Kochi NGO provides 'websight' for the blind
KOCHI: Providing 'global accessibility' of the internet or making the web accessible for both the abled and disabled is one of the main challenges faced by web-based interactive companies. With mobile phone companies developing text-to-sound technology for the visually-challenged, companies are now looking to develop websites or portals that are accessible to all.
To meet this demand, the Society for the Rehabilitation of Visually Challenged (SRVC), a Kochi-based NGO which runs a resource centre at Infopark, is planning to train two orphans who are speech and hearing impaired to design and develop websites that are 'globally accessible'. "We will also be training a few visually-challenged people to test the sites. The aim is to equip these people for the industry which will soon want to employ these 'experts'," said Sunil J Mathew, project coordinator, SRVC.
He says that IT companies in different cities are depending on visually-challenged IT experts to test websites before they are launched.
Making websites and service sites friendly for the visually-challenged is tough. Sites should have options that will help them accessible to all. "A few of them had asked the Indian railways to make their site user-friendly. But it has not happened," he said.
While some government websites are 'globally accessible', the same cannot be said about public and private sector firms. Of the four-lakh visually-challenged persons in the state, at least 5% use the net. Nationally, nine million people are trying to use the net against the 90 million visually-challenged persons in the country.
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