Last month, July, I spent two hours trying to help a chap who is blind. He has very little sight - the computer screen looks bright white to him so he takes the Microsoft "Accessibility" option of a black background, but he relies on using screen-reader software and navigates the user interface by using keyboard shortcuts.
He was happy using Windows 7 and Word 2003, but yes...you've guessed it...Microsoft told everybody that they wouldn't support Win 7 after 2019, and he, like a lot of people, thought he ought to upgrade to Windows 10. Then, of course, he found his Word 2003 wouldn't play with Win 10 so he had to get the latest Word thing. He'd been very fluent with working the old drop-down menus by keyboard, but he couldn't make head or tail of "The Ribbon" of functions on Word 2016.
So he called me in to help. I struggled for two hours. I know very few shortcuts, simply because I don't need that many - I can see the mouse pointer and I steer that around the screen. The only shortcut I use regularly is CTRL (or Mac CMD) V for "Paste". I did have some success in helping him - I reckoned an hours-worth of success - and he offered to pay me by BACS. I promised I would do some research and get back to him.
So I went home and emailed him my bank details. Then I spent several hours over two or three days trying to practise keyboard shortcuts; that is, using no mouse at all, on my Windows 10 PC. I used my Mac (and a mouse!) to look up anything I could find for keyboard shortcuts for blind people, but to no avail. It seems that "keyboard shortcuts" are promoted as just that - shortcuts for people who can't be bothered to move the mouse, rather than for people whose sight is so limited that they can't see a mouse pointer.
I have emailed the Royal National College in Hereford to ask if they have any teaching material they could send me to help this chap. I mentioned that I knew of them through my living and teaching in Hereford in not too many years gone by. I heard nothing. I emailed them again last week... In the meantime, my client has yet to pay me £40 for my time with him. Perhaps he's waiting for the reults of my research. I have submitted the invoice twice.
Today in Sidwell Street, Exeter, I was chugged by the RNIB. Three (well-sighted) men stake out the wide pavement outside Sainsbo's and the bus-stands. They are very pro-active about it. So I gave my usual line about a one-off monthly donation from the business and yes OK this month It's You. And I mean it - I have come home and for the first time in three years I have written a cheque - My Computer Tutor's donation to the RNIB. The ironic thing is that my monthly donation is one hours-worth of my fees - to wit £40 - which my blind client still owes me.
As a post-script:
I don't know why the RNIB is happy to be an institute "for the Blind" but the RNC has dropped it.
As a footnote to other web-designers:
There really are people out there to whom pictures on websites are meaningless, and who rely on a screen-reader to read the text content. This is why every picture on a website should have an HTML "title" and "alt" text for the screen-reader to read to the blind or partially-sighted user.
End Of Lecture!
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