Prepared by Ronan McGuirk - November 1999
Introduction
This is a joint submission from the National Council for the Blind of Ireland
(NCBI) and the Visually Impaired Computer society (VICS).
This submission considers access to the Information Society for blind and
partially sighted people. We would like to thank the Information society
Commission for giving us this opportunity to express our interest in the
Information Society.
Executive Summary
Up to 18%of the population of Ireland have a disability. Traditionally this
group has experienced serious disadvantages in accessing information. In the
Information Society, access to information for people with disabilities is
technically possible, but will not happen automatically. It is up to the Irish
Government and the European union to ensure that the information Society is
inclusive. This must happen at the design stage.
Assistive Technology
Assistive technologies exist today, which provide synthetic speech, large print
or Braille access for blind and partially sighted people to computer systems.
This technology consists of a range of hardware and software solutions which
are added on to standard computer equipment to provide an alternative form of
access. These assistive technologies work reasonably well with many common
Windows applications. The key to making the Information Society inclusive, is
to ensure that information systems and technology in general is capable of
interfacing with assistive technologies, and to ensure that assistive
technologies keep pace with technological change.
Although this submission is written from the point of view of blind and
partially sighted people, there is a good deal of commonality between the needs
of this group and the needs of other disability groups. For example, many
other groups who would experience difficulties in reading a print book, would
benefit from obtaining a book as an electronic document, as would blind people.
Other groups would use different assistive technologies to access the same
underlying electronic document.
It is important that information systems be developed with assistive technology in mind.
Recommendations
An awareness programme should be launched to advise IT designers of the needs
of people with disabilities, and of the existence of assistive technology.
Social issues
The report of the Commission on the Status of people with Disabilities (1995),
indicated that people with disabilities (and particular blind and partially
sighted people) have traditionally experienced difficulties in accessing
information. For example, only a tiny proportion of printed material is ever
published in Braille or audiotape.
The Information Society provides an enormous opportunity to address this
disadvantage. However, experience has taught us that access to a new
information medium doesn't happen automatically. This is primarily a policy
issue. If policy-makers consider people with disabilities to be part of
society, then access to the information Society will follow.
Recommendations
All Irish Government Information Society Regulations, standards and policies
should be 'disability-proofed'.
All Electronic Government facilities should be vetted to ensure that they are
usable by people with disabilities.
Economic Issues
Ireland is experiencing a skill shortage especially in the IT sector. People
with disabilities have always had a high level of unemployment. This has had
many causes, not least of which is inaccessible workplaces. In the information
Society the workplace increasingly means the electronic environment. If
inclusive access is provided to the electronic environment, and adequate
education and training opportunities are available to people with disabilities,
a new pool of skills could become available to the Irish and European workforce.
Making the electronic environment accessible needn't be expensive. Assistive
technologies already exist. It is important to make the Internet, mobile
phones etc accessible from the design stage rather than trying to fix
inaccessible systems after they are constructed.
We could consider the analogy of a public building such as a hotel. If a hotel
was designed and built without consideration of wheelchair access, it could
cost a lot to introduce wider doorways, wheelchair -friendly lifts and toilets
etc after the event. If the building is designed from the start to be
accessible the construction costs will not be significantly more expensive than
an inaccessible hotel. The same is true of computer systems.
Recommendations
All regulations, standards and policies should have inclusive design
incorporated from the start.
Education and training courses should be inclusive.
Priority should be given to removing electronic barriers in the workplace.
Technical Standards
There is a wide range of information and communications standards. These are
evolving rapidly. In recent years it has been a welcome development that some
standards consider the needs of blind and partially sighted people. The XML
document standard is a case in point. If the Information Society is to be
inclusive however, it is vital that all technical standards should provide for
the needs of people with disabilities.
Fortunately there is a good deal of commonality across the needs of different
disability groups. It should also be noted that systems which are designed for
ease of use for people with disabilities are usually easier to use for the
general public also.
A great deal of research has been carried out internationally, into technical
requirements for people with disabilities, by COST219 among others.
Recommendations
A panel of technical experts should be set up to review and revise all
developing technical standards to ensure inclusivity. This must be done at
both Irish and E.U. level.
Internet Access
Blind and partially sighted people use assistive technologies to access the
Internet. Electronic mail and the World Wide Web are the main Internet
features in use. The degree to which web pages can be read with such access
technology depends on how the web pages are designed. We commend the Irish
Government on the launch of Web Design guidelines for the Public Service on
November 16th last.
The Internet standards body, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has published
a set of accessibility guidelines. These can be found at
If followed, these guidelines make websites accessible to people across a range
of disabilities. For example, one of the guidelines states that all graphics
should have a text label. This means that the graphic can be understood by a
blind person by means of speech synthesis. This is obviously relevant if the
text label explains a graphic used as a link to another web page.
These guidelines, if followed, will make websites more usable for everyone, not
just people with disabilities, and incidentally, have the added benefits of
making the WebPages faster to download and easier to maintain.
Recommendations
A standard 'look and feel' should be adopted for all public service Irish and
European Union websites.
An Irish and E.U. standard for accessible web design should be adopted. We
suggest initially www.w3.org/wai. (We note with appreciation the Irish
government's recently launched web design guidelines).
An E.U. Directive should be issued, that E.U. and member state, public service
websites must comply with the above accessibility standard
We suggest that An E.U. Information Society Access Quality logo should be
designed - all compliant public service websites to display the logo.
Permission should be given to any commercial website complying with
The standard to display the logo.
Electronic Document Publication
Most printed publications nowadays, such as , books, magazines newspapers,
start life as an electronic computer file. Though the final published article
may be inaccessible to blind or partially sighted people, the original computer
file is potentially accessible by means of assistive technology. The
availability of such original computer files from publishers is a matter of
logistics and copyright protection.
An ever-increasing amount of material is now being published on the World Wide
Web. Many electronic document publication standards exist. These include
various types of word processing formats, html, pdf etc. Our information
suggests that ASCII text or xml are likely to be the most accessible formats
for blind and partially sighted people using assistive technologies.
Recommendations
An accessible electronic document publication standard should be adopted and
all public service documents should be published accordingly.
Telecommunications
There is rapid development in the telecommunications industry especially since
de-regulation.
Telephones have usually been quite accessible to blind and partially sighted
people, indeed, the telephony sector has provided them with many jobs over the
years. There have been a number of problems however, in particular, the
provision of accessible telephone directories.
Mobile phone technology is developing rapidly. One development is that
increasing use is being made of the screen display on phone handsets.
Recommendations
The regulations controlling the telecommunications industry, at Irish and E.U.
level, should be amended to ensure that all operators provide accessible
telephone directories and billing systems.
A standard should be issued that all mobile phone handset menu options should
be accessible via voiced feedback.
Digital Audio Broadcasting
Digital Audio Broadcasting is an emerging technology. This offers the
opportunity of including text messages as part of a radio broadcast and
envisages new radio receivers which will display the text messages. It is
possible that such radios could be unusable by blind people unless their needs
are taken into consideration.
Recommendations
Irish and E.U. regulations concerning digital audio broadcasting should ensure
that blind people can use the technology.
Consultation
In developing Information Society policies, standards and regulations it is
important that consideration should always be given to an inclusive information
society. It is vital that all strands of society are consulted as part of this
process. This is important since many information system designers and policy
-makers may be unaware of the needs of people with disabilities, and how easy
it would be to meet these needs, with an inclusive approach to design and
policy.
Recommendations
An on-going dialogue should commence between the information society Commission
and experts in the disability access field.
A panel of experts in access for people with disabilities should be appointed
to review and make recommendations on all aspects of information Society
policy. This should be at both Irish and European level.
Ireland and the European Union
Ireland is a small country and it is clear that most policy decisions will be
taken at E.U. level. A European ministerial review of the Information Society
is planned under the Portuguese presidency next April. This review will
include the subject of access to the Internet for people with disabilities. We
urge the Irish Government to take the recommendations in this submission
forward to this review meeting.
Contact Information
The Visually Impaired Computer society (VICS) is a special interest group of
the Irish Computer society. It consists of about 100 members of varying
backgrounds and interests.
VICS Chairman
Michael Lavin Tel 6045106
National Council for the blind of Ireland
Chief Executive Desmond P Kenny Tel 8307033.
