Tips From Google Webmaster Central: How to make information accessible to visually impaired!

On the Google Webmaster Central blog, T.V. Raman has shared some basic tips to make sites more accessible to the visually impaired. There are two worth mentioning things about Raman, first he is blind and second, inspite of that he is Research Scientist with Google. In his post he talks about his blindness and the everyday hurdles that he has to face because of his blindness.

However, with the coming of internet a whole new world has opened to the visually impaired. Technologies like screen readers, web pages, books and web applications has made things much easier for people like Raman. Google has always taken a keen interest in making information accessible for everyone and in this regard their Accessible Search was a great offering. With Google Accessible Search, the blind and visually impaired users are provided with clean and simple search results making it easier for them to view the pages.

Raman further said, “Why should you take the time to make your site more accessible? In addition to the service you'll be doing for the visually-impaired community, accessible sites are more easily crawled, which is a first step in your site's ability to appear in search results.”

Here are his tips for making things better for the visually impaired:

• Provide clutter free web pages that are easier to read.
• You can make your site more accessible for the blind and visually impaired by following the W3C's numerous guidelines including Web Content Access Guidelines.
• Have unique and compelling content.
• Maintain a review of your site's usability.

Keep a tab on this page, as we would be bringing you more updates on ways to make search truly universal, ie., for all.

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