Technology boosts Web Site for Blind
eWeek - February 5, 2001 - page 43
By Evan Koblentz

Approximately 10 million Americans can't send e-mail, browse the Web or shop
on-line because of blindness. But an updated federal accessibility law that
takes effect this month and an applications services company may soon change
all that. 

Interliant Inc., of Purchase, N.Y., recently revamped the American Foundation
for the Blind`s Web site by applying technology in a clever way: enabling it
to integrate with forthcoming Braille hardware. The updated site could serve
as a model for other sites looking to reach the visually impaired. 

According to an August 1998 amendment to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973,
which takes effect February 20, the Web sites of federally funded
organizations, with selected exceptions, must become accessible to visually
impaired and hearing impaired users. Examples of ways to make a site
accessible include user-selected color and font schemes, screen magnification
tools, sound labels with hyperlinks, and sound files of important site text.  

With the help of Interliant`s professional services team, the AFB site goes a
step further by using Extensible Markup Language that can be interpreted by
future Braille hardware and non-PC information appliances. 

The problem, according to AFB President and CEO Carl Augusto, is that today`s
Web site features are too complex. 

One visually impaired user is Aaron Bradley, a 17-year-old junior at the
Overbrook School for the Blind, in Philadelphia. Bradley plans to go to
college to study computer science or psychology. 

"I use computers practically every day," for writing, research and e-mail,
Bradley said. "But everything is visual - a PowerPoint presentation, a
spreadsheet. Most ofus start out with a Braille note taker, which is
basically a laptop, but there are not Windows concepts to learn. We sit down
with Windows, and there`s a whole new concept. The reality is that today's
world doesn't tailor to the way we need it to be."