Improving Web access for visually impaired users

Technology advances and the continuing convergence of computing and telecommunications have made an unprecedented amount of information available to the public. For many people with disabilities, however, accessibility issues limit the impact of such widespread availability. Of the many types of disabilities-mobility, hearing, and learning impairments, for example-vision impairments are most pervasive in the general population, especially among seniors. The world's rapidly aging population is redefining visually impaired, which refers to individuals with low vision (that is, people for whom ordinary eyeglasses, contact lenses, or intraocular lens implants don't provide clear vision), color blindness, and blindness. In 1998, the US Congress amended the Rehabilitation Act, strengthening provisions covering access to government-posted information for people with disabilities. As amended, Section 508 requires federal agencies to ensure that all assets and technologies are accessible and usable by employees and the public, regardless of physical, sensory, or cognitive disabilities. Most current assistive technologies for visually impaired users are expensive, difficult to use, and platform dependent. A new approach by the US National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health (NIH), addresses these weaknesses by locating the assistive capability at the server, thus freeing visually impaired individuals from the software expense, technical complexity, and substantial learning curve of other assistive technologies. NLM's Senior Health Web site (http://nihseniorhealth.gov), a talking Web (a Web application that presents Web content as speech to users), demonstrates the approach's effectiveness.