Net Surfing for Those Unable to See
From: Baltimore Sun - 03/16/2005 - P. 1C
By: Abigail Tucker

A collaborative venture between Towson University professor Jonathan Lazar
and the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) is examining the many problems
visually impaired people encounter when navigating the Internet. Lazar, who
serves as director of the university's Computer Information Systems
Undergraduate Program, notes that spam, security checks, pop-up ads, and
other things that can slow down an unimpaired user's Web searches are even
worse impediments for the blind. "What is annoying to a visual user becomes
impossible for a blind user," he says. Screen readers or Braille keyboards
that blind people use to navigate the Internet are limited in that they
cannot scan or render graphical elements into a readable format. Lazar and
Betsy Zaborowski with the NFB's research and technology training institute
agree that the Internet is fundamentally designed for visual users. Lazar
insists that the Net can be redesigned for the blind easily and cheaply,
particularly if such accommodations are made in the earliest phase of Web
site design; for instance, designers could add expository captions below
pictures, or bypass redundant links with the addition of shortcuts. Lazar
says the most important step in spurring reforms is raising awareness of the
problem, which he intends to do when he releases the results of his study to
Web masters and software designers in the summer. Zaborowski warns that
without adequate Web accessibility, blind users will be unable to acquire
Internet skills that could expand their job prospects. 

Read the entire article at:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/lifestyle/bal-to.blind16mar16,1,1345515.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

Links:
Homepage of Dr. Jonathan Lazar
http://triton.towson.edu/~jlazar/

Betsy Zaborowski
http://www.mddailyrecord.com/top100w/zaborowski.html

NFB
http://www.nfb.org/default.htm
http://www.nfb.org/nfbrti/bz_bio.htm

