Let visually impaired people use the Internet easily
2024-05-27
Login to a bank account, always required to perform facial recognition, aim at the camera and blink before passing; After logging in to the App, the screen reading software could not extract effective content and could only make "drip drip" noise... Recently, some media focused on the difficulties encountered by visually impaired people when using the Internet, and explored relevant paths to solve the problem. For visually impaired people, traveling through the Internet world is more like an adventure. Every successful login and order shopping is a rather difficult experience. According to data from the China Disabled Persons Federation, there are currently 85 million people with disabilities in China, of which over 17 million are visually impaired. Today, the Internet economy is very developed, and the realization of digitalization strongly depends on people's visual experience, while the visually impaired people are difficult to "see", and they are always faced with online difficulties and life challenges. Like ordinary people, visually impaired people also have a strong demand for Internet use, including social networking, travel, online shopping, etc. With the help of screen reading software and people around them, they can often start to contact and use the Internet, but at the same time, they also encounter many visual "checkpoints", such as unable to find the correct keys, unable to enter verification codes, etc. According to the statistics of the Report on the Basic Situation of Internet Visually Impaired Users in China, 66% of the visually impaired believe that the current Internet information accessibility is "average", and 20% of the visually impaired believe that "the level is not too high". In the past, we emphasized the construction of barrier free infrastructure in public space, such as building tactile paving, going to steps, setting Braille buttons, etc. But today, how to popularize the awareness of network accessibility, let visually impaired people fully participate in digital interaction and practice, and help them lay a "Internet tactile paving" has become the premise for the public to share the dividend of digital development. It is gratifying that more and more social organizations and enterprises have participated in the construction of the "Internet tactile paving". With the implementation of policy documents such as Technical Requirements and Test Methods for Accessibility of Information Technology Internet Content and Evaluation System for Internet Application Aging and Accessibility, more than 370 websites and apps in China have completed accessibility transformation and passed the evaluation. Some practical obstacles are slowly being eliminated, and the Internet life has become more warm and humane. So, in the process of building the "Internet tactile paving", what problems deserve attention? What kind of concepts and values should be conveyed in the "care model" of information accessibility? The most important point is to gradually change the design that is taken for granted. The core of information accessibility design lies in understanding the basic usage habits of visually impaired people and putting oneself in their shoes to help them overcome obstacles and obstacles during the use process. However, "unable to empathize" often becomes the "soft spot" of Internet engineers and designers. For example, what if images on a webpage cannot be read aloud? What to do when visually impaired people are unable to blink in front of the camera during facial recognition? Is there a security risk in the sound prompt of the verification code? The meticulous design of "Internet tactile paving" often requires technical personnel to interact closely with visually impaired people, and participants to "cover their eyes" to test, feedback and adjust the products with their own feelings, so as to find the jam points and unblock the blocking points. The construction of "Internet tactile paving" is often a multiple collision of science and technology, public welfare and humanity, which requires Internet enterprises to increase some humanistic and public welfare attempts. Many computer engineers say that it is not difficult to realize the "blind fit" transformation of the Internet, but because enterprises will pay more attention to the benefits and consider the relationship between costs and expected returns too much, they often ignore or delay the "blind fit" transformation. In practical operation, "blind adaptation" transformation is a systematic project, which involves both the company's adjustment approval, technical division of labor, the balance of production efficiency and social benefits, and the excavation and play of the subjective initiative of individual engineers. In addition, the development stages of each Internet company are different, which also determines that the progress of "blind adaptation" transformation cannot be unified. The promotion of information accessibility ultimately requires us to include visually impaired individuals in the "regular user" sequence, treat their needs equally with those of non visually impaired individuals, and achieve equal treatment in product and service design. With the development of artificial intelligence technology and the continuous improvement of intelligent voice and AI auxiliary technology, these advances have put wings on the construction of "Internet tactile paving". With the help of AI vision, voice, natural language processing, situational awareness and other technologies, many Internet platforms have started the optimization and upgrading of barrier free design. The use of AI to assist visually impaired people in recognizing photo content, real-time voice navigation to guide visually impaired people on walking, or providing auxiliary explanations when they watch movies, all demonstrate the effectiveness of AI in promoting accessibility optimization more quickly and widely. Love without hindrance is the key to making life more brilliant. With the deep penetration of the Internet into work and life, paying attention to the use needs of visually impaired people, accelerating the construction of the "Internet tactile paving", and building a bridge to the Internet world for them, it should be a part of the topic of sharing digital dividends for the whole society. (Lai Xin She)
Edit：GuoGuo Responsible editor：FangZhiYou
Source：gmw.cn
Special statement: if the pictures and texts reproduced or quoted on this site infringe your legitimate rights and interests, please contact this site, and this site will correct and delete them in time. For copyright issues and website cooperation, please contact through outlook new era email：lwxsd@liaowanghn.com
Think Tank
Recommended Reading Change it 
Home
