Tools for the blind and deaf

  I found it surprising that as I looked though all of the settings and information on my “Blogger” blog for this class I was unable to find any setting that aid in the accessibility of disable people. I know that other sites offer some of these things and I think they should be offered everywhere.

Surely there is code that can be written to ease the burden of navigating a blog sight if you are hearing or visually impaired. In my research I did find that “Word” and “PDF”.  Do have built in tools and aid for the bind and hearing impaired. I am not sure exactly how it all works but I am thrilled that it is available.

 The National Federation for the Blind have a lot of helpful information for creators and users of web and Pc. Based materials. They have information and links to reader apps and technologies that are available.

 A guide to setting up web services for the blind is also available on their page for download via a provided link. It is a word document and it is very informative.  I really don’t know how it would work for someone who is blind and hearing impaired to use my blog. I would say that it would be a much easier thing to do for someone who is hearing impaired than it would for a person who is blind. The use of imagery and text could be used to help a deaf person navigate a web or blog page but these would not work for a blind individual.

 I think in order to accommodate the blind the only real way to do this is with the use of audio assuming that they are able to hear.  Also they would need to be able to navigate to your page and find the play button. This might be avoidable with the use of auto play features.

Here is a youtube video that explains these features.( I was unable to embed the video in this post) I am sharing the link below,

                                                                        link to video

Images such as the ones we have developed for design process are also good ways to communicate. although the information may be different the idea is still the same. Explaining your information using a visual design in order to help a hearing impaired person to understand what is happening on your blog page. 

These features should be available on all websites and blogs across the internet. I feel like these should be built in features. 

Joe,

References;

National Federation for the Blind

https://nfb.org/

Baer, Kim.  Information Design Workbook.  Rockport Publishing 2008

Noto, J. JNgraphics. Information Design Process 2018.

Creating  Accessible documents.  The National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute Access Technology Team. July 2014

 YouTube,  Chicago Lighthouse presents How to use a computer as a person who is blind or visually impaired. November 5, 2015