A Video Transcript for "Web Accessibility - A Level Playing Field"

I'm a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Before I come to work every morning, I go out on the web, and look through the headlines on The New York Times and The Christian Science Monitor. This may strike you as no big deal.

Screen title: Katherine Schneider - Clinical Psychologist, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire

But for those of us who are blind, we do not have, other than by using the Internet, we do not have the ability to read newspapers independently. What computers have done for me is to make my access to information a hundred times greater than what it used to be. Before, I was fluent using brail, tape, human readers, etc. Now I can do things by using the Internet that expands my choices of information just immeasurably.

Let me tell you a little bit about what's different about my computer system. You start with a basic Pentium class PC. Then add a special program and a special sound card, and what the program does is it makes the computer read out loud everything on the screen.

University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Home Page. Microsoft Internet Explorer. Loading page. Load done. University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Presidents and Chancellors. Name, Title, Term. Link. Harvey Schofield, president, 1916 - 1940 . .

Instead of using a mouse to point and click, I use tab keys and arrow keys to go around the screen. I type and it talks, is a way to think about how I work with the Window-Eyes program to get the information from the screen. I've turned off the graphics because, first of all, it allows web pages to load faster and also because I can't see them--the machine does not read them out loud. All it says when it encounters a graphic is the word 'graphic'

Screen heading: Making Accessibility Work

If possible avoid using PDF files, which are not currently very accessible. Put search boxes near the top left part of the screen so I don't have tab around forever to find them. I can't point and click, I just use tabs. Title frames. If you have an image map on your page, give text for that. If you're going to have a visual track on your web page also please give an auditory track describing what is going on in the visual track. Provide a summary of tables so that those of us who have difficulty reading a table can also get the information in a different fashion.

Screen heading: A Level Playing Field

Computers plus the Internet has made my world richer. There are things that you as web developers or as administrators of technology programs on campuses can do to make sure that it is a somewhat level playing field and that your site is accessible to those of us who use screen readers as well as to those who use regular mouse technology to read the web pages.

Loading page. Load done. University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Chancellor Donald Mash ...