Accessibility

The term accessibility means possibility and reaching, perception and understanding conditions to allow disable people to use buildings, spaces, furniture, urban equipments and elements with security and autonomy.

In the case of the web, it means that disable people can perceive, understand, browse and interact.

Screen Reader Softwares

The screen readers are softwares that, interacting with the computer’s operating system, capture the textual information presented and transform them in a voice answer using a voice synthesizer.

We describe below examples of some free screen readers that can be used:

NVDA

Its differential is that it does not need to be installed in the system, for this, it have to be carried in a pen drive, CD or any other removable disk.

http://www.nvda-project.org/wiki/Download.

DOSVOX

Most of the sound messages issued by DOSVOX are recorded in human voice. It means that DOSVOX is a system with low level of stress for the user, even in case of prolonged use. Maybe because of that DOSVOX is the most indicated for children, teenagers or users who are starting to use a computer. Inside this system you will find a text editor, didactic and ludic games, softwares to help in the education of children with visual impairment and many others functions.

http://intervox.nce.ufrj.br/dosvox/programas/dv50-setup.exe

ORCA

Its differential is that it can work in the operating system Linux. In addition to screen reader, ORCA is also a screen magnifier, which allow people with visual impairment to use only one software to make the system accessible. Orca is the native resource in some Linux distributions.

Keyboard Navigation

It is about the combined use of keys that can be called shortcut keys or navigation keys. They are a series of one or several keys that substitute the use of the mouse to execute tasks.

In our website the shortcut keys are:

• To access the ‘Home Page’ press the key Alt and letter I at the same time (Alt + I).
• To access a specific content of a page press the keys Alt + C.
• To access the menu press the keys Alt + M.
• The previous observations refer to Internet Explorer browser. In case of using Firefox, instead of Alt + letter, press at the same time the keys Alt + Shift + letter.
• When the alternative keys are pressed, Firefox forwards directly to the requested page. However, Internet Explorer only positions the focus on the link that have to be triggered by clicking with the mouse or pressing ENTER with the keyboard.