A blind perspective of a computer screen

In most cases when a blind employee navigates their screen, they do so by using their keyboard exclusively. Whereas a sighted employee uses their mouse to point and click, a blind employee uses their keys to do the same. They depend on shortcut keys to get them where they need to be on the screen.

For sighted persons, their dependence on a mouse is almost exclusive and for a blind employee, their dependence on shortcut keys is almost exclusive. The tab, control, escape, and alt keys are a blind employee’s best friend. Or should I say a blind person’s best friends. Various combination's of these keys are also best friends and of course there is the find command to help a blind person find things quickly.

This is how blind persons navigate their screen. In the workplace, a blind employee can be just as fast as a sighted person when navigating the screen. The one huge challenge comes when a screen freezes and a blind employee is unable to tell what is going on because their access technology software is unable to speak. Such situations would be during circumstances such as: A system crash, a hard drive failure, or a screen interruption. A blind employee would also depend on any sound that their computer gives off in order to help them navigate their screen and/or decipher what may be going on.

For someone with enough vision to identify colors, they may use their vision to help them identify such things as: Where the cursor is, an image on the screen, and maybe location of fields and icons and/or images. Some blind persons use screen magnifiers to help them navigate while others use closed circuit TV devices. It all depends on the level of vision.

I’m Donna J. Jodhan, your friendly accessibility advocate, wishing you a terrific day and encouraging you to go out there and share my words with others.
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