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New Internet site
for visually impaired
by
Joshua Covington
for
Virginia Business
March 2003
Close your eyes and try to navigate the Internet. Seems
impossible. But if the visually impaired are going to
cruise the information superhighway, it’s a bridge
that must be crossed.
However,
help is on the way. Voice of the Blue Ridge, a Roanoke-based,
non-profit organization, launched a Web site last month
tailored for the blind and visually impaired. Currently,
the organization helps translate printed material such
as newspapers and magazines into audio form for people
with partial vision loss, blindness or stroke. The site,
www.voiceoftheblueridge.org,
offers yet another option, using a screen reader called
JAWS to read Web content aloud to users or display it
with Braille via a computer output device.
According
to project advisor Virgil Cook, a retired English professor
at Virginia Tech, a preliminary site was tested first
by blind people and was well received. “The three
members of the committee who are blind experienced no
trouble navigating the site,” he says.
Preparing
a Web site for those who can’t see it presented
a challenge for designer Steven White of Blacksburg’s
New City Media, a Web design firm. Usually Web sites
are based on visual stimuli to direct the user, but
this site relies heavily on audio cues for direction.
To depict images to the visually impaired, White uses
“title” tags that audibly describe pictures
and images and help users navigate the site.
Designing
the site was a challenge due to what White describes
as a tandem goal. “We wanted to make it accessible
to the visually impaired and also to make it appealing
and attractive to users who don’t have visual impairment.”
The
Web site provides information about Voice of the Blue
Ridge including its mission, products and services as
well as links to other resources such as the Virginia
Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired and National
Braille Press. White hopes the project will make the
Internet more accessible to the visually impaired. “It’s
exciting to help them achieve their goals on the Web.”
They want to take advantage of technology just like
everyone else.
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