A Brief Of Google's Accessible Service

T. V. Raman in the official Google blog has an update on Google Accessible Service providing an overview of their accessible services.

"Web search, our primary service, has a very simple interface and has always been accessible from a variety of user environments. Newer services that present highly interactive interfaces continue to present accessibility challenges when used with specialized adaptive technologies such as screenreaders. We are committed to finding accessibility solutions that make our services work better for everyone who visits. "

Web Search : Result pages include headers to delineate logical sections.

Accessible Search : Promotes results that are accessible.

Book Search : Full-text access to public-domain works.

Gmail : A simple yet functional HTML mode that works well with screenreaders.

Gmail Mobile : A lightweight user interface that is also speech-friendly.

Google Maps : Easy-to-use textual directions.

Calendar : A functional, yet speech-friendly user interface.

Audio Captchas : All services that use Google Accounts provide an audio alternative for the visual challenge-response tests that are used to distinguish humans from machines.

Mobile Transcoder : A mobile lens for viewing the web that produces accessible views.

Google Video : Allows uploaded videos to contain captions/subtitles in multiple languages for viewers who are hearing-impaired or unfamiliar with the original language.

Google Talk : IM clients inside a web browser can pose accessibility challenges, but the use of the open Jabber API means that Google users can choose from a variety of Jabber clients, many of which work well with adaptive technologies.

Web APIs : Many Google services offer high-level web APIs that aid in authoring mashups; this provides a means for creating highly customized accessible views.

Many Google services such as Google Scholar, Google News, Blogger and Google Product Search work out of the box.

Here's T.V. Raman on Google Book Search which has everything in Text versions, From Romeo & Juliet To Kurt Cobain.

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