Brazileans create software so the blind are able to navigate the Internet
News reports indicated today that a Brazilean software company has designed a program that allows blind people to use Windows and navigate the internet.
The media informed today that a Brazilean software company designed a program that would allow sight-impaired people to use the Windows operating system and navigate the Internet.
"Estado", a local news agency informed that "Virtual Vision" uses a voice synthesizer that "read" the user both the operating system's command and the options that appear on the Internet.
This software, that was designed by the Micropower, a Brazilean company, "sounds out" every letter as the user presses them.
While in the Internet, Virtual Vision informs which is the web site being open and "reads" what is in the pages, just as it does with on-line newspapers and magazines.
The new product entered the market in June 2001 Florianópolis, capital city to Santa Catarina province, Southern Brazil. Its creator was Adria dos Santos, a blind athlete who won gold, silver and bronze in the Sydney 2000 Olympiads.
The program was financed through a US$ 250.000 grant from Brasil Telecom, which will distribute 90,000 cd-roms within the nine states in which it operates.
Asociación Brasileña de Oftalmología (Brazilean Ophthalmology Association) estimates that there are about a million people with sight impairment in Brazil, and that about ten thousand of them work.
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