How could we make LQ usable by blind people?
 

Hi,

I helped a Slackware newcomer to install that distribution through a Braille terminal autonomously (just including the brltty software in Slint installers did the trick). So far, so good, he can use and administrate his system without help from a sighted person.

But when he has a question or issue to solve he can't access LQ, as the only Linux browsers usable by blind people are lynx and links (at least on Slackware) and the forum are not really usable with these browsers.

But he has no problem to access websites with a simpler layout, use email and mailing lists.

I would be grateful for any idea, clue or suggestion to enhance that situation.

A general reply:
I looked a few years ago for an "acceptance test site" for blind people - something that gave me (as site owner and/or admin) an idea of what was good/bad on a specific page and what had to be improved how (similar to existing tools for normal displays).
Found nothing.
Any hints?

Just try to navigate in the website with links or lynx gives a good clue, I think.

By the way IIRC that was the advice given by Google to webmasters time ago to check how the robots can "see" the websites ;)

Bah, don't think that links is too great.

I was rather expecting an additional dedicated layer to be defined by the community (as it's done now already for the desktop & portable/touch-only devices).
At the beginning I thought that there had definitely to be something around especially due to the huge market share of not only blind but as well all oldish people (resolution & colors), but (again) I did not find anything... - no standards, no compliance check, whatever.

I even wrote an email to the local blind-people-association asking for directions! Never got any answer :(
Looks like a stupid situation to me => I'm probably missing something?

Accessibility software is usually managed on the local computer, for example, by having a good screen reader, though there are some conventions to make websites friendlier (for example, including an informative "alt" field when linking to an image). As LQ is primarily a text website, a good screen reader on the local computer would be the first recommendation.

You might want to take a look at Sonar Linux. (In world of Linux podcasts, the Sonar maintainer, Jonathan Nadeau, has done yeoman's work in sensitizing persons to the need for accessibility.)

A web search for "accessibility Linux" will turn up a number of useful links.

Thanks for your answers so far.

However I remind you that this thread's topic is specifically "how could we make LQ accessible to blind people", so this is more a request to this website's designers and maintainers.

For instance would it be possible to provide a "light" version with less features, bells and whistles, but also with a navigation easier without a mouse?

Yes, I think that a very reasonable request.
I just used lynx without logging in, and the page is appallingly cluttered. I have no knowledge of screen readers and the like, but I imagine the experience of visiting LQ for the sight impaired would be awful.
And that before having to filter out the useless from the useful content that we all have to fight.

In case that was not obvious: I am eager to contribute.

I am not at all a web designer (I just made a few websites, mostly static ones, with a few PHP+MySQL sometimes) but am still able to learn a few things despite my age (66 at time of writing), and good at writing requirements and specs, and project management. I am interested by systems engineering and integration and could also help in gathering needs and wishes from blind users.

Thanks for the feedback. After the pending code update the site will have a mobile version available that will be much more conducive to lynx and screen readers.

--jeremy

Thanks Jeremy. Looking forward for this new version.