I am forwarding this from another list, hope we haven't any duplicates
here, none in my inbox right now. I am not very knowledgeable on this, but
upon first reading, it seems that for this product to work, a web designer
has to purchase a relatively expensive program to work on their site. I
do not know if the end user can only use the product with certain screen
readers, or whether or not the end user has to install a local program for
this to work. Perhaps this is the tip of the future iceberg.
Steve
From: Lynne King [log in to unmask]
To: Vip mailing list [log in to unmask]
Now here is something of intrest.
Utah Software Aids Blind
Monday, May 7, 2001
BY PAUL BEEBE
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
When Joe Roeder visits a Web site, he sees nothing. The
eye-appealing
words and graphics on most Internet pages are invisible to Roeder,
who
has
been
blind for 23 years.
Fortunately, Roeder's computer has a screen-reading software
program
that converts text into an electronic voice. But when the screen
reader
hits
a
graph or chart, it's stumped.
That's changing. Corda Technologies Inc., a Lindon-based software
company, has developed a way for blind people to read charts and
graphs,
too. The
software reportedly is the first to generate a text description of a
chart
or graphic at the same time it assembles the chart or graphic for
normal
viewing.
"It's very valuable," said Roeder, a technology specialist who works
for
the National Industries for the Blind in Alexandria, Va.
There are about 750,000 blind people in the United States, according
to
the National Federation of the Blind (NFB). Each year, 50,000 more
people
lose
their sight. Unemployment among the blind is as high as 75 percent,
said
Ron
Gardner, legal director for the Disability Law Center in Salt Lake
City
and
Utah president of the NFB.
"If we can get information that's been inaccessible be- cause it's
been
in a bar graph and put it in a form that blind people can use, then,
by
golly,
we are competing for more jobs," said Gardner, who has some
peripheral
vision, but otherwise has been blind all his life.
The push to develop software that enables blind people to read graphs
and charts came from the federal government. Corda CEO Neal Williams
said
a
law
passed by Congress three years ago requires federal agencies to make
their
electronic data accessible to disabled people in ways that are
comparable
to
access provided to people without disabilities. The law takes effect
June
21.
Williams said his company's product gives blind people the
opportunity
to get as much out of the Internet as anyone else.
"The Internet is the great new hope for universal access to
information
and communication," he said. "But if you are visually impaired, the
Internet
has limited usefulness. The valuable information contained in charts
and
graphs can't be understood unless that data is converted from
graphics
into
text
form."
The product is actually a new option that can be packaged with
Corda's
main software line. The company's PopChart programs instantly
assemble
statistics
on anything from food sales to sports statistics and display them as
bar
graphs, line graphs or pie charts on an Internet page.
Its latest program, PopChart D, builds the same charts and
graphs,
but
has the added ability to convert the data into descriptive text read
by
an
electronic
voice. The software costs $10,600.
"I can't say enough about it. It is an incredible program," said Dan
Grauman, a Web-page designer for the National Cancer Institute. "To
my
knowledge,
there isn't anything around like it."
While the new regulation applies only to federal pages, Congress
hopes
companies will embrace equal Internet access. Williams said Boeing
Co.,
which
sells jets and other aircraft to the government and also has a large
population of visually disabled employees, is showing interest in
Corda's
new program.
"We have just barely released this product, and we have already heard
from them," he said.
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