Free new web portal for disabled

2008-10-23 08:52

Elsabé Brits

Cape Town - The latest version of the National Accessibility Portal (Nap) has just been released.

This web-based technology, known as Nap 3.0.0, comprises among other things a home page and a telephone system that give visually impaired, deaf and blind people access to the information they need to participate in the economy.

The technology was designed by the CSIR's Meraka Institute.

Dr Louis Coetzee, the Nap system architect and a CSIR principal researcher, explained to Die Burger that when disabled people use their assistive software to enter normal web portals, they often find that the information is not all that accessible.

The new, improved web portal has the functionality to integrate with existing assistive software.

This enables blind people to hear what they are reading, or visually impaired people to read huge letters without hampering navigation.

Another sophisticated feature of the technology is that South African Sign Language for deaf people has been incorporated on the interface.

Coetzee said deaf people often struggle to read everything on the web, because sign language is symbolical.

Registration on the portal is free of charge. Click here for more information or to register.

- Die Burger