Supporting Digital Accessibility for People with Low Vision

Accessibility is about ensuring that learning, information, and activities are available to everyone, and research shows that people with disability, particularly those with vision impairments, face additional barriers in accessing digital spaces.

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These barriers include not only a lack of skills or affordable devices or the internet but also the inaccessibility of websites and apps.

Over the past 12 months, The Place Charlestown Community Centre has offered the Bridge Low Vision Pilot Program funded by the Good Things Foundation Australia – a non-profit organisation at the forefront of tackling digital literacy issues in Australia since 2017.

This program was designed to address a significant barrier to digital access: the technical challenges faced by people with low vision. The initiative aimed to provide essential digital skills to individuals with low vision, helping them navigate the online world more independently and confidently.

For people with low vision, everyday tasks like reading or recognising faces became challenging due to eye conditions such as cataracts, glaucoma, or age-related macular degeneration. The Bridge Low Vision Program provided tailored digital training, and The Place worked closely with The Good Things Foundation in assessing the training resources and delivery of training in a way that enhanced accessibility.

Participants learned how to use accessibility features on their devices, such as adjusting display contrast and font size, and were also introduced to assistive technology like screen readers, voice assistants and AI apps, such as Microsoft’s Seeing AI. Most importantly, participants learned about the basics of online safety, how to keep themselves safe from online scams, and how to keep their data safe from identity theft and hacking.

The program supported 21 participants, 12 with a disability, including six with low vision and three who were legally blind. The training environment was adapted to meet participant needs, from accommodating seating arrangements, minimising screen glare and reflective surfaces, and ensuring that all on-screen instructions were verbalised. Mentor and group members worked together to create an inclusive learning environment, fostering patience and cooperation among all participants. This deepened the understanding of the challenges people with low vision face, resulting in a supportive and collaborative learning environment.

By providing this type of support, positive steps were taken to reduce the digital divide for people with low vision, empower them to access the internet on their own terms and open a new world of independence and connection.

Over the next year, The Place will continue its efforts to support digital literacy in our diverse community by providing digital literacy and AI literacy training to culturally and linguistically diverse women, funded by The Good Things Foundation Australia. This is just one of the many digital literacy initiatives that will be available at The Place.

To learn more about this and other programs, visit The Place Charlestown website at www.theplacecharlestown.org.au or call 4032 5500.