Adapting+the+Web

Explore ways that the web can be adapted for people with disabilities. What new tools are out there to offer assistance?

Alternative keyboards or switches
Alternate keyboards or switches are hardware or software devices used by people with physical disabilities, that provide an alternate way of creating keystrokes that appear to come from the standard keyboard. Examples include keyboard with extra-small or extra-large key spacing, keyguards that only allow pressing one key at a time, on-screen keyboards, eyegaze keyboards, and sip-and-puff switches. Web-based applications that can be operated entirely from the keyboard, with no mouse required, support a wide range of alternative modes of input.
 * Head Operated Mouse Helps The Handicapped Surf The 'Net []
 * [[image:http://f00.inventorspot.com/images/headmouse.jpg width="274" height="248"]]
 * [|**QualiKEY**] Virtual Keyboard []
 * [[image:http://www.assistivetechnology.co.in/Physical%20Main_files/image013.jpg width="554" height="152"]]

Braille and refreshable braille
Braille is a system using six to eight raised dots in various patterns to represent letters and numbers that can be read by the fingertips. Braille systems vary greatly around the world. Some "grades" of braille include additional codes beyond standard alpha-numeric characters to represent common letter groupings (e.g., "th," "ble" in Grade II American English braille) in order to make braille more compact. An 8-dot version of braille has been developed to allow all ASCII characters to be represented. Refreshable or dynamic braille involves the use of a mechanical display where dots (pins) can be raised and lowered dynamically to allow any braille characters to be displayed. Refreshable braille displays can be incorporated into portable braille devices with the capabilities of small computers, which can also be used as interfaces to devices such as information kiosks.
 * Braille Keyboards / Stickers
 * [[image:http://shop.a2i.co.uk/ekmps/shops/shopping/images/img_0030%5Bekm%5D400x300%5Bekm%5D.jpg width="552" height="332"]]

Scanning software
Scanning software is adaptive software used by individuals with some physical or cognitive disabilities that highlights or announces selection choices (e.g., menu items, links, phrases) one at a time. A user selects a desired item by hitting a switch when the desired item is highlighted or announced. []

Screen magnifiers
Screen magnification is software used primarily by individuals with low vision that magnifies a portion of the screen for easier viewing. At the same time screen magnifiers make presentations larger, they also reduce the area of the document that may be viewed, removing surrounding context. Some screen magnifiers offer two views of the screen: one magnified and one default size for navigation.
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Screen readers
Software used by individuals who are blind or who have dyslexia that interprets what is displayed on a screen and directs it either to speech synthesis for audio output, or to refreshable braille for tactile output. Some screen readers use the document tree (i.e., the parsed document code) as their input. Older screen readers make use of the rendered version of a document, so that document order or structure may be lost (e.g., when tables are used for layout) and their output may be confusing. >
 * ===Thunder []===
 * media type="youtube" key="QcnCQH6rcJY" height="358" width="560"

Speech recognition
Speech (or voice) recognition is used by people with some physical disabilities or temporary injuries to hands and forearms as an input method in some voice browsers. Applications that have full keyboard support can be used with speech recognition.
 * Dragon Naturally Speaking
 * media type="youtube" key="1kFtAcsLLdE" height="352" width="563"
 * []

Speech synthesis (speech output)
Speech synthesis or speech output can be generated by screen readers or voice browsers, and involves production of digitized speech from text. People who are used to using speech output sometimes listen to it at very rapid speeds.
 * Bookshare.org
 * media type="youtube" key="UNprRAtLy6c" height="362" width="564"

Tabbing through structural elements
Some accessibility solutions are adaptive strategies rather than specific assistive technologies such as software or hardware. For instance, for people who cannot use a mouse, one strategy for rapidly scanning through links, headers, list items, or other structural items on a Web page is to use the tab key to go through the items in sequence. People who are using screen readers -- whether because they are blind or dyslexic -- may tab through items on a page, as well as people using voice recognition.

Text browsers
Text browsers such as Lynx are an alternative to graphical user interface browsers. They can be used with screen readers for people who are blind. They are also used by many people who have low bandwidth connections and do not want to wait for images to download.
 * Example of Lynx : []

Visual notification
Visual notification is an alternative feature of some operating systems that allows deaf or hard of hearing users to receive a visual alert of a warning or error message that might otherwise be issued by sound.
 * How to set up visual notification using Microsoft:
 * []

Voice browsers
People who can't use a keyboard rely either on voice recognition for spoken commands, or on switch devices which can be controlled by head, mouth or eye movements. People whose eyes are busy with another task may need Web access using voice-driven systems. >> Voice-activated browser allowing spoken selection of links using "saycons". >> A telephone-based tool using the telephone keypad as an interface to navigate suitably configured pages. >> An experimental telephone-based browser allowing access to any site using voice and dialled commands. >>
 * Examples of Voice browsers
 * **ConversaWeb**
 * **webHearit**
 * **TelWeb**

Resource websites for those with disabilities
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[] http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/index.php

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