the content of the page being viewed, the user will also receive this information. Images without alt tags will simply appear as blank spaces.
Any user employing this type of “web-reading” software understands that it will often give you very little to go on in terms of how to process the structure of a web page with your brain. Additionally, a large amount of this ‘assistive technology’ will process web pages line by line, making it difficult for a visually impaired person to quickly find what they are looking for.
But there are legal requirements that ensure that all web designers and service providers do not discriminate against the rights of disabled, deaf and blind people. These requirements are due in large part to the hundreds of spokespersons, pioneered by Helen Keller’s hard work and unwavering belief in the equality of all.
One example is the Disability Discrimination Act, which makes it illegal for Internet service providers to discriminate against people with disabilities. This includes refusal to provide any service enjoyed by other members of the public. Because websites are considered a public service, they are also covered by law.
In a measure that saw more than 1000 websites being investigated by the Commission on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, it was revealed that most of the websites were not compliant. The Commission issued a statement related to these results and indicated in its report how website owners and developers can make their sites inclusive.
With a little foresight and a little work, anyone can ensure that their website is accessible to all types of Internet users, no matter how they access the global web.
