This page will be used to highlight new internet communications technologies

This page is People With Disabilities (PWD) friendly and has been approved using Bobby v. 3.1 software

Over the next few months I will be experimenting with making my web site friendly to the visually challenged!!! I discovered this exciting "new" technology on the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) web site in the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) section.

I have discovered that the W3C is currently working on creating the rules and protocols for making the Web accessible to PWD as well as the ability to access the Web via internet enabled PCS telephone (wireless) and voice enabled web browsers. Over the next few months I will be testing these new technologies and posting my findings on this page. N. B. This is a work in progress!! The computer I am using for evaluating the software named below is a 486 DX 2 100 Mhz machine with 32 MB RAM running Windows 95. I have no connection with the WAI. I have included the WAI Logo on this page to provide a link to their site. The WAI has not endorsed this page. Also, this page has been enhanced to make it easier for PWD's to read and navigate (I hope). Some of these enhancements are not supported by all browsers. If you are using a Text To Speech (TTS) browser or a voice enabled browser and encounter and difficulties with this page send me an e-mail

So far I have done limited tests on the local version of this site using:

Bobby^© v. 3.1 from Center for Applied Special Technologies CAST, http://www.cast.org/bobby

The Bobby software checks web sites for compliance with WAI rules and protocol. I find it slow on my machine (a 486 100 Mhz machine with 32 MB RAM and Windows 95). However it is a very powerful application that will require a bit of time to understand properly. It not only identify WAI compliance errors but also suggests how to correct the errors. It is not perfect but it is good enough for me to recommend it as a must have tool for web developers.

pwWebSpeak32^© from isSound (formerly Productivity Works)

A simple yet powerful web page reader. I strongly recommend this software for people who are visually challenged. The only features I would like to see in this software are: it being voice enabled i. e. responds to voice commands and it supporting ACCESSKEY shortcuts.

Conversa^© from Conversa software

This software has a lot of potential. It is the only voice powered browser I have tested so far. I would like to see more features in it like text-to-speach (I am lazy, what can I say!!) and more voice commands. It's obvious it is meant to be used on a more powerful machine that mine. This software is being developed not to assist the visually challenged but to enhance the e-commerce experience. As it is developed you will be able to tell this browser to go to your favorite shopping or financial site then tell it to place your order.

IBM Home Page Reader^©and Accessibility Center from http://www-3.ibm.com/able/

IBM's Accessibility Center, bringing together product and service information for people with disabilities, and for Human Resource Professionals who are proactively seeking knowledge about solutions or empowering persons with disabilities to ensure a productive working environment. Check out the Accessibility Center Newsletters and special offers from IBM..

Oxford Brookes University's BTalk^© from http://www.brookes.ac.uk/speech

This software tries to be both pwWebSpeak and Conversa. The end result is that it is neither. In my opinion it will require a lot of improvements before it is useful to the visually impaired. I would recommend pwWebSpeak or IBM Home Page Reader over this one. Sorry Guys, in this case simpler is better. Note This beta software really requires a more powerful computer than mine and is it a work in progress.

Future technologies include accessing commercial web sites via a regular telephone using a combination of the telephone keypad and your voice. Can you imagine what that would mean to a visually challenged person who would like to purchase say Wailers concert ticket at Madison Square Gardens. He or she will be able to call the web site for say Ticket Master, go through the menu of available seats to find the ones near to "Handicap access ramp" order the ticket/s and pay for them using his/her voice and the telephone keypad.