ACCESSIBILITY AND USABILITY IN ELECTRONIC TEXTS : WHAT DOES IT MEAN ? Barbara

Visually impaired people have always experienced difficulties in reading texts, documents and books. However, the ability to obtain information independently is of crucial importance for visually impaired people, since it would give them access to a world which was previously closed to them in terms of access to educational tools, employment resources and information about personal interests and the latest information on a wide range of subjects. Electronic texts (e-texts) are potentially a viable solution. In this work we introduce the subject and describe the aim of the project “S.T.E.L.A.E.”. This project focuses on books on cultural and scientific topics, which have particular problems in making information really accessible to blind people. We first discuss the theoretical and methodological basis of electronic texts, starting with problems in using e-texts. Then we propose a new model which includes specific elements linked to different reading typologies. Finally, a broader goal of this work is improving the quality of education in order to encourage online distance learning (i.e. so called e-learning), especially for visually impaired people.