From: David Andrews 
Subject: New York Times Article
>X-From: From uaccess-l@trace.wisc.edu Thu Mar 26 17:43 CST 1998
>Posted-Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 17:43:00 -0600 (CST)
>Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 17:37:50 -0600
>Reply-To: uaccess-l@trace.wisc.edu
>Originator: uaccess-l@trace.wisc.edu
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>From: "Curtis Chong" 
>To: Multiple recipients of list 
>Subject: New York Times Article
>X-Comment: list for discussion of universal access to information systems
>
>March 26, 1998
>
>Bringing the Visual World of the Web to the Blind
>By DEBRA NUSSBAUM
>
>     Curtis Chong has been using the World Wide Web for three
>years to look up topics like music, fund-raising and medical
>research. He also uses it as a way to teach and encourage other
>blind people to get on the Web. 
>     How does someone who cannot see the screen navigate the
>computer and Web, which is full of glitzy graphics and icons? 
>     Chong communicates all his commands through the keyboard.
>His printer prints in Braille. He uses the Internet Explorer 3.02
>with a piece of software called a screen reader and a speech
>synthesizer to turn the written words on the screen into words
>spoken in a computer-generated voice. 
>     "We want to use the Web, and we want to use it like
>everybody else does," said Chong, director of technology for the
>National Federation of the Blind, based in Baltimore. "We don't
>believe the computer is the great equalizer for the blind, but
>it's one way to make our lives better." 
>     For the more than half-million blind people of working age
>in the United States, getting on the Web may not only mean being
>able to research topics of interest but may also be a necessary
>skill for staying employed. 
>     It certainly affects the jobs of thousands of blind people,"
>said Gary Wunder, a blind man who is a senior computer programmer
>at the University of Missouri Hospitals and Clinics. He is
>required to use the Web in his job for project assignments and
>updates. "It isn't just optional anymore." 
>     While current statistics on the use of computers and the Web
>by blind and visually impaired people are hard to find,
>technology companies and advocacy organizations say the numbers
>are rapidly increasing. Tens of thousands of blind people are on
>computers, and every year more of them are learning to use the
>Web, Chong said. 
>     A 1991 study published by the American Foundation for the
>Blind in New York found that 43 percent of blind and severely
>visually impaired people were using the computer for writing,
>said Emilie Schmeidler, senior research associate for the
>foundation. Her impression is that more visually impaired people
>are using computers and the Web now, she said, and "more and more
>jobs require the computer." 
>     Being able to use the Web is critical to thousands of
>employed blind people.
>     A screen reader or screen access program like the one Chong
>uses is the translator that tells a speech synthesizer what to
>say when the visual icons are accompanied by a text description.
>"It's my white cane that helps me know what's on the screen,"
>Chong said. 
>     Henter-Joyce, a company in St. Petersburg, Fla., that
>manufactures the popular screen reader called JAWS (Job Access
>With Speech) for Windows, has between 15,000 and 18,000
>customers, said the company's president, Ted Henter. He said the
>customer base had increased four to five times since 1995. 
>     At least seven companies make the screen readers.
>Henter-Joyce's JAWS is one of the top sellers and costs about
>$795; the company's new version, to be released this spring, will
>include a speech synthesizer. The National Federation of the
>Blind Web site includes a computer-resource page that has
>information on how to get in contact with the companies that sell
>the readers. 
>     But getting the technology right is only one piece of the
>package. If Web pages do not have text that identifies graphics
>or if they have moving type, they will not be accessible. The
>World Wide Web Consortium, made up of universities, corporations
>and research organizations and based at the Massachusetts
>Institute of Technology, started a three-year project in 1997
>called the Web Accessibility Initiative that is creating
>guidelines to make technology and Web pages more accessible to
>blind, deaf and disabled users. 
>     The National Federation of the Blind has eight accessibility
>guidelines for Web pages that can be found on its Web site. 
>     The Center for Applied Special Technology, a nonprofit
>research and development organization in Peabody, Mass., has a
>free service in which it analyzes Web sites and offer suggestions
>for their accessibility. 
>     The change from DOS, a text-based operating system, to
>Windows, a graphics-based operating system, was a setback for the
>blind. 
>     "The world enthusiastically embraced Windows, and we were
>left out," said Wunder, who is also president of the Missouri
>chapter of the National Federation of the Blind. But in the last
>two and a half years, Microsoft "has shown concern and
>responsiveness" to the blind, Wunder said. 
>     Version 3.02 of Microsoft's browser, Internet Explorer,
>includes a component called Microsoft Active Accessibility, a
>layer of codes that are compatible with accessibility aids like
>the screen reader. In addition to aiding blind users, these codes
>also hook into software that helps users who are deaf or have
>other disabilities. 
>     But a newer version, Internet Explorer 4.0, was released on
>Oct. 1, 1997, without the Active Accessibility component. Angry
>letters, phone calls and e-mails let Luanne LaLonde, Microsoft's
>accessibility product manager, and others at Microsoft know that
>this was unacceptable. 
>     "We got a lot of e-mail," she said. In early November, about
>35 days after the release of Explorer 4.0, Microsoft released
>Explorer 4.01, including Active Accessibility. 
>     Web page design, of course, is an element of accessibility.
>Vito DeSantis, manager of field operations for the southern
>regional office of the New Jersey Commission for the Blind, uses
>the Web to find research on the eye condition that has made it
>impossible for him to see the computer screen for the past three
>years. He also likes to read newspapers on the Web. 
>     For visually impaired Web users like DeSantis, the vertical
>columns on the Web present the biggest problem because screen
>readers pick up the information horizontally. 
>
>     "You have to really know how to navigate around the screen,"
>DeSantis said. "I imagine quite a few people might get
>frustrated. Sometimes it's just not worth the effort." 
>     While screen readers help, Wunder said, "no screen reader
>has made the Web as easily accessible for the blind as for the
>sighted." 
>     Even with top-of-the-line screen readers, Web pages have to
>have text explanations for graphics and icons or the visually
>impaired computer user cannot move. 
>     "You get a screen and it says, 'Image, image, image,'"
>Schmeidler said, quoting the sound her screen reader makes when
>the cursor hits an icon without accompanying text. "You have no
>idea how frustrating it is." 
>     In addition to the advice on making a Web page accessible
>from the National Federation of the Blind and the Center for
>Applied Special Technology, the World Wide Web Consortium has a
>group of volunteer computer experts who are leading the Web
>Accessibility Initiative. The group's goal is to write guidelines
>for Web page authors who want to make their pages accessible for
>all disabled users. A rough draft of the recommendations can be
>found on the consortium's Web site. 
>     "Everything is voluntary, and the documents are called
>recommendations," said Professor Gregg Vanderheiden, director of
>the Trace Research and Development Center at the University of
>Wisconsin at Madison and a member of the group. But for
>businesses and government agencies, making sites accessible may
>not be voluntary, he said. 
>     In a policy ruling in September 1996, the Department of
>Justice said the Americans with Disabilities Act did cover access
>to Web pages. 
>     "A Web site is an electronic front door," Vanderheiden said.
>"But blind users often have to let individual Web page authors
>know that they can't understand their pages. 
>     "Sometimes people instantly go and fix it, and sometimes
>people don't care." 
>     Blind users say they want basic instruction on how to
>navigate the Web and get what they want. They do not need long
>descriptions that are intended to help them see pictures or other
>graphics. 
>     "Don't try to tell me how wonderful the Mona Lisa is,"
>Wunder said. "You can't do that, but you can tell me how to get
>the picture and print it out for my daughter." 
>
>Related Sites
>     Following are links to the external Web sites mentioned in
>this article. These sites are not part of The New York Times on
>the Web, and the Times has no control over their content or
>availability. When you have finished visiting any of these sites,
>you will be able to return to this page by clicking on your Web
>browser's "Back" button or icon until this page reappears.
>
>National Federation of the Blind 
>Computer resources 
>Accessibility guidelines 
>World Wide Web Consortium and the Web Accessibility Initiative 
>Center for Applied Special Technology 
>
>Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company 
>
>
>
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