Web Support For Visually Impaired

The Website

spiritualbookreviews — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 08:43:21 +0000

It has been an interesting journey researching about the many facets of visual impairment: from what causes it, how it affects people and what is available to help with internet access.

The most important discovery for me is how I now view websites from a different perspective, and can see immediately that some web designers have not taken into account people with visual impairments whilst designing websites.

Our assessment included creating a simple 2 page website and test for accessibility. I decided to create a website on The Four Agreements which is a book that I bought on audio several years ago, which made me think of it. It’s a practical and simple philosophy based on Toltec Wisdom.

The website is simple and clean. It has clear text that is larger than average and bold. The colours have been chosen to suit people with colour blindness and the navigation is at the very top for clear accessibility of use. The navigation hover has been given a background colour to clearly show when the mouse is over the navigation. Appropriate alt tags and title tags have been provided with images.
Click here for The Four Agreements

WordPress Tutorial for Inserting YouTube Videos

spiritualbookreviews — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:00:18 +0000

When I was researching YouTube for videos relating to Visual Impairment, I also print screened the process for another assignment.

I’ve made a Tutorial on Inserting YouTube Videos into a WordPress Blog.
Click here for YouTube tutorial

YouTube for Visually Impaired

spiritualbookreviews — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 08:41:37 +0000

My latest research took me to YouTube. I was impressed that there are YouTube video’s about visual impairment. Here’s a sample I found interesting

IBM Technology Assists Visually Impaired Internet Users

Web Accessibility – through the eye’s of a screen reader

Good and Bad Screen Reading

Accessible Web Design

spiritualbookreviews — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 03:36:18 +0000

I found a website listing reasons that businesses should implement accessibility. Click here for Accessible Web Design

I was also advised by a fellow student who is colour blind and has suffered from dyslexia, that a group called SPELD in Victoria made the presentation of their website suitable for colour blindness and other disabilities.
Click here for SPELD Victoria

Here’s a site about how people use the web with examples of different peoples experiences with dissibilities using the web.
Click here for w3.org

This link has information about browsers designed for people with disabilities but the information is out of date. Click here for Alternative Web Browsing

Links to Student Blogs

spiritualbookreviews — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 03:10:02 +0000

A few students in my class have also done research on
visual disabilities and posted their findings in their blogs.

Sarah’s blog is on Colour Blindness and the Internet.
She has included a very practical Colour Blindness Test on video.
Click here for Colour Blindness and the Internet

Roxy has decided to research Macular Degeneration and will be posting her findings on her blog.
Click here for Macular Degeneration Information

Here is an updated list of those that have started their blogs

Ian has decided to focus his research on Visual Impairment also.
Click here for his blog on Disabilities and Web Design

Penny’s subject is physical disabilities and will have alot of interesting research relating to old age
Click here for Disability and Internet Use

Meagan is new to our class but is excelling and has made a very impressive blog with alot of interesting links.
Her website will focus on Visual Disabilities. Click here for Creating User-Friendly Websites

Bob is also new to the class, but had been doing online studies and will also be researching Visual Disabilities. He is focusing on people who’s eyesight is beginning to fail, to those who are becoming partially blind. Click here for Visually Impaired Site Design

Jason has chosen to research creating an easily accessible website for Short Sighted People.
Click here for Website for Impaired Persons

Chris has been affected by Dyslexia and will be researching making websites accessible for people with Dyslexia.
Click here for Research on Dyslexia

Wendy has decided to research the affects of hearing loss and website accessibility.
Click here for Effects of Hearing Loss

I will be adding more links as students post their blogs.

Global estimate of visual impairment

spiritualbookreviews — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 12:54:16 +0000

Part of the assessment for Accessibility for People with Special Needs included posting our first blog into our Social Networking Site called Blingat.ning. When I posted it, I added a pie graph and link that I had not uploaded on here. This is a log of all our research and I find it interesting to understand the impact and magnitude of people affected by visual impairment, and the causes.

This pie graph shows the Global Estimate of Visual Impairment.

All this research helps to build a website for all kinds of visual impairment.

Audio Book Reader for Students

spiritualbookreviews — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 08:13:25 +0000

While I’ve been researching information to build a website that is accessible for people with visual impairment, I found an article on a new device that was made for students of higher learning.

Only released last week in India, it was invented as there are not many books or resources available to the blind for higher education. Here is an article about the Audio Book Reader.

I knew there were audio books available, and I was very interested to find that there are thousands available, but of course they would be best sellers, not educational. You can become a member at Audible.com and download audio books.

Web Accessibility

spiritualbookreviews — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 11:09:22 +0000

An accessible web site is a web site that can be used by disabled users. Web standards make it easier for people with disabilities to use the Web.
Blind people can use computers that read Web pages for them. People with poor sight can rearrange and magnify standard Web pages.

The WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative) is a set of guidelines intended for web developers, authors, and designers- about how to make the web content accessible to people with disabilities.
Here is a brief summary

Use of larger fonts.

Suitable colour arrangements for colour blind people.

Use of audio.

Describe text and pictures, with alt & title comments.

Easily understood navigation.

Screen not too busy.

Large legible buttons.

More information can be found at w3Schools including reasons for web developers to make web sites accessible.

After searching the net for information on accessibility I found a Web Site Accessibility Testing Tool

I also found a blog commited to raising the awareness of web site accessibility and marketing containing lots of useful information.
It’s suitably named Web Site Accessibility Blog

Web Support for the Visually Impaired

spiritualbookreviews — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 01:07:46 +0000

Welcome to Web Support for People with Visual Impairment.

I am a student of Web Design and this blog is part of an assessment for Accessibility of Websites for People with Special Needs.

I have chosen to focus my research on helping people with visual impairments to access the internet. Ironically my husband and I sell secondhand books, so when we had to choose a disability to research, immediately I thought of people that are have difficulty reading books.
Did you know that 10% of the population have a disability?

This assessment has come just as I have recovered from a bad fall where I fractured my sacrum and was temporarily physically disabled from pain. The experience made me grateful just to be able to walk. We don’t realise what it’s like for people with disabilities when we are able to function fully.

This blog is going to be regularly updated with web related support and information that I have found to help people with visual impairments.

I will be designing a website with accessibility for visual impairments ranging from colour blindness to diminishing vision, and the first research I will be doing is defining What is accessibility?

I found a site that sells Colour Dificient Vision charts for Web Designers and a very good site that explains Effective Colour Contrast

I have also added a link on the right hand side under Visual Disabilities to a useful site explaining the different types of visual impairments.