General Accessibility Tool:
Accessible Web Materials
Definition: Audio Described Media
The Web offers many new opportunities to people with disabilities that are unavailable through any other medium. They can access information, make purchases, communicate with the world, and access entertainment that does not depend on the responsiveness of other people. But this independence is only partially a reality. Too many Web sites are not created with Web accessibility in mind. They exclude the segment of the population that in many ways stands to gain the most from the internet.
(Adapted from: Introduction to Web Accessibility by Paul Bohman. October 2003, WebAIM Web site, http://www.webaim.org/intro/)
There are many resources available that describe the concepts and tools needed to make Web sites available to people with disabilities. See the Resources section of this site.
One tool that blind people have to use computers is called a screen reader, software that reads aloud what is on a computer screen and provides navigational cues. There are many different screen readers. A popular one is called JAWS (Job Access With Speech).
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