Digital libraries and the blind and visually impaired

Until recently, the blind and visually impaired have had a very restricted access to information. The reason is that the production of formats readable to them (such as Braille and audio), is rather slow as well as expensive and thus only a minute amount of published works has been made available in the adjusted formats. However, since digital formats have come into being, the situation has significantly changed for the better, primarily because of the possibility to use text-to-speech software that reads aloud digital text on the computer screen. This enables the blind and visually impaired to access digital information at the same time as anyone else and at no additional cost. Digital libraries on the World Wide Web are of particular importance in this context, both if they contain full-text documents or secondary information resources. The existing digital libraries and collections would be discussed from the blind and visually impaired user’s point of view, as well as taking into account accessibility issues from several aspects such as user interface and information seeking behaviour.