Technology

Yahoo mail Accessibility

How popular can Internet be with the visually impaired? A lot, it appeared, as the visually challenged users in Bangalore navigated through the web with the help of a screen reader.

Victor Tsaran, the accessibility guru at Yahoo!, made a profound introduction as he prepared to demonstrate the company's new mailing version for the blind. “If any of you cannot see my desktop from where you are sitting, it is okay. Then you will understand how your students feel, to be unable to see the screen while using the Internet. I suggest you work on the computer with your screen switched off for a few minutes every day, so that you will know how painful it is, to not see, he said.
Himself completely blind and a hand behind the accessible version, Tsaran was perhaps best placed to put the teachers at Mitra Jyothi, a charitable institute for the blind, in their students’ shoes for a while. He would hold the keyboard in his lap, and remind the trainers that for their students, the mouse was vain instrument. But there was good news: “The Screen Reader (soft–ware that that reads out items on the screen) can do everything on the keyboard.”

Interestingly, the few visually impaired among the audience were not lost at Tsaran's usage of computer jargons. Questions were asked on the download speeds, the accessibility of graphic content and other navigation–related details of the service. Justin Philip, the tech wizard who worked as a part–time medical transcriptions wanted on the mail were audio–enabled. Tsaran said the email verification process, as well as other products of the company such as search and messenger would be made accessible for the disabled.

Hailing from Ukraine where he was a student in philosophy, Tsaran later moved to the US to study computers. “Technology has made people more independent, it has opened jobs for people; but society also has to change,” he said. Back in the US, he would continue to work on improving the possibilities of the Internet for those who cannot see, he said, “I do not believe in a perfect world. Technology keeps changing. We have to fight and find solutions (to accessibility issues),” he said.

The new version, Yahoo! Mail Classic is aimed at making its blind users more independent while using the Internet. Users should choose the “Classic version” on Yahoo's home page, and navigate as different items on the screen including inbox, subjects, date and sender details are read out.

Source: Yahoo! Screen reader to open new vistas for visually impaired, Financial Express, New Delhi, 25 November 2007.

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Document Translator

Microsoft and the DAISY digital talking books consortium are to work together on a tool for the blind and otherwise print–disabled that translates Microsoft Word documents into a digital audio standard.

The collaboration was aimed at producing a free, downloadable plug–in that would translate documents based on Open XML–the default file–saving format in Microsoft Office 2007–into DAISY XML. The DAISY XML file can then be processed to produce digital audio and other formats. The plug–in is expected to be available in early 2008.
The not–for–profit DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) consortium, based in Zurich, Switzerland, was formed in 1996 by talking–book libraries to help the transition from analogue to digital talking books, and has adopted open standards based on internet file formats.

Its members include the US National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, the Spanish National Organization of the Blind and the Korean Braille Library.

Microsoft is campaigning to have its Open XML document format approved as an international standard, which would help it gain wider adoption by public–sector organizations.

Source: Microsoft to develop document translator for blind, The Times of India, Daily, New Delhi, 26–Nov–2007.

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