Website for blind and vision impaired developed with open source CMS

By Stan Beer
Tuesday, 25 March 2008 15:06

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IT consultancy Energetica and not-for-profit benevolent group Media Access Australia, have developed a website specifically for the blind and vision impaired community. The site, www.audiodescription.com.au , aims to overcome challenges blind and vision impaired users face when accessing websites by enabling far greater access to audio description.

Energetica, which specialises in solutions for the not-for-profit sector, developed the website by modifying the open source content management system Joomla! - the same CMS used by iTWire.

Lisa Harvey, director of Energetica, said: “I am hoping that the Audio Description website will encourage businesses to keep the accessibility of the blind and vision impaired community in mind when designing their online material.”

According to Energetica, research indicates that, depending on the level of visual impairment, people approach a website in different ways. Blind people will use screen reader technology that says out loud what it reads on the screen, and low vision users may use screen magnifying technology resulting in sometimes competing design requirements which need to be carefully balanced.

“One common tool used for accessibility is the font resizer tool. All the low vision people we tested thought this tool was very useful, but they had never seen one before – on any website. The reason is that it is usually located on the top right of the web page, or in the footer, people using magnifiers rarely get to that part of the site,” said Ms Harvey.

“Providing accessible websites is, as well as good corporate citizenship, a good way to bring a larger audience to your site. Sites designed for accessibility will be easier to navigate, more consistent in content delivery and generally a better experience for all visitors”.

“The internet is a great resource for people with disabilities of all kinds. It can create communities, connect people and provide access to services and information that may otherwise be difficult to access”, says Ms Harvey.

According to Energetica, the site uses consistent and well explained clear topics, menus and navigation tools. This works equally well for the more linear experience of blind screen reader users, and the magnified browsing experience of vision impaired users. The website has been checked for extraneous characters, graphics and content to improve the screen reader experience. Energetica has developed the website to overcome the major barriers that face blind and vision impaired internet users.