Also you cannot read the text of the advertisement without using your screen reading program's mouse movement keys to examine the screen. Many of the available AOL services are invoked from the welcome screen. However, because of the nature of this screen, a blind user can never be certain what service he or she is selecting. One service is called Channels. It appears to provide the AOL user with a convenient way to browse through numerous areas of information and then to focus upon a desired information category or service.
Channels is quite inaccessible to blind users.
Both opening the Channels screen and selecting a desired channel require sighted assistance. One service which would certainly be of interest to AOL users is Headline News. This service is not accessible to the blind for two reasons. While the majority of AOL services are largely inaccessible to the blind person using speech or Braille screen-access software, it would appear that AOL's electronic mail service is minimally usable. We discovered by accident that a few keyboard commands can be used to invoke various e-mail functions.