Survey

The American Council of the Blind (ACB), a consumer-based organization of blind and visually impaired Americans advocating for the rights of blind Americans, will work with Google (News - Alert) Inc. to survey blind, visually impaired, and deaf-blind individuals to better understand how they use computers and assistive technology to access information.

"Having access to information through the use of accessible technology is paramount in this day and age for education, employment and social networking. Many studies have evaluated how users generally access the Internet, but none have focused specifically on the experience of blind users," said Mitch Pomerantz, president of the American Council of the Blind, in a statement.

“We are pleased to collaborate with Google to develop and implement this survey, which will look at how blind users choose and adopt assistive technologies and how they discover new tools and information,” said Pomerantz.

He said that understanding the needs of the blind community is the first step to developing effective new ways of accessing information in the cloud.

Officials with American Council of the Blind said that the survey, developed jointly by Google and the American Council of the Blind, will gather data about technology use and needs in the blind community. Respondents will be able to complete the survey by either telephone or Web.

Officials said that survey data will be used to better understand how blind users interact with the Web, which assistive technologies they find most useful, and how they make decisions about whether to switch or upgrade tools.

"At Google we're committed to making our products accessible and we're currently hard at work making improvements," said Alan Eustace, senior vice president of knowledge at Google.

"By connecting with American Council of the Blind members, we hope to gain valuable insight into how the blind use the Internet and how their needs are evolving with technology," said Eustace.

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