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The Access 2.0 interview - Liz Ball
- 5 Jan 07, 03:21 PM
Often the biggest thing missing in the dialogue about making the web accessible is a disability context. Few web developers actually speak to disabled people let alone test with them. Over the next few weeks we鈥檙e going to be speaking to disabled people directly to get their experiences of web usage.
Liz Ball is deafblind and accesses the internet on her PC using the JAWS screenreader with a Braille display. How does she use the internet?
Liz: 鈥淚 use email as my main method of distance communication. Without email I would be much more isolated and find many things much more difficult.鈥
鈥淎 lot of deafblind people use the internet for shopping - it's much easier than going into a store when you can't find your way, can't see the products and can't communicate with people there. If it wasn't for online shopping, I'd starve!鈥
鈥淣ews websites are also important as accessing radio, TV and newspapers is impossible for severely deafblind people.鈥
What are the biggest access issues when it comes to the web for deaf-blind users?
Liz: 鈥淒eafblind people who rely on braille to access the web need all web content and navigation to be available through text. If web developers follow the guidelines for making sites accessible to blind people it will go a long way towards making it accessible for deafblind people.鈥
鈥淎ccessing the web through braille can be slow, so concise information with clear navigation is very important. I often give up looking on websites because it's taking me too long to find the information I want.鈥
Are there any websites that are big with the deaf-blind community?
Liz: 鈥淭here's a website called which is run by a man with Usher Syndrome (one cause of deafblindness). This site is quite popular amongst people with Usher. There isn't really an equivalent for those of us with other causes of deafblindness.鈥
鈥淭here are a number of email lists for deafblind people, but these seem to be used mostly by deafblind people in the US.鈥
Are there any things about the internet that make you mad?
Liz: 鈥淵es! Inaccessible websites. It's infuriating to do a search or be referred to a website only to discover you can't access it. It's even worse when you spend time shopping online and then discover that the checkout system of that site is inaccessible.鈥
Thinking about how the web is changing, are there any trends you have noted that worry you or give you hope?
Liz: 鈥淰ideo is being used more and more either to augment or instead of other web content. It would be a tragedy if the increased use of video led to deafblind people becoming less and less able to access the web. We need to ensure that people do provide text alternatives.鈥
鈥淚'm sometimes asked whether online subtitles for video makes them accessible. My view is that no it doesn't because the subtitle text scrolls too quickly and it doesn't include descriptions of the visual information. So a separate text description of the full thing is more useful.鈥
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颁辞尘尘别苍迟蝉听听 Post your comment
hi.
maybe i am posting this in the wrong place, but have you done an entry on the web browser Webbie?
it changes the layout of internet explorer so that it is easier to use when you're visually impaired.
there are also different programs on the site.
to find out more about it, go to
sorry if this is in the wrong place, but i just thought it would be useful.
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I tend to fit into the category of 'web designer who hasn't had a great deal of experience in dealing directly with disabled people' and the way I design and build websites is based pretty much on the standards I read and talk about online (with disabled people on ocasion). So with this in mind, it's strange reading Liz's answers because based on what I've learnt over the years, if I was asked the questions myself and I had to think what a deafblind person may say, I probably would have answered very similarly. Does that suggest I've had a good online education in terms of learning about web accessibility?
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