Blind browsers

[namebug]

I'd like to offer free content to blind/visualy impaired visitors, wondering what the most common browsers are for such people or if it would be better just to make the offer in the alt img tags.

 

[ayahiro]

can i ask.... how can a person view the brower is he is blind?

 

[Hitch]

can i ask.... how can a person view the brower is he is blind?

They can't, but...Some can read out the text to them (Speech).

I think Alt tags help aswell, but not too sure.

 

[enlytend]

Browsers for visually impaired can have speech or braille output or screen magnification. MozBraille, Jaws, HomePageReader (based on IE), SimplyWeb ... don't know if that list is current, but those are a few names off the top of my head ...

Yes, you DEFINITELY should have alt tags for all your images, among other things! For additional "best practices" for designing web pages for the disabled, take a look at the W3 accessibility guidelines - http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag.php

Ten quick tips for accessible web pages can be found here - http://www.w3.org/WAI/References/QuickTips/

Hope this helps!

 

[namebug]

Thanks for your help, looks like putting it in the alt tags is best, wasn't sure what was the most popular browser for the visualy impaired.Going to be putting up an audio content site soon, wanted to give it to people with vision problems for free, but not everybody.Usually put some info in the alt tags anyway. Who was it that was getting sued recently for not doing that? Target ?

 

[WhiteWebServices]

This strikes me as a misuse of the alt tag; it's meant to provide a description of an image, not hidden messages.

I have an alternative idea: You could include the offer on the page as part of the main content, but put it in an #offer div and set it to "display: none" in the default stylesheet so that it doesn't show. You could then call an alternative stylesheet for users using screen readers (<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="readerstyle.css" media="reader">) that would override the "display: none" so that they are presented with the offer.

I haven't tried this, but it sounds to me like a better idea than stuffing an alt tag. What do you reckon?

Added: Have done some checking. It seems that media="reader" isn't supported at present. One method of doing what you're after is simply to position the content you want to hide off the side of the monitor, so that users relying on the monitor don't see it, but users hearing your page read do hear it.

 

[zachary0611]

i curious to know what sites are most visited by the visually impaired

 

[Gaz]

don't use the alt tag for this, it will only annoy the user. and just for your information, blind and visulay impared users actually surf the internet faster than everyone else

 

[loran76]

I just wonder how blind persons can use the Internet. I can't imagine it even.

 

[Gaz]

I just wonder how blind persons can use the Internet. I can't imagine it even.

Genreally they will use a text based browser, and have screen reading software to read out all of the content. There are special short cut keys for them to use this text based browser, and it's quite different to any browser you have probably used. Some use braile to read the websites, but seeing as how only about 5% of all blind people can actually read level 1 braile, it's not that common.