American Foundation for the Blind

About Me

The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) is a national nonprofit that expands possibilities for people with vision loss.

AFB's priorities include broadening access to technology; elevating the quality of information and tools for the professionals who serve people with vision loss; and promoting independent and healthy living for people with vision loss by providing them and their families with relevant and timely resources. AFB's work in these areas is supported by the strong presence the organization maintains in Washington, DC, ensuring the rights and interests of people with vision loss are represented in our nation's public policies.

In addition to its New York City headquarters and Public Policy Center in Washington, DC, AFB maintains offices in Atlanta, Dallas, Huntington, WV, and San Francisco.

My Interests

web accessibility, technology, education, employment, braille literacy, and living with vision loss.

I'd like to meet:

People interested in expanding possibilities for people with vision loss, particularly in the area of web accessibility.

One might say that the World Wide Web is the best thing that ever happened to people who are blind or visually impaired. We read newspapers on the day they're published, order groceries and know the prices before we check out, and find out what titles are on a CD before we make our selection.

But not every web page is optimally designed for use by web surfers with visual impairments. When a page is built without regard to proper web design, the technology that keeps users in the Web falls apart.

One of the big barriers is the use of CAPTCHAs (seen in picure below). CAPTCHAs are meant to keep spam progams out of the system, but they also keep out people with vision loss because they are essentially unlabeled graphics. Unless MySpace offers an alternative to a CAPTCHA, blind users will never be able to sign up, or update their accounts, without sighted help -- a HUGE accessibility problem.

If you are serious about making your web site accessible, the most valuable resource available is the web site of the Web Access Initiative (WAI) , part of the World Wide Web Consortium. There you'll find guidelines for making web pages along with explanations and techniques.

You will also find valuable help in the web accessibility area of the AFB web site .

Movies:

Video on YouTube about CAPTCHAs and Social Networking Sites

Heroes:

Helen Keller, Anne Sullivan Macy and M.C. Migel.

My Blog

FamilyConnect Brings Together Parents of Visually Impaired Children

Today the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) and the National Association for Parents of Children with Visual Impairments (NAPVI) launched FamilyConnect", an online, multimedia community for pare...
Posted by American Foundation for the Blind on Tue, 29 Apr 2008 07:49:00 PST

CAPTCHAs on Social Networking Sites (including MySpace) Shut Out Blind Users

Social networking sites MySpace, Facebook, and Friendster are all the rage these days. These sites have become the places to meet new people, update friends on life happenings, find jobs, networ...
Posted by American Foundation for the Blind on Wed, 15 Nov 2006 09:46:00 PST