by Playfuls Staff |
20th July 2006
Google has released a search
engine that enables the blind to find information on the Web more easily.
Accessible Search has been developed by T.V. Raman, a Google research scientist
who is himself blind. [more] The visually impaired have so far
been able to surf and read internet pages with the help of screen readers. In
the past few years, however, the sites have been added all kinds of graphics
and video, which impedes the screen readers.
The challenge before Google was
to develop an algorithm distinguishing accessible from inaccessible pages. The
new engine is in fact not made to exclude inaccessible pages but to rank
accessible ones higher.
According to Raman, who worked at
IBM Research before joining Google about a year ago, by developing better ways
of measuring accessibility, Google could eventually offer consumers with
specific disabilities ways to do more customized searches.
Google Accessible Search is built
using Google Co-op technology, which enables users to create specialized
searches by topic. Raman hopes that the visually impaired people will take part
in the tests and in this way help Google finish the tests and improve the
engine.
