An excellent lesson in the fight against digital exclusion

In the battle for digital accessibility, progress is still slows, and there are few Web sites that comply with the standards. It was with this in mind that the organization BrailleNet was created in 1997 on the Jussieu campus in Paris.The organization was founded and is presided by INSERM researcher Dominique Burger, and brings together research organizations, private companies, teaching establishments and community organizations.

It is a member of the Web Accessibility Initiative, and is at the origin of a label, Accessiweb, which is a French translation of the W3C’s World Wide Web Consortium international recommendations.

In terms of culture, BrailleNet has in particular rendered the site of the newspaper Le Monde, that of the French Prime Minister and the Hachette Encyclopedia online accessible. It has also developed the server and the online lending library Hélène, which offers a free collection, accessible on presentation of a medical certificate. Braille and voice synthesis make 3,000 works from a hundred or so publishers available.

In terms of education, the organization is a partner for the European project VICKIE, which aims to disseminate alternative class support material for visually impaired children in traditional school environments. In the same way, for France, it co-ordinates the ETAPE (Environnement Technologique Adapté Pour l’Education des jeunes handicapés visuels – Technological environment suited to the education of the young visually impaired) project, which supplies books and electronic schoolbags for young visually-impaired learners. Last but not least, it organizes accessibility training for webmasters, in order to broadcast these issues as widely as possible, and accelerate the Web’s compliance with standards.