WebAnywhere

WebAnywhere is a web-based screen reader that does not require any download.  It can be accessed from any computer which enables blind people or those who have a challenge seeing the opportunity to work anywhere.  The video showed an example of a blind person who signed into WebAnywhere on a computer at a university, checked his email, sent email, and checked bus routes and schedules.  It appeared amazing.  The one thing that I noticed that people would have to become in-tune with is the fact that abbreviations were said as they appeared.  That can make some things sound jumbled unless people are paying attention.  For sight people, it can be very apparent and we can just breeze over things we do not need to pay attention to.  With WebAnywhere the voice reads through everything.
In order to make this work, there had to be a lot of studying that went into it.  For example, not all webpages are created equally.  Google, Yahoo and MSN accounted for a third of the traffic, so these pages definitely had to be accessible.  Not as much context was available to blind people, so browsing became more difficult.  Blind people tend to probe while browsing which means they click on a link and stay there for a minute or less, then go back.  They obviously do this because they are not sure what is there whereas sighted people can see it and have more of an idea if it is what they want/need.  It was also found that text is available to images clicked on by blind users.  Also, blind users do not use mice as much as sighted-users.
My thoughts regarding WebAnywhere are that it was very confusing to use and I think it would take a great deal of getting used to.  First of all, the voice was difficult to follow because not only did he have an accent, but he did not read as clearly as I would have expected.  There has to be a lot of initial help, then memorizing (the commands) that goes along with using the screen reader.  I could not remember the exact address to my blog, so I finally figured out to go to Google and type in what I could remember of the link.  (This was after I tried to click on the tab where my blog was opened and found that the WebAnywhere only worked on the link where it was open.)  I finally found it, but I had trouble going through and reading what I had.  It went through every word, abbreviation and link which took a long time.  (I did not have the shortcuts memorized.)  The other thing I noticed was that I would have to open WebAnywhere on each tab I wanted opened.  I admit that I cheated by opening my eyes.  This makes me have a greater appreciation for the blind or those with very poor eyesight.   I would imagine that if I lost my sight and I did not have another way to surf the web, this would be a welcome opportunity.