This paper reports the result of a study, that was conducted by the Institute for theBlind and Partially Sighted in Denmark in collaboration with other associations for theblind people in Denmark.

The study was conducted by the author in co-operation with 2 other employees at theInstitute. The conclusion of the study is still being used in the pursuit of finding abetter method of teaching and a better way to access the Web as a visually impaired. Thefirst step is to gather information from visually impaired users and make a summery thatfinally will result in a curriculum for future courses. This paper presents the results ofthe first "test pilot" course that provides the basis for any furtherdevelopment of the project.

I have worked as a partially sighted with the Internet for about 4 years. My sight isslowly degrading and therefore my needs for altering the webpages I find have been growingalong with the different stages of my eye disease. Mostly I have done my own experiments,but also different mailing lists and friends all over the world have been a great help inthe search for a better way of fulfilling my needs when I work with the Internet.

This provided a basis for my participation in a project that was established at my work(The Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Denmark). Among many other thingsone of the Institute's goals is to see if different kinds of information are accessiblefor visually impaired people. Therefore, it was decided to make a project where theaccessibility of the Internet for the blind and partially sighted combined withcompensatory aids was investigated.

The project involved a 2 day course where 3 blind and 2 partially sighted people whohad much of experience with computers but none what so ever with the use of the Internetwere "test pilots".

The course did not consist of a curriculum, but we wanted to see the usage of thefollowing:

* E-mail

* Mailing lists

* Newsgroups/Usenet

* WWW

The first day of the course only dealt with access to the Internet and the four aboveitems using DOS. This was only for the blind. The second day both the blind and thepartially sighted tried the access through Windows. We chose to use standard applicationsin order to make the installation task easier and in order to make sure that the userscould receive support in the daily environment.

The course was observed by representatives from the Visual Impairment InformationCentre, The Danish Association of the Blind and the Institute for the Blind and VisuallyImpaired. There were two teachers of whom I was one.

One of the first things we discovered was the fact that the partially sighted userneeded a higher level of enlargement when using the Web than, e.g. the level ofenlargement used in word processing. This is due to the lack of contrast and the use offonts on the pages that are published on the Web. The partially sighted user needed aboutone or two time's higher magnification than normal.

The Web is accessible for the partially sighted but a lot of problems were encounted atthe test course. This was among other problems when the user used a non-standard Windows95 colour sheet and the lack of possibility to alter the colours and fonts on the accessedpage - in order for it to fit the needs of the partially sighted user. A good idea forpartially sighted user was to mark the text on the page as if he wanted to copy it(Ctrl+A). This made the text easier to read but then the hyperlinks disappeared.

Also moving Java pamphlets were a problem. The enlargement program started jumpingaround on the screen in order to follow the pamphlet. Disabling the tracking system in theenlargement program solved this problem.

Another problem is the fact that very few hosts of WebPages stay within the standardHTML. This is properly one of the biggest problems for the visually impaired users of theWeb.

The project resulted in a line of articles that were mainly published in Danish and aplan for a curriculum for a future teaching method. The hope for the near future is to beable to give courses in the use of the Internet to blind and partially sighted people whoneed the Internet either in their work or spare time.

This paper reports the results of a study that was conducted by the Institute for theBlind and Partially Sighted in Denmark in collaboration with the Danish Association of theBlind and the Visual Impairment Information Centre.

The study was conducted by the author in co-operation with 2 other employees at theInstitute. The conclusion of the study is still being used in the pursuit of finding abetter method of teaching and a better way for visually impaired people to access the Web.The first step is to gather information from visually impaired users and make a summarythat will result in a curriculum for future courses. This paper presents the results ofthe first "test pilot" course that provides the basis for the furtherdevelopment of the project.

I am Søren Holmgren Jensen, 26 years of age. I am partially sighted due to the eyecondition Retinitis Pigmentosa and educated in the use of computers. Have worked as acomputer consultant in the private sector and am now employed at the Institute for theBlind and Partially Sighted in Denmark as a computer consultant in the department of aidsand appliances for the visually impaired. At the Institute I have taught different coursesfor visually impaired people in the use of computers and have also been responsible forthe further education of the other employees at the Institute (department of teaching).

I have worked as a partially sighted with the Internet since 1994. My sight is slowlydegrading and therefore my needs for altering the web-pages have been growing along withthe different stages of my eye disease. Mostly I have done my own experiments but alsodifferent mailing lists and friends all over the world have been a great help in thesearch for a better way of fulfilling my needs when I work with the Internet.

This provided the basis for my participation in a project that was established at mywork (The Institute for the Blind and Partially Sighted). Among many others, one of theInstitute’s goals is to see whether various kinds of information are accessible tovisually impaired people. Therefore it was decided to make a project that looked at theaccessibility of the Internet for blind and partially sighted people using compensatoryaids.

The Institute for the blind and visually impaired in Denmark is a national institution.That means that we cover the whole of Denmark including Greenland, Iceland and the FaroeIslands. The Institute is located in a suburb to Copenhagen and has approximately 140employees.

The Institute is divided into different departments that have different purposes:

The counselling department

The administration department

The education department

Department of the newly blind

The vocational training department

The aids and appliances department

Live-in facilities with 40 rooms for visually impaired course participants who liveoutside of Copenhagen

Student library

And others

The Institute has been involved in many international projects, among others theHorizon transnational projects, the TIDE transnational project, the Leonardo transnationalproject as well as Nordic and Danish projects such as the Music Prophile and ASTI.

Furthermore we are involved in working groups initiated by the Danish Ministry ofResearch and IT mainly dealing with the different aspects in access to new technology forvisually impaired people in education and employment.

The objective of the Internet project was to investigate to what extent the informationon the Internet is accessible to the visually impaired. We knew that the Internet itselfwas accessible to the visually impaired, but we wanted to see if some information wasinaccessible and, if so, what the problem was. The project should result in a curriculumand teaching methods for future courses in the use of the Internet.

The target group was visually impaired Internet users, both blind and partiallysighted, whether they were students, people who need the Internet at their work or peoplewho just want to surf for fun. In this paper, the emphasis will be on the results gainedfrom the work with the partially sighted users.

We invited 5 visually impaired people who had experience with computers to participateas "test pilots" in this pilot course - 3 blind people and 2 partially sightedpeople. It was important to us that the "test pilots" were experienced with theuse of the computers and the compensatory aid, so that we could concentrate and focus onthe results of working with the Internet.

The course was observed by representatives from the Visual Impairment InformationCentre, The Danish Association of the Blind and the Institute for the Blind and PartiallySighted in Denmark. All of these organisations had contributed to creating the project.

We needed a place where we could have online access to the Internet, and where theamount of time used online did not matter. This was because of the structure of the course–I will get back to this at a later point. We found an Internet provider that hadteaching rooms available with online access and machines. We had the choice betweeninstalling the compensatory aids on the computers in the teaching room or borrowingnetwork interface cards to put in our own computers where the compensatory aid was alreadyinstalled. We estimated that the latter option was the easiest for all, so we brought ourown computers. The computers were installed with DOS, Windows and Netscape and MicrosoftInternet Explorer. The current version of Netscape at that time had an integrated mail-and news reader, and with Microsoft Internet Explorer we used the Microsoft mail reader.

The compensatory aids for the blind users during the course was a Danish screen readercalled Iltalk combined with a synthesiser called Infovox or Apollo. This was for accessingthe Internet through DOS. For access through Windows we used a screen reader called Jawscombined with the same synthesisers that we had used for DOS. For the partially sighted weused the enlargement programme Zoomtext. We chose to use standard applications in order tomake the installation task easier and in order to ensure that the users could laterreceive support in the daily environment. In our experience, a visually impaired user whoworks at a company where they have a standard configuration of computers has considerabletrouble getting support from the company's support group, if he or she uses applicationsoutside of the standard configuration. The visually impaired user, of course, needscompensatory aids, but a different web-browser, for example, can result in problems withsupport. In this situation, the supporter normally says "The problem lies with thespecial add-on programs – call the Institute for the Blind and PartiallySighted". We want to make sure that the visually impaired user can get supportquickly and in their daily environment.

The course was a two day course where 3 blind and 2 partially sighted people who wereexperiences computer-users but had no experience with using the Internet acted as"test pilots".

The course did not have a curriculum, but we wanted to look at the use of thefollowing:

• E-mail
• Mailing lists
• Newsgroups/Usenet
• WWW

The first day of the course dealt only with the access to the Internet and the fourabove functions using DOS. This was only for the blind. On the second day, both the blindand the partially sighted tried the access through Windows. The instruction/teaching tookplace simultaneously for the blind and partially sighted. This was because we believedthat the partially sighted might learn something from listening to the problems that theblind users encountered, and vice versa. Also, we felt that it was important that thepartially sighted could determine whether it would be a help using both enlargement andmagnification, or whether this would simply make the user more confused. All partiallysighted individuals are different. Their vision varies considerably, and, also, somepartially sighted are gradually losing more and more of their sight. Therefore we used theopportunity to try both speech and enlargement, but none of the two partially sightedpeople at the course thought that it would be a help for them to use both speech andenlargement.

We started out with a little presentation of the Internet and the history of theInternet. We wanted to give the students some background knowledge, so that they could seethe development of the Internet, what it can be used for today and maybe imagine some ofthe things that it might be used for in the future. We also talked about some of theInternet possibilities that we were not going to see at the course – functions likeGopher, FTP and others. These facilities are not used much today, but the Internet oftoday is based on these facilities of yesterday, so they are concepts one might bump into,and therefore we wanted the students to have heard about them.

Then we went through the four main subjects– e-mail, mailing lists, newsgroups andWWW. First we gave an introduction to the usage, and then the students worked with itthemselves under supervision from the teacher. Instead of pointing out the problems thatwe knew existed, we let the students work on their own. When they encountered a problem,we helped them solve it, or we saw how they solved it themselves. This was a very givingand learning process that helped us map some of the problems that visually impairedpersons encounter on the Internet.

E-mail,mailing lists and newsgroups

When using e-mail, mailing lists and newsgroups together with an enlargement programme,the main problem is simply the lack of having a full view. Something can pop up on yourscreen that one does not notice, because it is in a different part of the screen than theone being enlarged.

A partially sighted user who does not need to alter the colours can work with theprogrammes on an equal basis with normally sighted users, when using the enlargementprogramme.

It can be a problem if one wants to use a different kind of colour scheme than thestandard one. Then the text might disappear. This is common in programmes that do notstick to standard programming. It is important that the programmer let the system decidethe colours instead of specifying, for example, black text without specifying a colour forthe background. If the user then chooses a black background, the text will disappear. Thisis a common problem for partially sighted users with some mail and news editors. Whentalking about Windows - Microsoft has set the standard, but not even they stick to it allthe time. This causes problems for the partially sighted but there are things you can do.One has to change the system colours to the standard colour scheme, and then in theenlargement programme use the colour filtering or colour reverse that all the bigenlargement programmes have. Afterwards one can then go back to the normal colour sheet.This is not an optimum solution, but if no other mail and news editor is available, thisis a way to be able to work with the editor.

The Web

One of the first things we discovered was that the partially sighted users needed ahigher level of enlargement when using the Web than, e.g., the level of enlargement usedin word processing. This is due to the inferior quality of the fonts that are availablefor web-page design and the lower contrast. We found that generally the contrast onweb-pages is lower than in, e.g., word-processing programmes. The partially sighted usersneeded about one or two levels higher magnification than normal. This is a problem,because using a higher level of enlargement means seeing an even smaller section of thefull screen.

Also, when accessing the Web there were problems when using a non-standard Windows 95colour scheme. Combined with the lack of possibility to alter the colours and fonts on theaccessed page in order for it to fit the needs of the partially sighted user, this was abig problem. A good solution for partially sighted users was to highlight the text on thepage, like when copying it, (Ctrl+A). This made the text easier to read, but thehyperlinks disappeared.

Moving Java pamphlets were also a problem. The enlargement programme began jumpingaround on the screen in order to follow the pamphlet. Disabling the tracking system in theenlargement programme sometime solved this problem.

Some pages are designed to be used with a resolution of 800X600 - a resolution that notmany partially sighted users use. In my experience, the most common resolution for thepartially sighted is 640X480. This is due to the need for the maximum size of letter,menus, icons and other screen elements. When a page is designed with the use of a 800X600resolution you do not have the whole page vertically on your screen. This makes itnecessary for the partially sighted user to scroll the page from left to right. If thepage is not designed for users with an 800X600 resolution, the browser will automaticallyfit the page to the level of resolution that is being used.

Many partially sighted users have problems with frames. One of the problems is thatthey are designed to be used with a resolution of 800X600 or higher. If this is the casethe partially sighted users who use 640X480 need to scroll both windows, which causesgreat confusion and is very inconvenient. The possibility to change from frame to framevia the keyboard would be a great help to the partially sighted. Many users of enlargementprogrammes prefer to use the keyboard rather than the mouse - sometimes due to lackingeye-hand coordination, but also for other reasons. Currently, if a partially sighted userwants to change from one frame to another he needs to click with the mouse somewhere inthe frame. After this he can use the keyboard to scroll the text or select hyperlinks.When clicking in a frame it is not always that you click in a empty spot – sometimesyou hit a hyperlink and wind up somewhere unintended - an unexpected.

Another problem is that very few web-page designers stay within the standard HTML. Thisis probably one of the biggest problems for the visually impaired users of the Web. Inorder to make the page look more fancy and elegant the designer needs to move outside ofthe standard HTML programming. On some pages today, the links are no longer underlinedtext , instead it is a graphic element, where text is wrapped around. This makes it verydifficult for the partially sighted to recognise the letters, and sometimes he or shesimply misses the link because of its appearance. In this case it is important for theprogrammer to remember to assign explanatory text to the link, which is displayed when themouse pointer is moved over the item.

With the new HTML standard it should be possible for the user to alter the colours andfonts of the accessed page. Hopefully, soon after the new HTML standard is passed, newversions of the web-browsers will support the alteration of colours and fonts called stylesheets.

Our conclusion based on the project is that the information on the Internet isaccessible to some extent to visually impaired users, although some information is verydifficult to get to. The creativity of the Web-page designers is one of the biggestobstacles for visually impaired users of the Internet. We have high hopes for the new HTMLstandard which, we believe, will give the user the possibility to alter both colour andfont on the pages using style sheets.

The project resulted in a line of articles which were published in Danish and a planfor a curriculum for a future teaching method. The hope for the near future is to be ableto give courses in the use of the Internet to blind and partially sighted people who needthe Internet either in their work or spare time.

Work Address:

Institute for the Blind and Partially Sighted

Att: Søren Holmgren Jensen

Rymarksvej 1

DK-2900 Hellerup

Denmark

Telephone (work): + (45) 39 62 41 00 ext. 298

Fax (work): + (45) 39 40 04 05

E-mail (work): hma@ibos.dk

Telephone (private): + (45) 36 30 25 11

E-mail (private): Holmgren@teliamail.dk

Je me sers d'Internet depuis quatre ans en tant qu'utilisateur malvoyant. Ma vue sedétériore lentement, et par conséquent mes besoins de modifier les pages web que jerencontre se sont accrus avec l'évolution de ma maladie oculaire. J'ai principalementmené mes propres expériences, mais différentes listes de distribution et des amis dansle monde entier m'ont également beaucoup aidé dans ma recherche d'un meilleur moyen derépondre à mes besoins lorsque je travaille avec Internet.

Cela a été la base de ma participation à un projet lancé à mon lieu de travail(l'Institut Royal Danois pour les Aveugles et les Déficients Visuels). L'un des buts,parmi beaucoup d'autres, de cet Institut est de vérifier si différents typesd'informations sont accessibles aux déficients visuels. Il a donc été décidé decréer un projet examinant l'accessibilité d'Internet aux aveugles en association avecles adaptations compensatrices.

Le projet comprenait une formation de deux jours où trois aveugles et deux malvoyantstrès expérimentés dans l'usage de l'ordinateur mais sans aucune expérience préalabled'Internet servaient de "pilotes d'essai".

La formation n'avait pas de contenu théorique mais nous voulions étudierl'utilisation :

- du courrier électronique

- des listes de distribution

- des forums/de Usenet

- du WWW

La première journée de formation a porté uniquement sur l'accès à Internet et surles quatre éléments ci-dessus en utilisant le DOS. Ceci était destiné aux aveugles. Lesecond jour, les aveugles et les malvoyants ont tous essayé l'accès par Windows. Nousavons choisi d'utiliser les applications classiques afin de faciliter la tâched'installation et de nous assurer que les utilisateurs pourraient être assistés dansleur environnement quotidien.

La formation a été observée par des représentants du Centre d'Information sur laDéficience Visuelle, de l'Association Danoise des Aveugles et de l'Institut des Aveugleset Déficients Visuels. Il y avait deux enseignants dont moi-même.

Nous nous sommes aperçus que les malvoyants utilisaient un facteur d'agrandissementsur le Web 2 à 3 fois plus grand que sur des applications de type traitement de texte.Cela est dû au manque de contraste et à l'utilisation de certaines polices decractères.

Le Web est accessible pour les malvoyants au prix de nombreuses difficultés observéesdurant les formations. Par exemple, lorsque l'utilisateur change les couleurs standard deWindows 95 il n'a plus de possibilité de contrôler les couleurs et polices de la pageWeb. Une solution pour améliorer la visibilité est de sélectionner le texte à l'aidede la fonction ctrl+A. Le texte est alors plus facile à lire mais les liensdisparaissent.

Les applets Java produisant des images mobiles sont aussi un problème, le programmed'agrandissement se mettant à sauter dans tous les sens pour suivre l'applet. Cependant,il est possible d'inhiber le système de poursuite.

Mais le problème le plus important est certainement que très peu de sites Webrespectent le standard HTML standard.

Plusieurs articles ont été publiés (en Danois) après cette étude et un projet decours a été établi. Nous espérons pouvoir dispenser ces cours prochainement à desmalvoyants pour leur travail ou leurs loisirs

Cet article présente une étude conduite par l'Institut des Aveugles et Malvoyants duDanemark en colloboration avec d'autres Associations. L'étude a été menée par l'auteuret deux autres employés de l'institut. Les conclusions de l'étude sont utilisées pourtrouver de meilleures solutions pour former à internet des personnes malvoyantes et leurpermettre de naviguer sur le Web. La première étape a consisté à enquêter auprès desutilisateurs malvoyants et à préparer des supports pour des cours futurs. Cet articleprésente les résultats d'un premier cours pilote.

Je me sers d'Internet depuis quatre ans en tant qu'utilisateur malvoyant. Ma vue sedétériore lentement, et par conséquent mes besoins de modifier les pages web que jerencontre se sont accrus avec l'évolution de ma maladie oculaire. J'ai principalementmené mes propres expériences, mais différentes listes de distribution et des amis dansle monde entier m'ont également beaucoup aidé dans ma recherche d'un meilleur moyen derépondre à mes besoins lorsque je travaille avec Internet.

Cela a été la base de ma participation à un projet lancé à mon lieu de travail(l'Institut Royal Danois pour les Aveugles et les Déficients Visuels). L'un des buts,parmi beaucoup d'autres, de cet Institut est de vérifier si différents typesd'informations sont accessibles aux déficients visuels. Il a donc été décidé decréer un projet examinant l'accessibilité d'Internet aux aveugles en association avecles adaptations compensatrices.

Le projet comprenait une formation de deux jours où trois aveugles et deux malvoyantstrès expérimentés dans l'usage de l'ordinateur mais sans aucune expérience préalabled'Internet servaient de "pilotes d'essai".

La formation n'avait pas de contenu théorique mais nous voulions étudierl'utilisation :

- du courrier électronique

- des listes de distribution

- des forums/de Usenet

- du WWW

La première journée de formation a porté uniquement sur l'accès à Internet et surles quatre éléments ci-dessus en utilisant le DOS. Ceci était destiné aux aveugles. Lesecond jour, les aveugles et les malvoyants ont tous essayé l'accès par Windows. Nousavons choisi d'utiliser les applications classiques afin de faciliter la tâched'installation et de nous assurer que les utilisateurs pourraient être assistés dansleur environnement quotidien.

La formation a été observée par des représentants du Centre d'Information sur laDéficience Visuelle, de l'Association Danoise des Aveugles et de l'Institut des Aveugleset Déficients Visuels. Il y avait deux enseignants dont moi-même.

Nous nous sommes aperçus que les malvoyants utilisaient un facteur d'agrandissementsur le Web 2 à 3 fois plus grand que sur des applications de type traitement de texte.Cela est dû au manque de contraste et à l'utilisation de certaines polices decractères.

Le Web est accessible pour les malvoyants au prix de nombreuses difficultés observéesdurant les formations. Par exemple, lorsque l'utilisateur change les couleurs standard deWindows 95 il n'a plus de possibilité de contrôler les couleurs et polices de la pageWeb. Une solution pour améliorer la visibilité est de sélectionner le texte à l'aidede la fonction ctrl+A. Le texte est alors plus facile à lire mais les liensdisparaissent.

Les applets Java produisant des images mobiles sont aussi un problème, le programmed'agrandissement se mettant à sauter dans tous les sens pour suivre l'applet. Cependant,il est possible d'inhiber le système de poursuite.

Mais le problème le plus important est certainement que très peu de sites Webrespectent le standard HTML standard.

Plusieurs articles ont été publiés (en Danois) après cette étude et un projet decours a été établi. Nous espérons pouvoir dispenser ces cours prochainement à desmalvoyants pour leur travail ou leurs loisirs