A web-based screen reader which enables blind people to surf the web is now available. The program called, WebAnywhere, requires no special software to be installed on a computer. Provided the computer has a sound card, blind users are able to access and use the web. Traditionally, blind web users need to purchase special software such as screen readers to use the web. However, with this new technology, that is all about to change. This is the alpha release of the open source tool. The program is OS and browser independent.

According to its founder, Jeffrey Bigham, of the University of Washington:

The web represents a great opportunity for blind users because of the enormous amount of information made available in a format that can be converted to speech or braille, but web access remains difficult for blind users because:

1. Complex sites are difficult and inefficient to navigate using the serial interface exposed by screen readers.
2. The content in images, animations and movies aren’t accessible.
3. Many sites can’t be accessed at all because they’re protected by a visual CAPTCHA.
4. Functionality like dynamic menus or Flash content requiring the mouse is unavailable.
5. Screen readers don’t handle the fancy Web 2.0 web applications well, making them unusable.

(Image source: http://accessit.nda.ie/files/img_close_to_screen.jpg)