[gui-talk] a search engine for the blind

[Wayne Merritt]

While I'm all for an "accessible" search engine, who's to say that what's 
"accessible" for Google is really accessible for me? It seems that the words 
accessible and usable are developing different definitions, in terms of web 
access. In other words, a site can be accessible but not usable by a blind 
person. Like others, I think that in defining what really is accessible, 
Google might very well leave out the one site I'm looking for. Its nice to 
see them give some thought to accessibility though. If only we could steer 
them more towards making some of their other products, like the side bar and 
desktop options for the Google Desktop Search utility, more accessible and 
usable by the blind.

Wayne
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Jacobson" <steve.jacobson at visi.com>
To: "NFB in Computer Science List" <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>; "NFBnet GUI Talk 
Mailing List" <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2006 10:08 AM
Subject: Re: [gui-talk] a search engine for the blind


> What do others think about this special Google search engine for the 
> blind?  I really don't want someone deciding for me what I am capable of 
> reading or navigating
> when I am looking for something on a search site.  I will even go a step 
> further and say that I don't understand Google spending time on this at 
> the expense of
> working to solve other accessibility problems on their site.Can someone 
> tell me what I'm missing here?  I understand that nothing is stopping me 
> from using the
> regular search engine, but I just don't understand what is so neat about 
> this.
>
> On Wed, 26 Jul 2006 09:58:03 -0400, Sherri wrote:
>
>>I ran across this article in a weekly newsletter I receive. I haven't 
>>tried
>>this site yet, but thought this might be of interest. The link to get to 
>>the
>>entire article is at the bottom of this e-mail.
>
>>Sherri
>>> A Search Engine For The Blind: Google Unveils Accessible Web ...
>
>>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>>by Chris Sabga
>>Infopackets Gazette
>>Infopackets Contributor
>
>>Google has just unveiled Accessible Web Search, a search engine for the
>>visually-challenged. Here's how it works: Regular Google sorts search
>>results primarily by how relevancy, but Accessible Search takes it a step
>>further by also listing pages will that will be easy for the blind to
>>navigate. To meet Google's Accessible Web Search criteria, a web Site has
>>to be "visually simple." That means it ...
>>... Click to read the rest of the article (and our most recent articles)
>>online:
>
>>http://www.infopackets.com/channels/en/windows/gazette/2006/20060726_a_search_engine_for_the_blind_google_unveils_accessible_web_search.htm
>
>>    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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>
>
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