Mouse, unplugged

A class of teenagers proves that on the Internet, nobody knows you're blind.
By Heinz Bulos
July 2002

t was literally the blind leading the
blind. Victor 1saran, a young
Ukranian, was giing instructions to
his class o ten blind students. Don`t
start until I say so.` A contest was about
to begin.

In ront, in 350-grade glasses, was a
seen-year Internet eteran who spends
at least six hours online eeryday, a
Google junkie and editor o an Internet
magazine ,that would be me,. At the
other side o the room were ten isually
impaired teenagers with hands-on
Internet experience o exactly two
weeks.

1he three-round contest was to pit me
against blind students on who can ind
inormation on the \eb irst. 1o leel
the playing ield, I had to sur the \eb
the same way they do - no computer
mouse, using only keyboard shortcuts,
and getting audible cues rom a
headphone. \ell, almost the same way.
1he kids were urging 1saran to deprie
me o my monitor. No air, I cried.
Besides, it`s the irst time I`m using the
keyboard solely to sur and click on
links. Imagine, clicking on links without
a mouse!

1hey relented, apparently up or the
challenge. Ater a one-minute warm-up,
we inally started. 1he irst round: on
the IBM web site, ind the page on
NetVista. Using the 1ab keys, I jumped
rom link to link, my ear straining as the
text-to-speech screen reader sotware,
JA\S, read each link ,incidentally, the
computer oice sounds like a guy who
just inhaled a helium balloon,. linally, I
got to the NetVista page. 1he oicial
time was 80 seconds. 1wo o the
students, lannah and Joy, beat me to it:
gone in 60 seconds. Another, Cesar, was
done in 0. Not bad or me, the rest o
the class inished in 90.

1he second round was to go to
www.gamesortheblind.com. I came in
second, ater, once more, lannah and
Joy, who seem bent to discredit me. 1he
third round was to go to the news
section o M1V.com, one o the sites
not ery user-riendly or people with
disabilities. Chris got there in 40
seconds, and I tied with Cesar in a
minute and ten.

1saran then told the class to go to our
web site, www.theweb.com.ph, and ind
out what the top story was. A minute
passed. I cringed. \hile our site
minimizes the use o graphics, it just has
too many links. Ater another minute,
someone named Rachel inally ound it,
and I elt relieed.

1he experience made me wonder i the
owners and deelopers o the major
\eb sites eer thought o this audience
segment in their site planning. \hen I
chatted with some o the students, it was
obious that, when it comes to \eb
sites, less is more.

1hey picked Google as their aourite
search engine and chose Lyrics.com as a
top music destination. It`s interesting to
note that these blind teens all loe
music. 1hey`re teenagers ater all, but
more than that, listening is largely how
they experience the world.

Joy Lopez, 16, loes Regine Velasquez
and Air Supply, and isits their \eb
sites oten. She says, M1VAsia.com is
diicult to use because there are too
many graphics and links.` Christopher
Pumbokon, 18, goes to MP3.com to
download songs, at least those that he
I
can get or ree. le doesn`t like
Music.com howeer, It`s diicult
because there are too many buttons.`

Pumbokon is one o the promising
students rom this class, a returnee rom
the preious summer. le`s been using
computers or two years now, haing
been taught by a teacher at the Quirino
ligh School where he`s now a
sophomore. As he was already proicient
in Microsot \ord, he was sent by the
school or this national computer camp
or blind students, dubbed Computer-
Lyes`.

1his is the second year or the two-week
program, organized by Resources or
the Blind in cooperation with IBM
Philippines, Oerbrook-Nippon
Network or Lducational 1echnologies
,ON-NL1,, and lreedom Scientiic.
1his year, around 30 students rom
special education centers rom Isabela to
Daao participated.

ON-NL1 organizes projects around the
world with help rom Nippon Lie. 1hey
get corporate sponsors rom each
country to proide unding and acilities.
IBM Philippines, or instance, proides
its comortable and well-equipped
classroom and computers at the IBM
Plaza or ree.

1saran, 28 years old, and his pretty wie,
goes around the world to help in the
training and organization. Ater the
Philippines, they`ll be o to 1hailand
and then Vietnam. 1saran, a Ukranian,
has a Bachelor degree in Computer
Science rom 1emple Uniersity in
Philadelphia. le lost his eyesight when
he was only ie ater an unsuccessul
glaucoma operation. le works ull-time
as webmaster o ICLVI.org, the site o
the International Course or the
Lducation o the Visually Impaired.

le laments the act that many \eb sites
are not accessible to blind people. 95
o sites I browsed, I had problems. It
was much worse three years ago, now
people are more aware.` le commends
the eorts o the \3C or coming up
with a set o guidelines called \eb
Accessibility Initiatie ,\AI, that will
improe accessibility o web sites. le
also notes that Microsot Internet
Lxplorer is becoming riendlier or the
disabled. \ith JA\S and Internet
Lxplorer, we can access what seems
inaccessible.` JA\S has unctionalities
that cuts short the steps in browsing.
One unction lists all a \eb site`s
sections in one dialogue box,
oerstepping the need to listen or the
computer to read all the links on a page.
le says, 1echnology is moing
orward and designers are now more
open to accessibility issues.`

Pumbokon inds JA\S a much helpul
tool and preers it to Internet Lxplorer.
le hopes to use this new knowledge to
pursue his dream o becoming a
programmer. le says, I plan to
deelop a 1agalog ersion o a screen
reader.` lannah Aldeza, 15, an
incoming senior at the Ramon
Magsaysay ligh School, also likes JA\S
and the short-cut techniques or
browsing. Like her riend, Joy, she can
already use e-mail, sending messages to
each other and to 1saran.

1saran notes that his students are all
motiated. 1he only problem, he says, is
they still need to think independently, a
symptom o the way they were taught
and brought up.` Joy says 1saran
doesn`t want to spoon eed them, and
constantly reminds them to be
independent. lor instance, he doesn`t
just teach them how to ind inormation
on the Internet but gies them
assignments to write about what they
ound, It`s one thing to ind a site, but
they should be able to summarize the
inormation and make use o it,` says
1sanran. le also urges them to
experiment with the computer, \hat
happens i the screen reader hangs \ou
shouldn`t be araid to try something.`

But at the same time, 1saran adds,
Society should gie them a chance and
people hae to be open.` le hopes that
priate groups will make sure eery
school or the blind has computers. And
gien that een the public high schools
where these teens came rom do not
hae Internet access, though some hae
computers, 1saran wants goernment
and priate companies to und Internet
access. \hateer these kids learn rom
this program needs to continue. O
course they`d orget. \ou can`t stop at
one place.`

1saran notes that these students get
excited about their new skills and the
act that the Internet is such a ast
library o inormation. More than
knowledge and skills is the hope that it
brings. In the end, he says, 1hey get to
know what the possibilities are.`