[Users] Fw: 'Net becoming more accessible to vision-impaired.

[Cory McMahon]

Hi all-
I thought you all may enjoy the below e-mail I received from another mailing 
list I am on.
Also, I am a new member to this group, and since I am in to computers I am 
confident that I will enjoy the group discussion:


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "BlindNews Mailing List" <blindnews at blindprogramming.com>
To: "Blind News" <BlindNews at blindprogramming.com>
Sent: Friday, July 27, 2007 4:33 AM
Subject: 'Net becoming more accessible to vision-impaired.


>
> 'Net becoming more accessible to vision-impaired.
>
>
> By Jeffrey Pieters
> Post-Bulletin - Rochester,MN,USA
> 7/24/2007.
>
>
> Dale Davis, a Rochester Community and Technical College student pursuing a 
> degree in information technology, began losing his sight from retinitis 
> pigmentosa about 15 years ago, but the effects became serious in only 
> about the last 10 years.
>
> He remembers what it was like to surf the Web sighted and says JAWS, 
> special reading software whose title stands for "Job Access With Speech," 
> while nice, cannot compare.
>
> "Nothing's ever as positive or as competent as our vision," he said. "You 
> do have to find a roundabout way to take a Web page, to understand just 
> how it works. Trying to find exactly what you're looking for is sometimes 
> hard with vision impairment."
>
> For one thing, the software can't skim information, he said. One has to 
> listen to the computer's reading voice from start to finish.
>
> Still, there are things a blind computer user can learn to make them the 
> equal to -- if not superior of -- the sighted mouse-clicker, says Ken 
> Trebelhorn, a Rochester-based technology instructor specializing in blind 
> issues. His home business is called Low Vision Technologies of Minnesota.
>
> "I could guarantee you that you could whip out an e-mail faster than you 
> could before," he said. "Because it's all on the keyboard. Everything is 
> done on the keyboard. There's no need to pick up the mouse and try to 
> figure out where to point the thing."
>
> Composing an e-mail, though, is a fairly standardized task. Navigating the 
> Web, where every page can be designed differently, is something altogether 
> different.
>
> There is, however, a set of national standards for Web design, said Adam 
> Starkey, the city's Webmaster. Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act 
> and the Americans with Disabilities Act prescribe accessibility standards 
> for Web design, and Rochester keeps its pages in compliance with those, 
> Starkey said. They're specially checked twice a year, he said.
>
> None of it is a legal requirement -- at least not yet -- but "we just 
> figured it's probably the best practice to make sure we are compliant," 
> Starkey said.
>
> Prior to joining the Rochester staff 2 1/2 years ago, Starkey was a 
> professional Web designer in the Twin Cities. He doesn't recall 
> accessibility issues being a common subject for discussion then.
>
> "It's certainly becoming more of an (industry) issue," he said. "It's just 
> a best practice for any government site. ... A lot of the larger 
> (commercial sites) try to be compliant."
>
> Starkey noted that Target.com was the subject of a class-action suit, 
> filed by blind users alleging discrimination over accessibility to 
> Target's Web site.
>
> "It can lead to lawsuits if your site isn't (accessible)," he said.
>
> So, how many Web sites are acceptably accessible?
>
> "I would say somewhere between 70 and 80 percent," Davis said. "Most of 
> them are pretty good."
>
>
> http://news.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?z=31&a=301571
>
>
>
> -------------- next part --------------
> An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
> URL: 
> http://blindprogramming.com/pipermail/blindnews_blindprogramming.com/attachments/20070727/77b83e50/attachment.html
> --
> BlindNews mailing list
>
> To contact a list moderator about a problem or to make a request, send a 
> message to BlindNews-Owner at BlindProgramming.com
>
> The BlindNews list is archived at: http://GeoffAndWen.com/blind/
>
> To address a message to all members of the list, send mail to: 
> BlindNews at blindprogramming.com
>
> Access your subscription info at: 
> http://blindprogramming.com/mailman/listinfo/blindnews_blindprogramming.com
>
> To unsubscribe via e-mail: send a message to 
> BlindNews-Request at BlindProgramming.com with the word unsubscribe in either 
> the subject or body of the message