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Exercise 1


You are about to learn the secret that all visually impaired computer users who are successfully surfing the web already know!

It is really quite simple...

Visually impaired people who navigate the Internet with a high level of success have learned to do so by reading a lot of web pages.

That is it!

That is the secret.

This may sound too simplistic, but it really isn't. Like any newly learned skill, it is mastered by doing it over and over and over again. So that is what this first exercise is intended to help you with.

Below are the links to about two dozen web pages. You are going to click on each one of these links and then read the ENTIRE page that loads. Yes, read all of it! No skipping past boring lists of links, long graphic names, information that seems completely useless etc. And, just for now, no clicking on any of the links found on these pages. The objective here is to learn to read web pages, not to learn to interact with them at this point. Those very important skills will be practiced in upcoming exercises.

It is of course unrealistic to try to read all of these pages in one sitting. Most people can get through them in about a week by reading 3 or 4 pages a day. Some of them will take 2 or 3 minutes to read, and others will take up to 15 minutes to get through. It is not necessary to read the pages in the order that they are listed. And, it isn't necessary read any of these pages again, unless something is of interest to you. You will be able to return to this exercise and interact with these pages as your interest dictates in the future.

To proceed, TAB to the first link on this page from this point and click it by pressing the ENTER key. Then move to the top of the page that loads and begin reading from there. Avoid using the Say All command if you are using JAWS. This will likely cause the process of reading the page to seem far more boring and monotone than it should be. By moving line by line through the page the nuances of how JAWS interprets a line within Internet Explorer will become evident. Also, the various web page elements that JAWS can detect and announce will be more obvious.

After reading the entire page that loads you will be able to return to this page by pressing Internet Explorer's BACK button by pressing the BACKSPACE key on the keyboard.

List of Web Sites


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Page last updated 8/23/2015