Hey there!  I'm Alix Shadonnay at the business desk and I'd like to focus some attention on how blind and visually impaired look at websites.  I've decided to publish the following article so as to give you an insight.

The blind and visually impaired consumer is becoming more and more important to our society especially so because of the growing number of blind and visually impaired consumers as well as a growing concern among health experts and global governments over the rapidly increasing number of persons losing their vision or becoming visually impaired.

This is so because of the ballooning number of diabetics worldwide and diabetes is one of the leading causes of blindness these days.  I hope that this article helps to give you a better understanding of the world of blind and visually impaired persons when it comes to the Internet and its accessibility or lack thereof to these types of consumers.

Enjoy your day.

American Foundation for the Blind Evaluates SocialNetworking Sites

 

Visual verification has become a real barrier to us.

 

American Foundation for the Blind Evaluates Social Networking Sites

 

By American Foundation for the Blind
U.S. Newswire, November 15, 2006

 

CAPTCHAs on MySpace, Facebook, and Friendster Shut Out Blind Users

 

To: National Desk

 

Contact: Adrianna Montague-Gray of the American Foundation for the Blind,
212-502-7675 or amontaguegray@afb.net

 

NEW YORK, Nov. 15 /U.S. Newswire/ -- A new report from the American
Foundation for the Blind (AFB) finds social networking sites are impossible
to join without sighted help because of CAPTCHAs -- a visual verification
tool used to keep spam out of sites that provide online services. AFB is
urging MySpace, Friendster, and Facebook to offer an audio alternative to
their CAPTCHAs through a new web video being released on YouTube.

 

"CAPTCHAs are a barrier to people with vision loss because they are
essentially graphics with no descriptive ALT text," said Jay Leventhal,
Editor in Chief, AccessWorld(r), AFB's online technology magazine. "With
social networking sites being the new way to connect and socialize, blind
users must be able to sign up independently."

 

Social networking sites like MySpace have become the "soda shops" of the
digital age. These sites are the places to meet new people, update friends
on life happenings, find jobs, network, and discover new music. MySpace, the
top social networking site on the web, has now reached 47.3 million members
and is growing by 160,000 new users a day according to news reports.

 

Using JAWS and Window-Eyes -- popular assistive technology products that
provide access to information on a computer screen -- AFB evaluated MySpace,
Facebook, Friendster, and LinkedIn to see if a blind computer user, with
basic screen reader skills, could independently register, create a standard
profile, post photos, and interact with other group members.

 

The most serious accessibility issue AFB found was the inability to create
user accounts on MySpace, Friendster, or Facebook without sighted
assistance. Once someone gets through the CAPTCHA barrier, becoming a
MySpace, Friendster, or Facebook user is possible because the templates for
these three sites are fairly well labeled. LinkedIn, the leading business
networking site, was found to be the most user friendly because it is well
labeled, and doesn't use a CAPTCHA.

 

To read a copy of the report, visit
http://www.afb.org/CAPTCHAreport.asp.

 

To watch a copy of the video, visit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jrgMlufa7w.

Contact us to learn more.