Computer Technology for the Blind and Visually Impaired

In 1829 by adapting a secret code used by the military to communicate in the dark, Louis Braille brought the power and wonder of the written word to those who could not see. And while Braille remains a primary method of access to many types of information for the blind, today’s growing reliance on electronic communication, is creating new challenges for the visually impaired. John Vaughn, blind himself and a Rehabilitation Counselor, talks about the challenges he faced. “Braille was developed in the 1830’s in France, and was the primary means of reading and writing for blind people until recent years. Fortunately for me and others who were losing their eyesight in the late 1980’s that’s when we started to see the first real screen reading technology in the computer arena, unfortunately this was more custom made kinds of systems, there wasn’t a lot of standards that were being followed so sometimes your screen reader would work and sometimes it wouldn’t”