By IPS Correspondents
SAN JOSE, Dec 20 2000 (IPS)

An Internet site designed by two Costa Rican library scientists for their graduate thesis has turned into a new tool for Latin Americans who are blind or deaf to access the global information network.

Costa Rican journalist Roberto Sancho, 38, has severely impaired vision due to a congenital illness, but thanks to the new site he can now read newspapers from around the world, conduct information searches and dialogue with people from other countries.

Sancho navigates the Internet using Bidiped, a free web page the two Costa Rican university students designed to make Internet access easier for people with seeing or hearing disabilities.

“If I want to read the newspaper I have two options: tell someone to read it out loud for me or read it myself on the Internet,” Sancho, who works in the press office of Costa Rica’s principal social security office, explained to IPS.

Bidiped, the acronym in Spanish for “digital library for people with visual or audio disabilities,” provides bulletins, information on Costa Rican and Latin American laws covering disabled persons, a database, links and a list of terms commonly used in cyberspace.

Within a few weeks of its launching, the Internet site had become a novel tool used by disabled persons to fight the discrimination they often suffer.

The website is the product of the thesis Joanne Fuentes and Magally Morales wrote for their Masters degree in information technology at the public Technological Institute of Costa Rica (ITCR).

“This is a dream come true, because it can prove useful for many people,” Fuentes told IPS.

Bidiped, located at http://196.40.2.122/bidiped/, is a pioneer project among the scant spaces for Internet users who are visually disabled in Latin America, and is designed so that computers convert text content into audio that is very clear and easy to understand.

To do so, it uses “screen readers” or “verbalizers,” programmes that translate the words appearing on the computer screen into sound.

Bidiped is also designed for easy visual reading and uses a simple vocabulary, targeting those who can see but have a hearing impairment or are deaf.

“We realised that people with disabilities are hungry for the Internet, but most websites are not accessible for them,” said Fuentes, 27, who herself suffers from arthrogryposis, a congenital condition that affects her bones and joints.

For the blind to use Bidiped, which is free of charge, it is first necessary to download the voice programme known as Jaws- Windows (www.hj.com), a screen reader provided over the Internet.

Carlos González, vice-rector of instruction at ITCR, applauded the social awareness of the two students who presented the Bidiped project.

“If Latin American societies provide the disabled with access to information, we all win, because they can be more useful to themselves and to their countries,” González told IPS.

On the Internet, there are a few Spanish-based websites designed specifically for the blind, such as the Argentine-based www.nodo50.org/utlai/, Spain’s www.once.es, Puerto Rico’s www.manolo.net, the Uruguayan www.egroups/group/tifloclub, and now Costa Rica’s Bidiped.

ITCR officials plan to adopt the project that originated as a Masters thesis and keep it going indefinitely, and are currently seeking international donations to assist in the endeavour.

The Bidiped website lists the electronic mail addresses of its authors (fuentessjo.oit.or.cr and mmoralesns.binasss.sa.cr) so that users with disabilities and other interested parties can consult them with any questions or comments about the project.

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