Montana grad student pushes for a blind-friendly Web

From the Billings Gazette in Montana:

Jim Reed’s eyesight is rapidly vanishing, but the 27-year-old graduate student (pictured) doesn’t plan on letting that keep him from using the Internet to follow news, download music or manage his bank account.

To do so, he’s learning how to use what’s known as a screen reader, a software product that reads text on a Web site aloud and identifies areas where search terms or other information can be entered.

“Anything you can do with a mouse I can or will be able to do using a screen reader,” Reed said.

When Reed was an undergraduate at Montana State University, he was diagnosed with a degenerative eye condition known as retinitis pigmentosa. But it took a few years — and a number of frightening vehicle accidents — before he was able to accept that he was losing his eyesight. Since starting graduate school at Montana State University Billings, he has embraced the reality that he needs to learn how to travel through life without vision.

He is the president of the Montana Association of Blind Students. This spring he will attend a training camp sponsored by the National Federation of the Blind to learn blindness skills. And on his own he is relearning how to navigate the world — and the World Wide Web. He blindfolds himself to practice walking with a cane, and recently he began turning off his computer monitor to practice surfing the Net with a screen reader.

“While I still have vision, I’m trying to learn the skills I’m going to need when I have none,” Reed said.

Unfortunately, text entry boxes and other key elements on many Web sites are not designed to work with screen-reader software. Reed, for example, recently discovered that he could not use his screen reader to check his bank account balance on First Interstate’s site. He contacted the company, which is working with its Web developers to address the issue.

“People just don’t realize that there’re blind people trying to use their technology,” Reed said. “I don’t think it’s intentional. I just think it’s out of sight, out of mind.”

In recent years, Internet access rights have emerged as a battlefront for the blind, with advocates demanding Web site coding that works with blind-access tools much as they once demanded the posting of Braille instructions in public places.

“By and large the consensus is that accessibility on the Web is getting better,” said Clara Van Gerven, an access technology content specialist with the National Federation of the Blind. “That said, there are a lot of Web sites that have major barriers, and I would say 90 percent of Web sites have some level of inaccessibility.”

Graphics that contain important information but lack a “text tag” in their coding, or unlabeled links and buttons, are some of the most common problems.

On First Interstate’s Web site, Reed’s effort to access his bank account stalled when he discovered that the “submit” button for entering his identification code could be clicked on only with a mouse. Without the ability to see the button, a blind person would have no way to know where to click.

“It was new to us,” said Kevin Guenthner, chief information officer for First Interstate Bank. “We’re a community bank, and it was the first time I’d ever received a call or a question about it. I’m glad he called.”

The bank quickly solved the button problem, but it is now working to solve an access issue discovered on its second-tier log in.

“To protect the security of your information, you have to go through multiple layers to access your information,” Guenthner said.

According to the federation, Reed is one of an estimated 20 million Americans who are blind or whose eyesight is too poor to read using glasses or contacts. For many of these people, Internet access can be liberating, offering such things as a way to shop or bank without the help of others and without burdensome travel.

“There’s really a lot of potential for the Web to be a great equalizer for those with disabilities,” said Karla Gilbride, fellowship attorney with the nonprofit law center Disability Rights Advocates.

Though Reed can still read some Web sites’ text using magnifying software, he knows that a day will come when the words will disappear entirely. By the time that happens, he’ll be a pro at using a screen reader, and he’s hoping the Web will be ready for him.

“It’s a sighted world, and, for the most part, I’m willing to live within it,” Reed said. “But. when it comes to my bank account, I’m willing to take a stand because everyone should be able to manage their money independently.”