The Free Internet Cafe for the Blind & Visually Impaired, the first in the whole of Africa, which opens the World Wide Web, making The Gambia a leading light in Africa, with this technology by allowing free and total access to surf the net send and receive emails and for students to enhace their studies with the aid of this pioneering software. No more do they need to rely on a third party to read to them newspapers, magazines, books, letters and world wide information. Nonvision.KingfisherGambia.com - Political Engagement (novice)
 

Political Engagement

Level: novice

Perhaps, if you can’t see to read and write print, fill in forms or study newspaper articles, you might be forgiven for failing to engage in the political process. Political apathy is rife in the UK, they say; but this project will do something about this as far as blind and partially sighted people are concerned.

We provide a series of guides that facilitate blogging, access to the Prime Minister’s No 10 website, the ability to fill in forms and play a part in responding to petitions and questionnaires and to quickly and easily gather appropriate information which is readily available electronically to seeing citizens.

Screenreader.net CIC is a Community Interest Company, a social enterprise, which distributes free assistive software to the blind and partially sighted community at no cost to the end-user. The free software is called Thunder. It is downloaded on to a modern Microsoft Windows computer from www.screenreader.net. Thunder makes that computer talk so that the user can hear which keys have been pressed, listen to a website, deal with emails, fill in forms, keep up to date and, in fact remain politically engaged.

The internet is very much at the heart of things and the more normal way of surfing the internet is not appropriate if you can’t see the complexity, pictures and clutter of the typical website. WebbIE is a text browser tool which strips away all the visual unwanted clutter and leaves the user with information in clear speech or large print or both. There are, of course, other browsers and other assistive software packages. It would be quite impossible to give detailed instructions covering every software package.

But the instructions we have created will work with other assistive software packages such as JAWS, SuperNova or WindowEyes, provided that WebbIE is in use as the web text browser.

Users of other assistive software packages can, of course, do things in their accustomed manner.

Unfortunately, all this is not as easy as looking at the computer screen and using a mouse. Its a question of learning patterns of key presses from the keyboard. Some users will already be very familiar with much of what needs to be done, some will understand the principles but will not have applied them to political engagement and others will be novices. The experienced reader may only need to take a few minutes to brush up on the WebbIE key strokes and read the "WebbIE In Brief" document.

Below is a list of documents and websites relevant to political engagement:

Directgov: www.direct.gov.uk/en/index.htm

Fixmystreet: www.fixmystreet.com/

Mysociety: www.mysociety.org/

No 10 Petitions: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/

Parliamentary Reports -

Pledgebank: www.pledgebank.com/

Political Engagement

RSS Newsfeeds

WebbIE Manual

WebbIE In Brief

Writetothem: www.writetothem.com/

What You Will Need

You will need access to a fairly modern internet-ready connected PC or laptop running Microsoft Windows Vista or XP operating system. You will need speakers or earphones, the Thunder or an alternative screenreader software package and WebbIE software installed. It would be helpful to have this tutorial or at least the list of appropriate key strokes by your side in large print, Braille or on an audio disk or cassette.

The Thunder software is a download from www.screenreader.net and the WebbIE browser comes as part of the Thunder Download. If you are using one of the other assistive technology software packages, that’s fine; but you will then need to download WebbIE from www.webbie.org.uk or follow procedures you are already familiar with for accessing websites in a manner appropriate to the particular assistive technology package.

Many, or at least some, partially sighted people will be able to cope very well with the standard mouse pointer procedures on a computer, provided that appropriate adjustments are made to the colours and the level of magnification available within the operating system. The information presented here is for those with less sight than is needed to follow the mouse pointer on the screen.

 

The Free Internet Cafe for the Blind & Visually Impaired, the first in the whole of Africa, which opens the World Wide Web, making The Gambia a leading light in Africa, with this technology by allowing free and total access to surf the net send and receive emails and for students to enhace their studies with the aid of this pioneering software. No more do they need to rely on a third party to read to them newspapers, magazines, books, letters and world wide information.