EU
Project „Websites and Cyber
Kiosks“
Future
generations of visually impaired people might judge that
the Internet was perhaps the most significant development
since the intervention of braille because it gave
them access to the same wealth of information as sighted
people and thus turned out to be a powerful tool of
vocational rehabilitation and social integration. A blind
user in Germany, or indeed anywhere else in the world
can, in exactly the same way as a sighted individual
might, read a newspaper, search records of a university
library, download a science report, locate the best
restaurants in Paris and make all necessary travel
arrangements if he or she wishes to give himself or
herself a treat. All it takes is the right equipment and
some training. However, a requirement is also to have
websites which are well designed and easily accessible to
visually impaired people. The ability to use the internet
is becoming a key qualification in the information age
which obviously is becoming increasingly important for
the professional careers and everyday life of more and
more blind and partially sighted people.
To
promote the use of the internet among the visually
impaired, but also to provide a model of Web
accessibility, the German Federation of Blind and
Partially Sighted People (DBSV), together with five other
EBU member organisations, is presently partner in a EU
project entitled „Websites and Cyber Kiosks: network
for the integration of blind and partially sighted
people.“ The project will run for twelve months and
subdivides into two phases:
Phase One
is about designing national web pages where the EBU
project partners present their various activities and
services which they maintain at local, regional and
national levels. The websites currently under development
will also include a European or international page which
will contain some selected information on model
activities which project partners feel are of
transnational relevance. In addition to this, users will
find on the national pages information on EU policies and
programmes or links to EU webpages.
Phase Two
will be about creating a „cyber kiosk“, i.e. a
training environment where blind and partially sighted
internet users will find all the equipment, tools and
educational ressources needed to learn how to navigate
through the Net. In order to achieve a maximum of impact,
DBSV will implement Phase Two of the project through a
series of seminars where members of the regional
organisations will be receiving the skills and knowledge
they need to operate as future internet trainers at a
local level. These seminars will be organised and
conducted in close collaboration with the German Centre
for Education of the Blind.
