Making the Web more accessible for visually impaired users

Cluttered, poorly organized websites can be exasperating for any traveler trying to research or book a trip. But imagine that just to read the text on a Web page you must magnify the print using software that makes it seem as though you’re looking through a soda straw, and you’ll begin to understand some of the difficulties that the nation’s 10 million blind and visually impaired citizens face.

“My sense is [blind and visually impaired] people are certainly using the Internet as much -- if not more -- than sighted people,” said Paul Schroeder, vice president of programs and policy for the New York-based American Foundation for the Blind (www.afb.org). “If you think about it, it gives them something they rarely, if ever, had access to, and that is information in a timely fashion.

“For us it’s an even more critical experience to have, which makes it all the more valuable for a website to be well designed,” said Schroeder, who is blind.

For the nation’s 1.5 mil- lion blind and visually impaired citizens who use computers, the promise of the Internet is often met with the frustration of reality.

The inaccessibility of travel websites is often the result of poor design. Lack of contrasting colors, poor formatting and layouts, cluttered screens and difficult navigation affect visually impaired (as well as perfectly sighted) Web surfers.

Certain kinds of computer software and hardware can help users surmount some of these obstacles.

Software that simulates a human voice reading the screen or that magnifies an image is available, but it’s costly -- between $500 and $1,000, Schroeder said -- and it requires training.

During investigations in 2003 and earlier this year, New York State Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer, working with the foundation for the blind, found that parts of the Ramada and Priceline websites were not accessible to this type of technology, violating provisions of the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Ramada and Priceline paid $40,000 and $37,500, respectively, for the cost of the investigations and are making changes to their sites.

“As soon as we were contacted, we were working on the enhancements,” said Brian Ek, a Priceline spokesman.

Those two sites are not the only ones that fell short.

“The other sites didn’t fare all that well in accessibility,” Schroeder said, but they were not singled out partly because many sites work with the assistive technology. In September 2003, the AFB compared four of the top travel websites -- Expedia, Travelocity, Hotwire and Priceline -- and was critical of all four.

“They were possible to use but were not very easy to use,” Schroeder said.

The big three travel sites -- Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity -- say they are aware of the issues and are working to make their sites more accessible.

“Expedia has a solid track record in this area, and in fact we recently kicked off an external audit with an independent company to make sure we remain accessible to a broad audience,” said Expedia spokesman Jason Reindorp.

It makes solid business sense to do so, said Schroeder, and not just for the blind and visually impaired market. The aging baby boomer population has disposable income, time and desire to travel -- and, often, fading eyesight.

“As a travel site, you would want to make your site the easiest to use,” he said. “If they can build a less cluttered site, it makes the user experience better for everyone.”

James Gilden can be reached at www.theinternettraveler.com.