To ask how blind people use the internet

[Bearbehind]

Inspired by another thread where a blind lady with a guide dog posted about a problem she encountered which got me wondering how she could MN in the first place.

Of all the senses to lose, sight must be the worst and I genuinely wonder how they use the internet?

It reads out the words on the screen you must have to use headphones, imagine an old lady on the bus hearing penis beaker

Sorry to labour the point but can you just mindlessly scroll through threads wasting loads of time like I do or do you have to search for something in particular.

Yes you can mindlessly scroll through threads. Just the same. You get the odd website thats not user friendly but the majority are generally ok.

Wow, that really has fascinated me- thanks for the replies.

Can I ask what screen reader or jaws or whatever makes of usernames?

Your name would read out properly because, even though there are no spaces, you have capital letters at the start of each word. So its easy to pick out the words and hear it. But if your name was Atyourcervix, (instead of AtYourCervix) with no capitals, then its very difficult to read it properly. As the screen reader tries unsuccessfully to make the three words into one long word. Which doesn't work. If that makes sense.

My dad who has very limited sight uses a magnifying machine and screen to read, but doesn't use the internet because he's old and not computer savvy. He could use similar technology to use the internet if he so wished.

As others have already mentioned there is all sorts of kit out there for blind or partially sighted people to use. It's a shame that my mum (blind) isn't a bit younger because I think she would have loved it.

My dad uses Jaws. He has no sight whatsoever so is totally reliant on it.

My FIL is totally blind and uses JAWS. The speed he can navigate the web at is astounding. He does however find things like Facebook frustrating.

His mobile phone also talks to him so he can read texts.

I find the technology used by VI people fascinating. So many solutions to problems that the rest of us wouldn't even know were problems.