Blind charities praise Google for finding accessible sites (Full Version)

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womble -> Blind charities praise Google for finding accessible sites (7/25/2006 17:17:34)

quote:

A blind developer at Google has built a search engine to prioritise results that are accessible to visually impaired web users. The Google Labs project, launched last week, has been welcomed by RNIB and its US counterpart, AFB.

Put a query into Google Accessible Search and a standard Google search begins. But before the results are presented, they are re-ordered to prioritise those pages identified as the most likely to be accessible to visually impaired users.


http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/23/google_search_engine_for_the_blind/



Tailslide -> RE: Blind charities praise Google for finding accessible sites (7/25/2006 17:37:03)

I agree with a comment I saw about this on Accessify.com - it would be nicer if, instead of a separate search engine, this accessibility search was available on the "normal" search page as another option (like "Images").

It's certainly not a bad thing. My only worry is that people might start thinking that visual impairment is the only type of disability they need to build for. It's a Visual Impairment Accessibility Search rather than a totally accessible search facility (if you see what I mean by the difference)>



womble -> RE: Blind charities praise Google for finding accessible sites (7/25/2006 18:09:55)

That's a good point Tail. I did think about the integrating it into the normal search page thing, but yeah, of course they're concentrating on the visual impairment thing. Reading their FAQs, it does mention keyboard navigation, but I think you're right - I think they do need to market it more towards all-round accessibility. There does seem to be a growing recognition of the importance of accessibility, these days it's mentioned every verse end in the "web press" and I certainly think that it's needed, people do need reminding of the importance of accessibility, but I think many people think making their site accessible for visual impairments is all there is to accessibility.

<edit>I pressed the little 'feedback' link on the site and told them that</edit>



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