Mobile+Access+to+Screen+Reading+for+the+Blind+and+Visually+Impaired

 For people with visual impairments (VI) and blindness, being able to read text on the Internet can pose a significant challenge. In order for blind users to be able to access websites and potentially have the text read to them, they utilize a variety of assistive technologies. These supports may include magnification and text-to-speech auditory support. There are several commercially available software programs that can assist these individuals in gaining the access they need. Examples of these products are: JAWS for Windows; MAGic Screen Magnification ; and Window-Eyes. All of these are examples of software programs that would be installed on the visually impaired/blind person's computer. Personal settings would be established so that the software was customized to their specific needs.  However, what happens when the user is out in public and needs to utilize the Internet, but they do not have access to their personal assistive technologies? One potential solution is for the user to access "WebAnywhere", a web-based screen reader for the Internet. This Web 2.0 technology creates two frames on the web page. One is the browser frame in which the user types the web address with screen reading support; the other frame is the the content frame in which the content of the website is displayed and then read to the user.  WebAnywhere does not install any software onto the computer, it is all done through a proxy web server. Since this is a Web 2.0 application in which only 100 KB of information needs to be loaded prior to its use, it is fast to load. The computer that the user selects would need to have a functioning sound card and the ability for the user to plug in headphones or ear buds. Presently, WebAnywhere is able to read web content, although it can not currently read web pages with frames or Adobe Flash.  The WebAnywhere technology has been evaluated with blind users and the results have been that the users have indicated that they found it somewhat tedious to use, but a necessary technology since portable screen reading technologies were cost prohibitive for most. They also indicated that this Web 2.0 tool would be useful in accessing the Web when their personal assistive technologies were not available. The user would need to implement another type of support if they needed access to text other than on a website. Ongoing development of Web Anywhere will strive to refine issues that users are experiencing so that this free web-based technology can meet the needs of the blind user in various settings.


 * Resource:** Bigham, JP; Prince, CM; and Ladner, RE, WebAnywhere: A screen reader on-the-go. April 2008. Retrieved October 8, 2010, from @http://webinsight.cs.washington.edu/papers/webanywhere-html/