[Summary]
An important issue is the need for information to be accessible to all.
Available online in September 2000, the website Handicapzéro became a
portal in February 2003 to offer an adapted access to information for
the French-speaking users having a visual problem, i.e. over 10% of the
population. Blind users can access the site using a Braille device or a
speech software. Visually impaired users can set up their own
parameters (size and type of fonts, color of background, etc.) to surf
the web in an optimal way, by creating and modifying their own visual
profile. Any user can correspond in Braille with blind users through
the website. 2 million visitors used the services of the portal in
2006. Handicapzero intends to demonstrate “that, with the respect of
some basic rules, the internet can finally become a space of freedom
for all.”
***
An important issue is the need for information to be accessible to all,
as shown by the portal Handicapzéro launched in February 2003 for any
French-speaking user having a visual problem.
A first website was launched in September 2000 to provide an adapted
access to information for blind or visually impaired users, i.e. over
10% of the population. It quickly became the most visited adapted site
in France, with 10,000 visits per month.
In February 2003, Handicapzéro launched a portal providing free access
to national and international news in real time (in partnership with
Agence France-Presse), sports news (with the newspaper L’ Équipe), TV
programs (with the magazine Télérama), weather (with the service Météo
France) and a search engine (with Google), as well as a range of
services for health, employment, consumer goods, leisure, sports and
telephony.
Blind users can access the site using a Braille device or a speech
software. Visually impaired users can set up their own parameters (size
and type of fonts, color of background, etc.) to surf the web in an
optimal way, by creating and modifying their own visual profile. This
profile can be used for any text available on the web, by copying and
pasting the text on the web interface. Any user can correspond in
Braille with blind users through the website. Handicapzéro provides a
free transcription of the letters and prints them in Braille, before
sending them by mail for free in Europe.
2 million visitors used the services of the portal in 2006.
Handicapzéro intends to demonstrate “that, with the respect of some
basic rules, the internet can finally become a space of freedom for
all.”
Things are not as simple for an adapted access to books. Patrice
Cailleaud, director of communication for Handicapzéro, explained in
January 2001 that, if the digital book is “a new complementary solution
to the problems experienced by blind and visually impaired users, (…)
there are still issues with the copyright legislation and with
permissions from authors that prevent us to offer Braille versions or
large print versions. The requests for permissions are scarce and long,
and seldom work.”
Thus the need for national laws in the wake of an international
copyright law for visually impaired users. In the European Union, the
directive 2001/29/EC dated May 2001 on “the harmonisation of certain
aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society”
insists in its article 43 on the need for all member states to adopt
measures favoring access to books for the handicapped users that can’t
use standard books, especially by promoting accessible formats. Ten
years later, there is still a lot to do.