Blind Users Call for Greater Web Accessibility and Research in New Technologies

Doha, March 20 (QNA) - At the Arab regions first technology summit for people who are blind or visually impaired, the community called for greater efforts to increase accessibility of digital media and for more research and development efforts. The meeting, organized by Mada, the Qatar Assistive Technology Center at the Four Seasons Hotel in Doha. Blind people heard from the leading developers of technology from across the world about their current and planned solutions, and shared their thoughts on priorities for the future. The key takeaways from the meeting included: The importance of choice in technology is critical to the successful use of technology by blind people; every effort to increase the range of technology available is welcomed. The development of free and low cost solutions for the Arabic speakers has given many people a voice that would otherwise not be heard. Both public and private sector organizations need to do more to make their websites fully accessible to people with a disabilities. Inaccessible e learning is limiting opportunities for learning for the disabled people. As an increasingly experienced group of technology users, greater specialization of accessible materials is required. Further work on Arabic Braille and open source text to speech is required by researchers. Bookshare Arabic is welcomed as a repository of accessible books for Arabic people but other repositories need to contribute and encourage more materials. Blind people are the experts in their needs and welcome every opportunity to engage with developers and to give feedback on products. Following the meeting, the technology companies involved reiterated their support for the community, offering to make training and internal support materials available for use to people in Qatar through the Mada Center, and expressed their commitment to return to Qatar for further engagement in the fall of 2014.(QNA)