Web Unusable for Blind according to BBC Financial Internet Experts

I was at home having a new boiler installed and was listening to a phone-in
on the use of the internet for personal finance.  A blind person called 
in complaining that they were excluded from internet banking, etc., because
of their blindness (I don't think they had seriously investigated access
to the internet).  The three experts all seemed to agree that the web
was unsuitable for the blind (presumably because they associate the web
with typical highly visual commercial designs).

This was in the BBC Radio 4 (UK domestic) program Moneybox.
A real audio version (unfortunately I'm using Linux
without Real Audio) should be available for a few days at:
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/cta/business/moneybox/mblive.ram>.
Textual information, including details of the "experts", is at
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/audiovideo/programmes/moneybox/default.stm>.
There is a "low graphics" version of this (replace "hi" by "low"),
but it is missing many details.

Note that this is a rolling home page, not an archival page.  There should
be a transcript of the program available on a stable URL on Wednesday
or Thursday.

(Internet savings accounts give particular high interest rates, even for
small investments, in the UK, so access to them is financially beneficial.)

Received on Monday, 4 December 2000 18:02:20 UTC