Google for the Visually Impaired

T.V Raman, a Google research scientist blinded by childhood glaucoma is the leading man in Mountain View company's project to enhance the accessibility of its search engine for the visually impaired. Raman strives to achieve a level of simplicity with his search system that will return websites with translatable content both in regards of page layout and design.

"I knew it was a hard problem," said Raman. "What did I discover by doing this project? It's an even harder problem than I anticipated."

The issues surface with the conversion of text, graphics and other content on a Web page via screen readers, into audio signals, or by portions of the page being enhanced through screen magnifiers. The more complex the content of a Web page, the more difficult the task or reshaping that content to suit users with special needs. A blind user listening to the extraneous and heterogeneous content of a web page rendered by a synthesized voice will be able to make no clear distinction of the information presented. "You get a lot of conflicting signals," explained Raman commenting on the issue.

Accessible Search aims to benefit the estimated eight million visually impaired people in the United States while balancing its results according to standards of design and content equilibrium on the web sites.