The folks at IBM have reached out to disabled computer users who might want to make Firefox more user friendly. IBM has contributed 50,000 lines of code to make the browser more accessible to the blind and motor impaired. Web developers can create pages that reduce, for example, the amount of tabbing required to navigate a document, tabbed sections and spreadsheets, to help minimize keystrokes for users with mobility disabilities.
I am happy to hear IBM putting forth this effort to help out Firefox users. Between 750 million and 1 billion of the world’s 6 billion people have a speech, vision, mobility, hearing or cognitive disability, according to the World Health Organization. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, one quarter of the U.S. population will reach 55 by 2008, and about two-thirds will experience a disability after age 65. Many are working past age 65.
While many of us do not think about these issues from a day to day basis, it is nice to know that somebody out there is.
What does this mean for the Web in general? It means that companies, businesses and regular folks will be able to expand the number of people using their services and Web sites. Being able to hear more voices on the Internet is definitely a good thing for all of us.
