This guide is for the visually impaired. If you want an introduction to some terminology and basic search techniques for finding resources on the internet on technology for the visually impaired, this will be your guide! This is not intended as a comprehensive resource on technology for the visually impaired: There are books that contain extensive information on this topic and many sites on the internet with a wealth of information on this subject.
This is intended to introduce you to the various types of
available resources. It is intended for those who are not familiar
with the specialized terminology used to describe many aspects of the
internet itself and the adaptive technology resources found on
it.
This is an attempt to give some very general advice on how to search for resources of interest to the blind and visually impaired. To gain the most from this document, please read it through from beginning to end at least once. The headings for the remaining subsections are:
Introduction To Computers; Screen Readers
Types of Words and Phrases; Types of Resources
Electronic Libraries; E-mail lists; Software
How to Find What You Want - A First Look
Each subsection of this document will end with "search terms" which
might help you find what you are looking for when you visit a
particular site on the Internet or when you use a search engine.
The difficulty the author of this section had when he first began
exploring the Internet for quality information on adaptive technology
was in finding the most helpful information as quickly as possible.
The quantity of information available is overwhelming.
The difficulty in finding what you really need today is due to the
fact that the Internet is largely organized hierarchically like a
file cabinet except that thousands of people are labeling the drawers
and so there is no standard set of words and phrases used to describe
items of interest. Large categories seem to have similar names, but
an average beginning user of the Internet has to go through many
levels of electronic file cabinets before the one document or program
useful to him/her is found, (this will be explained and qualified
later). Thus, my attempt is to provide a broad conceptual map and
terminology to help the reader organize his/her search. I have
attempted to classify the resources in a way I find useful. Since
many sites on the World Wide Web contain many links to other sources,
I did not feel it was necessary to duplicate the fine work in this
area. I just link to a handful of documents and sites which I hope
the beginner will find helpful. The knowledge gained from these
documents and sites can then be used when searching for more complete
information.
The Guide to
Computers for People With Disabilities
is a good general introduction, although the computer systems
mentioned are out of date. It includes introductory material on
computers and how to select a system for your needs. Also, see the
somewhat dated, but still excellent reference circular produced by
the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically handicapped
on Assistive
Devices
This circular lists devices for the print disabled (devices that
help the physically and visually disabled read print) arranged by
type of device. It also lists manufacturers and contains a
bibliography of articles on assistive devices. The titles alone of
such articles can provide useful information on the terminology used
in this field.
For the blind, the most important adaptive technologies for
computer access are speech synthesizers (the hardware) that actually
converts signals from the computer into speech), and the screen
readers (or "screen review programs") which are computer programs
(software) that converts the text on your computer's screen and your
keyboard into signals which are then sent to the synthesizer. For an
excellent review of the screen review programs, see the document
Screen
Review Programs: Comprehensive Reviews of Speech Access Programs For
The blind
, produced by the International Braille and Technology Center of
the National Federation of the Blind.
There are three main types of words and phrases that will help you
find what you are looking for quickly and easily:
The first category of words and phrases describes the type of
resource on the internet.
I will focus on those types of internet resources of which I am
most familiar.
(For further information on the following and other types of
resources, please refer to an introductory guide to the Internet such
as EFF's
(Extended) Guide to the Internet by the Electronic Frontier
Foundation.)
Resource Type #1
Electronic libraries contain texts including complete books,
journal articles, etc. These are often referred to as "E-text"
("Electronic texts") archives. You can find books on every topic and
guides to help you use the internet itself. A good place to begin is
The On-Line Books
Page, where you can browse and search across electronic libraries
by author, title, and subject.
Also, see the e-text
archives list at The National Library Service for the Blind and
Physically Handicapped.
Resource Type #2
Software repositories: These are usually FTP (File Transfer
Protocol) sites which contain computer programs which enable you to
do everything from play games to access the internet more easily. FTP
sites may also contain documents (often in plain ASCII text ).
Resource Type #3
E-mail lists are groups of people who communicate by e-mail about some topic. You can send e-mail to an individual, but the advantage of a discussion list is that when you want to ask a question or give some information, you send it to a central location (called a List Server), which then sends your message to everyone who subscribes to that list. This is very helpful when you simply don't know what to do and need help yesterday! Everyone on the list will get your question - you can even ask something like "Help - where can I find information about X?", where X is any topic you want to know about, (within the bounds of the range of topics discussed by that particular list). Many persons on the list will respond with very useful information/advice. Related to e-mail lists are the Usenet newsgroups which, in general, have a higher degree of focus on a specific topic, and the way these are accessed is different from a Listserv mailing list.
Search terms: e-mail, e-mail lists, mail, lists, discussion lists,
listserv, discussion groups, electronic lists, usenet newsgroups,
etc.
The second category of words and phrases describe the type of
object involved in an activity you want to do. For example books and
magazines are objects involved in reading; Baseballs, gloves, and
bats are involved in playing Baseball; measuring spoons and cups are
involved in cooking etc.
The third category of words and phrases used describes the type of technology you are searching for. This information is organized hierarchically, like a file cabinet with folders which are labelled with a name of a category. The highest level (includes the most information arranged in subcategories) of interest to the visually impaired is "Adaptive Technology". Also, if the word "adaptive" cannot be found, look for the word "assistive" instead of adaptive and if "technology" cannot be found, look for "devices." The next subcategory under "Adaptive Technology" or the variations mentioned, is "Visually Impaired" or, sometimes, simply "blind." Under this level you might find adaptive technology broken down into hardware such as speech synthesizers and Braille printers; Software such as screen readers (or sometimes called screen review programs), and Braille translation programs.
Search Terms: adaptive technology, assistive technology, visually impaired, blind, screen reader, screen review program, Braille, Braille translators, Braille translation programs, Braille translation software, speech synthesis, speech synthesizers, speech output, etc.
The fourth category of words and phrases describe the name of the activity you are interested in doing. These include accessing information, banking, reading, shopping, travelling, and any other activity you can think of. Accessing computers is considered an activity and subcategories such as accessing the World Wide Web (WWW) and the Windows operating system, (or more generally, accessing the GUI (Graphical User Interface) are included.
Search Terms: accessing, accessing the web, web access for the visually impaired, web access for the blind, accessing the world wide web, accessing the Windows operating system, accessing Windows, accessing GUI, GUI access, GUI access for the blind, etc.
There is another higher level tip which you might have noticed from the search terms above. The first level tip was about using different words for the same topic (i.e. "assistive" and "adaptive"). The next level tip is to change the word order or use different phrases for the same topic. if one order or phrase does not seem to help you find what you are looking for, try variations. For example, try "GUI access" if "access to GUI" does not help. Also, try "accessing" or "access to" if one or the other does not help.
A good idea is to start with a web page created by and/or for the visually impaired. There are a growing number of such web pages. An excellent place to start is the Outpost, created by Tom Baccanti. Try using some of the words and phrases mentioned above to search for that topic or activity. Tom explains how to do this if you are using the Lynx web browser. "Browsers" are computer programs that allow you to navigate (move from site to site) the World Wide Web. Lynx is a text-only web browser commonly used by the visually impaired. Tom's links to other web pages for the visually impaired are also highly recommended. Usually you can find links to other web pages by searching for the word "other" which begins a line such as "Other disability resources", "Other web pages", etc. Also of special note on the Outpost is the Speech Friendly Search Engines. Tom makes it easier for the Lynx user to use these search engines. The search engines allow you to search for information by category, keywords, exact phrases or names. I use Excite and Altavista frequently and often put my search in quotes to search for an exact match. I find that putting your search in quotes often results in a higher likelihood of locating relevant information. For example try searching for: "screen reader", or "screen review program."
The important idea to keep in mind is that there is no standard
catalog or terminology for the internet. The words used to name the
categories may not be the same from one site on the internet to the
next. One example, as mentioned earlier, is the use of the words
"adaptive" and "assistive" as referring to the same category. So, if
you used the Lynx search key (the forward slash, "/"), and searched
for "adaptive", Lynx might accurately report that the word was not
found in the current document. But, the word "assistive" might be
present in the document. If you cannot find what you think should be
there, try variations. If you get really stuck, I recommend going to
a catalog such as Yahoo, Catalog of
the internet.
The developers of Yahoo, among other developers of other sites, and
projects, are attempting to provide at least some generally useful
categories, although as mentioned earlier, there is no one standard
yet. Some day, perhaps! If the categories that you find on Yahoo seem
to be too general for the purpose of determining if that category is
what you want, here is what I do:
1. Hit the down arrow until I get to a category I want to know more
about (that is, I need to have it broken down into subcategories) For
example, what is included in "Society and Culture"? (Again, you can
get to an item by using the down arrow until you get there or by
using the Lynx search key and search for a unique set of letters that
appears on that line so Lynx will take you right to that line. in
this case, search for "society")
2.Hit the enter key to select that category
3. Use the Lynx search key (the forward slash, "/") to search for
"sub" (this begins the word "subcategory")
4. Hit the enter key to select Yahoo's subcategory listing for the
previously selected category. This will bring up a rather large file
listing all the subcategories, and even sub-subcategories, under the
selected category. This is useful because it shows how information
under that category is organized. (at least as done in Yahoo) You can
then use some of those words or phrases in your search to narrow down
your search request, or just hit the enter key when you are on one
that you want to see.
Search engines such as Excite and Altavista are also useful for finding information on the Web. Again, I recommend first going to The Outpost and selecting the "Speech Friendly Search Engines" item. There are helpful documents about how to find what you want on the Web. Two good guides to the search tools available on the Web and how to choose the most appropriate one for your needs are:
and
Finding
Information On The Web
A Note about our author by Jeff Dorr, Technology Coordinator for the
TRE Center: Steven McCaffrey created this guide while working as an
intern for the TRE Center. Steve has many diverse skills such as
computer programming and is always interested in new job and career
opportunities. I fully recommend Steve to perspective employers. The
reason why Steve knows so much about overcoming the adversities of
the internet for people who are blind is because he is blind himself
and had to figure it all out the hard way. I hope this guide is a
help to others out there with visual impairments. If it is, please
drop a quick comment to Steve. I'm sure he would love to get some
feedback.
You can reach Steve by e-mail at Send
mail to Steve McCaffrey If his e-mail address is no longer in
use, you can send any comments to me, Jeff
Dorr, and I will try to forward them on to him.