A Handicap Accessible Web Site
Is Your Web Site Handicap-Accessible?
Making online access easy use for blind and other disabled users is gaining attention because of class actions against companies like Target
Amber Grant, 18, eats, sleeps, and breathes the Internet, according to her father, Garry Grant, CEO of Carlsbad (Calif.)-based technology outfit SEO Inc.. The company, which has 65 employees, often calls on Amber to use her prodigious Web skills to help with a vexing problem: checking to see whether its clients’ Web sites are accessible to the blind.
“I give her tasks to go onto clients’ Web sites, find a particular product, select it, purchase it, and get through checkout securely. If it takes way too long, or it’s difficult or impossible, I know we need to do some work,” says Garry Grant, whose daughter has been blind since birth. Amber is able to navigate the Internet using a “screen reader.” This is software designed for individuals who are blind, dyslexic, or have low vision. The software resides on the user’s PC and reads the text on the screen out loud, using braille-enabled keyboard commands rather than a mouse.
Read the Entire Story at: BusinessWeek
Additional Resources
World Wide Web Consortium Web Accessibility Initiative
The International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet