Selecting Internet Access Tools

for Blind and Visually Impaired (VI) Users

Blind and visually impaired people are accessing the Internet through conventional computers, and operating systems.  They work out individual accommodations that make access work for them.  We learned a few things that make this possible.

Read about

  1.  BROWSERS,
  2. TEXT TO SPEECH SOFTWARE,
  3. ACCESS TECHNOLOGY,
  4. INTERNET PROVIDERS, and
  5. PDF (Portable Document Format) FILES.

Browsers

offer some of the choices.

Browser settings

can be optimized without addition of any special hardware or software by The National Association for the Visually Handicapped provided some of these tips.
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Text-to-speech software,

may be added, such as
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Specialized "access technology" equipment

and software, such as screen enlargers, screen readers, voice synthesizers, and refreshable Braille keyboards may be added to computer systems. See our IA: Technology and Hardware Update

Access First, of Toronto, Canada, are trainers, consultants and software developers providing accessibility services for the handicapped community.  Their site has interesting information about several of these services and combinations thereof.

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Internet provider

Even the choice of an Internet provider impacts accessibility.  Voice synthesizer equipment may work better with a no frills Internet Provider, than with an Internet Service Provider.  [See the article by Crista L. Earl and Jay D. Leventhal, Accessing On-Line Services with Synthetic Speech: America Online, CompuServe, and Internet Service Providers, Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, Vol. 92, No. 8, 1998.  A copy of this article can be found, with permission, in WEBWATCH-L listserv archives.  When you link to this, scroll down to find the article.]
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PDF (Portable Document Format) files

are not easily interpreted by screen readers.  But they can be made accessible by translation into HTML at the Adobe.com server .
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 There are eight places to go from here:

  1. Welcome Page: Internet Accessibility
  2. Internet Accessibility [IA]: Why?
  3. IA: Why? Formatted
  4. IA: A Case of Fonts
  5. IA: Web Page Design
  6. Your are here.IA: Selecting Tools
  7. IA: Technology and Hardware Update
  8. IA: Information Resources
Return to [Internet Interfaces class logo] home page.

Last Updated July 31, 1998

Mary O. Walker  mowalker@scils.rutgers.edu.
In collaboration with Robert K. Schmidt  rkschmi@scils.rutgers.edu.
Internet Interfaces class.
School of Information, Communication and Library Studies.
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.