Web

In its 2014 e-Government Survey, the UN stated that in the two years since its 2012 survey the percentage of government websites with information for “disadvantaged and vulnerable groups”, including people with disabilities, had grown from 28 per cent to 64 per cent.

This, the UN said, was due to the greater recognition by governments around the world of the enabling power of the internet and information and communications technology (ICT).

According to VisAbility’s press release, the change comes after extensive independent research and consumer consultation, and will allow the organisation to better welcome and represent people with low vision who want to access its services.

With a little as five per cent of people with vision impairment experiencing total blindness, many Western Australians living with low vision – who may not identify themselves as ‘blind’ – are missing out on vital services.

To create captions:

1. Log in to your YouTube account, go to ‘Video Manager’ and click the ‘Edit’ button next to the video you want to caption.
2. Select ‘Subtitles and CC’ at the top right of the screen. In the drop-down menu, select the language. You can select English, or choose from 160 other languages.

Increasingly, exchanging images on social media is a fundamental way people interact online. The popularity of trends such as memes has meant that much of the information people share online is locked away in an image, beyond the reach of a screen reader.

Easy Chirp was developed by WebAxe founder Dennis Lembree as an accessible Twitter client. The service offers an alternative interface to Twitter that made up for Twitter’s inaccessibility.  As Twitter has become more accessible, Easy Chirp has continued to offer features specifically suited to blind users.