Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Best websites for blind users? (self.Blind)
submitted 7y ago by ReleaseThePressure
Hey all, I'm helping someone who has never used a computer to get access to the internet and would love your input on creating a list of screen reader friendly websites. Thanks in advance!
fastfinge 2 points
Well...lots. Reddit is quite fine, for example. What sorts of things are they looking for? Ebooks? Research materials? Recipes? Social networking? Music? Accounting? "accessible websites" is a pretty wide field. Also, what platform are they using? Some sites are accessible in Firefox, but not in Safari, some in Chrome, and so on. If we know what OS and software they're using, we can help suggest tools and apps to make the internet experience they have the best it can be. One tool, that can make all the difference to a totally blind screen-reader user, is a good ad blocker. Often I encounter websites that would be completely, perfectly accessible, if it wasn't for the bouncing flashing ads making loud noises and opening windows and filling the page with unlabeled images and running so much JavaScript the screen-reading software freezes completely.
ReleaseThePressure [OP] 1 points
Thanks for the response, no platform as of yet. Just trying to understand what's would be a good starting point. Open to using any OS / Browser / Screen Reader. The person would like to be able to e-mail friends and keep up to date with world news as a starting point if that helps :-)
fastfinge 2 points
In that case, the free NVDA screen-reader for Windows, from www.nvda-project.org, would be best. It's free and open source, yet can compete with any other software on features and ease of use. It'll run on anything from Windows 7 to Windows 10, on almost any type of hardware. Also, the programmers who code NVDA are blind themselves, so the features are well-designed and tested, as they use their own product daily, unlike the sighted developers of many other screen-readers. For browsing the web, I recommend Mozilla Firefox with the UBlock Origin or Adblock Plus extensions. For Email, Mozilla Thunderbird works perfectly out of the box. Plus, Thunderbird will allow subscription to RSS feeds, so that can make it easy to read news websites. I've also heard good things about Microsoft Outlook, but I don't own and can't afford Microsoft Office, so I have no direct experience with it. For entertainment, I recommend Kodi with the Kodi screen-reader from http://ruuk.github.io/service.xbmc.tts. Once a few addons like TuneIn, Apple Podcasts, Youtube, and so-on have been added, Kodi quickly turns into the easiest to use entertainment hub for blind users. Also, because the interface in Kodi is so standard from one addon to another, I have yet to find a Kodi addon that isn't accessible. For Word Processing, Libre Office works...OK. It isn't perfect, but it does everything I need. If they need to use spreadsheets and slideshows, though, they might need to spring for Microsoft Office, as it is more accessible for those things.
Teaching them all of the above apps should be a good start, and from there they'll be able to get anything they want out of the Internet.
Teaching them all of the above apps should be a good start, and from there they'll be able to get anything they want out of the Internet.
ReleaseThePressure [OP] 1 points
Thank you so much, that's such a great list to start with! Really appreciate the Kodi mention as I didn't even think of it, would be really good as she loves listening to the radio. Do you know if the screen reader plugin works with the version that runs on a Raspberry Pi? As that would be a great addition for her TV. Many thanks again!!
fastfinge 1 points
Yes, I think the Kodi screen-reader should work on a pi. However, it's much more complicated to set-up. On Windows, all I have to do is run the KODI screen-reader installer, and it will download Kodi, download the screen-reader addon, and configure everything for me. On the pi, you need to get Kodi up and running without the screen-reader, and then add the repository, and then install the add-on through the add-on manager, and then...I think you need to have the python speech server or something? I'm not totally clear on how that works. I don't have any sighted people around who could do those first steps for me, and I'm completely blind so can't do it myself, so I don't know much about what's involved. It's worth a try though! If you do get it all working on the pi, perhaps consider creating an SD Card image for the rest of us? :-)
Unuhi 1 points
iOS (comes with VoiceOver so no need to buy any screenreader software) would be easy to use for pretty much everything.
An iPad, whichever screensize is comfortable for the user's hands, can do anything.
VO o iOS is easy to learn, apps are easy to set up and maintain, and you can get these to work also with external keyboards or refreshable braille displays.
So for someone new to using computers and for just getting stuff done, probably a good place to start.
You could also do most things you listed on an iPhone, but using a bit larger keyboard could make a big difference for comfort in typing longer texts.
Sometimes there are days when I don't touch my laptop at all. (Writing longer texts, using different OSes, specific things that need keyboard etc)
An iPad, whichever screensize is comfortable for the user's hands, can do anything.
VO o iOS is easy to learn, apps are easy to set up and maintain, and you can get these to work also with external keyboards or refreshable braille displays.
So for someone new to using computers and for just getting stuff done, probably a good place to start.
You could also do most things you listed on an iPhone, but using a bit larger keyboard could make a big difference for comfort in typing longer texts.
Sometimes there are days when I don't touch my laptop at all. (Writing longer texts, using different OSes, specific things that need keyboard etc)
ReleaseThePressure [OP] 2 points
I'll try that too! Thanks for the suggestion, I knew iOS had accessibility options but hadn't ever checked them out. When you're using the touch display, how do you know where things are? Muscle memory? Or does the voiceover tell you what you're touching? I'll look up some YouTube videos of it now to see what it's capable of :-)
Unuhi 1 points
Voiceover tells where things are.
Swipe your screen to find out.
Tap to select, double-tap (anywhere) to open the item you have selected. It'll always tell what the next options are.
And you can set VO on/off as accessibility shortcut (3-click home); useful even when it's second nature.
You can arrange the apps anywhere on your screen. Folders are useful - so items can be put where htey make sense. For instance "books" for a folder with all book related items, "social medias", "videos" and so on.
You can also put e.g. Apps of a specific kind on the corners or on the left or right side of the screen and so on.
Find where they are logical for the user, and then it's all good to go. :)
It did take a bit of figuring out how I'd arrange mine shifting from using without VO to using with VO and all the other accessibility things on.
Talkback on Samsung seems pretty good too, but I've only played shortly with it.
With VO you can just set up and try so many things. So many languages are included too, and voices. So if you don't like the standard voice, try with different ones. I often use one of the UK voices. And you can have multiple languages working on the same time - so if some text doesnt get recognized and read correctly, put two fingers on the screen and do a rotary motion to get to rotary settings where you'll find language (after you've set VO to use more than one voice), and can just swipe up or down to pick a different one.
This langusge thing can be a huge benefit to multilanguage people. And also a nice new discovery for learning new languages - because why not :)
The voices are clear and have a correct type intonation, so I've been tempted to find a course that works with VO for Japanese....
Applevis forum is great for all the iOS and Mac VO (and other Apple vision accessibility) stuff by the way. :) so anytime there's a "how do i..." question, there's a good chance someone knows there.
Swipe your screen to find out.
Tap to select, double-tap (anywhere) to open the item you have selected. It'll always tell what the next options are.
And you can set VO on/off as accessibility shortcut (3-click home); useful even when it's second nature.
You can arrange the apps anywhere on your screen. Folders are useful - so items can be put where htey make sense. For instance "books" for a folder with all book related items, "social medias", "videos" and so on.
You can also put e.g. Apps of a specific kind on the corners or on the left or right side of the screen and so on.
Find where they are logical for the user, and then it's all good to go. :)
It did take a bit of figuring out how I'd arrange mine shifting from using without VO to using with VO and all the other accessibility things on.
Talkback on Samsung seems pretty good too, but I've only played shortly with it.
With VO you can just set up and try so many things. So many languages are included too, and voices. So if you don't like the standard voice, try with different ones. I often use one of the UK voices. And you can have multiple languages working on the same time - so if some text doesnt get recognized and read correctly, put two fingers on the screen and do a rotary motion to get to rotary settings where you'll find language (after you've set VO to use more than one voice), and can just swipe up or down to pick a different one.
This langusge thing can be a huge benefit to multilanguage people. And also a nice new discovery for learning new languages - because why not :)
The voices are clear and have a correct type intonation, so I've been tempted to find a course that works with VO for Japanese....
Applevis forum is great for all the iOS and Mac VO (and other Apple vision accessibility) stuff by the way. :) so anytime there's a "how do i..." question, there's a good chance someone knows there.
Southpaw5000 1 points 7y ago
I also agree that iOS is worth taking a serious look at. It has far less problems and is much simpler to use that a computer. I've even been building a List of accessible apps that you can find at http://htb2.com/apps.
There are lots of resources out there to help learn how to use iOS and plenty of people willing to offer helpful tips. Since the operating system is slightly more restrictive it makes teaching others much easier since there are less differences between devices.
I have used android in the past and find it much slower and more difficult to use. There are not as many accessible apps right out of the box and it could be difficult to understand the gestures for beginners. For someone new to this I highly recommend iOS.
Hope this helps!
There are lots of resources out there to help learn how to use iOS and plenty of people willing to offer helpful tips. Since the operating system is slightly more restrictive it makes teaching others much easier since there are less differences between devices.
I have used android in the past and find it much slower and more difficult to use. There are not as many accessible apps right out of the box and it could be difficult to understand the gestures for beginners. For someone new to this I highly recommend iOS.
Hope this helps!
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