Apart or a Part? Access to the Internet by Visually Impaired and Blind People, with Particular Emphasis on Assistive Enabling Technology and User Perceptions

The concept of the 'Information Superhighway' or the World Wide Web (hereafter referred to as the Web) is well known and understood. The rapidly growing numbers of both users and electronic documents is testimony to the claim that the Web is becoming an everyday part of life for many people. The Web as a digital information environment offers new methods of learning and patterns of information use. So, what does the Web offer to partially sighted and blind people? Does it offer a means of filling the information gap traditionally experienced by visually impaired people? And will this new medium provide equal access to, and use of, public information that has previously been unavailable? The Web has been welcomed by the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB). The RNIB claims that 'the Internet is one of the most significant developments since the invention of Braille . [because] for the first time ever, many blind and partially sighted people have access to the same wealth of information as sighted people and on the same terms' (RNIB, 1998)' The Web is potentially a democratising tool, promising greater accessibility to information, services and society. It is important to discover the perceptions of visually impaired users to see whether claims of universal access--and ease of access--are justified and to ascertain the scope for access and use of Web-based resources. There is currently little information available regarding how the Web has affected the lives of visually impaired users. There is no real data on how visually impaired users who use the Web for practical purposes perceive and experience this valuable information tool. This study aims to document how a specific group of visually impaired students view this medium and to determine the differences in use between partially sighted and blind users. The Web as a means of information discovery and retrieval, its strengths and weaknesses, accessibility, assistive technology and Web page design all warrant investigation, along with how visually impaired users perceive their experience using the Web. The aims of the study are therefore twofold: first, to document perceptions and experiences of Web use by people with visual impairments, and second, to examine how access and use can be improved. LITERATURE REVIEW Visually impaired people do not constitute a homogeneous group. Varying degrees of central vision, peripheral vision, light perception and color perception occur. Many visual impairments have specific effects on the individual and cause a variety of limitations on activities (Machell, 1996). Visual impairments are also unlikely to be stable, particularly for partially sighted people. Visual impairment is affected by print size, media, color ratios, lighting and by the nature and degree of the visual impairment. This means that a wide range of assistive aids are required and different visual impairments may require specific media. Access to and ease of use of a specific medium, for example Web pages, are often determined by document length, design and structure. For discussions concerning current enabling technology, see Carey (1997), Douglas & Lau (1997), Murnion (1996a; 1996b) and Vanderheiden & Chisholm (1998). The most recent survey of blind and partially sighted adults in the UK was conducted in 1991 (Bruce, McKennell & Walker, 1991). This survey concluded that 1.1 million people were eligible to be registered as visually impaired, but that 1.7 million people found it difficult to read standard print. An earlier survey (Martin, Meltzer & Elliot, 1988) estimated that there were almost two million people in the UK with visual impairments. The number of people who actually experience problems due to visual impairments is generally accepted to be much greater than the official figures. Demographic analysis (Machell, 1996) suggests that the number of visually impaired people will continue to rise, as 66% of those registered as blind or partially sighted are over 75 and this is the fastest growing section of the population. …