Kyle Woodruff: Now days the classes are moving more and more towards the internet. You're able to take entire courses online. And I have tried to stay away from those because I am 90% sure that as a blind individual I will run into problems accessing those sites. I will be using the JAWS screen reader in connection with the Internet. JAWS stands for Job Access with Speech.
Kyle: Search for... (Typing)
Computer: M...u...s...i...c space
Kyle: Music
Computer: N...o...t...e...s space
Kyle: Notes. A screen reader is a program, and there are several out there, allowing me to hear what is being displayed on the screen. I'm using tab and shift-tab to go through the links. One would normally just scroll with the mouse up and down to do that, but I'm not able to do that.
Computer: 34 links...
Kyle: 34... that's a lot. So, screen readers are very helpful, but if the Web site is written in a manner that the screen reader cannot access that Web site it does me no good. One of the bad experiences I've had trying to navigate the Internet... There's a class that I needed several forms for and I was not able to access the site with my screen reader. And one of my friends came in and was very generous to download the files from their computer and then take a pencil and we spent three or four hours filling out those forms in pencil. In the past I have avoided using the Internet because of its inaccessibility for myself. As I proceed through school though, teachers and students will use it more and I will need it to be more accessible to me.