How can a blind person access a web site?

Question

Target is getting sued by blind people because their web site is not accessible by blind people. What technology can be used to remedy this?

Answer 1

a blind person would have to have it read to them somehow but than again how could a blind person turn on the computer to begin with

Answer 2

Blind people usually use a screen reader program, or a text-only browser, or a combination of the two. Problem is, many websites use coding and technologies that are incompatible with these: multiply-nested tables, no alt tags, everything in Flash, etc. If a website is designed in this incompatible way, then there is nothing the user can do to fix it, short of asking a sighted friend for help.

The remedy is for the website designers to use standards-compliant html (or xhtml) when writing the website, keeping accessibility in mind throughout; i.e. the solution is to *not* use technology, but to go back to the basics. Unfortunately, this requires a mindset shift that can be difficult to "sell" to the corporate bosses ("what do you mean I shouldn't try to control exactly what the user sees?!?").

Answer 3

Numerous resources exist that assist you in making your website more accessible to the disabled. Keep in mind websites also need to account for people with hearing problems (do you provide audio/video clips?), motor control (does the site use drop down boxes that require strict mouse control?), and cognitive problems (does your site use breadcrumbs to remind the user where they are in context of the larger site?).

As starting points, check out

1) Section 508 -
http://www.section508.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Content&ID=5
This is a government website that explains the government's practices to make its own websites usable and accessible to the disabled.

2) Website Accessbility Initiative - http://www.w3.org/WAI/gettingstarted/Overview.html
"The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) develops strategies, guidelines, and resources to help make the Web accessible to people with disabilities. The following WAI resources are intended to provide basic information for people who are new to Web accessibility."

They also provide a list of online tools that you can use to determine how "accessible" your website is to the disabled - http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/tools/complete

3) American Foundation for the Blind -
http://www.afb.org/Section.asp?SectionID=57&TopicID=167
- The AFB has a wealth of information for website developers.

National Federation of the Blind -
http://www.nfb.org/nfb/Web_accessibility.asp?SnID=3873666

4) Web Accessibility in Mind
http://www.webaim.org/intro/

If you plan on redesigning your website yourself, you may want to read :
http://joeclark.org/book/ or http://www.paciellogroup.com/resources/books.htm.

You can always hire a web designer to restructure your site to be accessible.

Target is currently being sued by the National Federation of the Blind on behalf of a student because it's website allegedly violates the American with Disabilities Act. The outcome of this case will have far reaching implications for businesses.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060910-7705.html

Good luck.

Answer 4

Microsoft has a Narrator program that is already installed. It will read you what ever you mouse is over.