The Sacramento Bee
She battles for her dream of a blind-friendly Web
By Blair Anthony Robertson
Bee Staff Writer
(Published Nov. 16, 1999)

For the past six years, while the Internet was expanding into a household
necessity for shopping, information and entertainment, Cathy Murtha has
essentially gone door to door on the Information Superhighway with a simple
but daunting request on behalf of the blind: Mind if we tag along, too?
At stake, the Sacramento woman insists, is nothing less than the future. If
left behind, people who are blind could be shut out of job opportunities
and, she says, the opportunity for a new kind of independence.

Since getting her first computer in 1993, Murtha, 41, has written thousands
of e-mails to companies encouraging them to implement often-simple Web
design adjustments that make the sites more accessible to the blind.

With no fanfare, Murtha's efforts -- she estimates she has corresponded
with up to 2,000 Web sites -- have earned her a national following.

Her work for blind access online was given a major boost with the Nov. 4
filing of a federal lawsuit against America Online by the National
Federation of the Blind.

The Baltimore-based organization argues that the Internet company's
software is nearly impossible for blind people to use. AOL says new
software it is developing will be more accessible.

Murtha says she and others have waited long enough.

"The Net is the future," she said during a break from the computer classes
she teaches at the Society for the Blind in Sacramento. "It offers so much
opportunity, shopping and everything else. If we don't have access to that,
it's like closing the doors at Arden Fair mall and saying, 'I'm sorry,
you're blind. You can't come in.' Nobody would put up with that.

"But a lot of sites on the Internet are doing that and people don't seem to
care. It's time people realize it's wrong, very wrong."

The federal lawsuit has focused mainstream attention on barriers the blind
face on the Internet. Most blind people use programs that translate text
into something audible, essentially having a talking computer. But Web
sites laden with graphics are giving blind people like Murtha fits because
their special software can't read the graphics.

"It's so easy to fix," Murtha said enthusiastically. "If Web designers on
90 percent of these sites would just use something called an 'alt tag' --
alternative text -- you can still have the graphics but we can see the text
underneath and click on the information."

Among those who appreciated Murtha's online activism was Bryan Bashin,
Sacramento's executive director of the Society for the Blind. He liked her
work so much he hired her six months ago to teach computer skills to other
blind people.

"She got remarkable results and had quite a reputation," Bashin said. "The
online blind community, which numbers in the tens of thousands, knows who
she is and what she has done. She is a pioneer. She has paved the way in
many respects."

Curtis Chong, director of technology at the National Federation of the
Blind, says the lawsuit against AOL will increase awareness that the blind,
with a 70 percent unemployment rate, cannot afford to be left behind as
computer technology expands.

"One of the biggest challenges we face is that most people can't even
conceive that we use computers in the first place," Chong said.

Many see technology as the great equalizer for the blind, a chance to forge
greater independence. For example, Web sites are beginning to offer online
grocery shopping, which allows the blind to read the selections by
themselves, make purchases through their computers and await home delivery.
Much simpler than a trip to a supermarket.

"This comes down to literally being able to compete with our sighted peers
in the information age," Chong added. "Jobs are at stake."

George Buys, who helps manage Audio-tips.com,a popular blind-oriented Web
site based in Mesa, Ariz., has never met Murtha but is grateful for her
work. In fact, Buys read his first newspaper by accessing a link on
Murtha's Web site.

"What a thrill that was," Buys said. "She has been tirelessly working in
that area and her work has made it possible for me to design my own Web site."

But Murtha's work, it seems, is never over. All she wants to do is surf the
Web, learn things, meet people, buy stuff.

Many major Web sites are adding new graphics every day. Every time she logs
on and hits a roadblock, she fires off an e-mail. And breaks down another
barrier.


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