Electronic and Virtual Libraries: Access for Print Disabled People

The group of print disabled persons consists of those who cannot use the standard printed material for their information needs because of a visual handicap (low vision, blindness), because of dyslexia or because of a severe motor handicap that makes it impossible to handle books or magazines. Also persons with a severe auditive handicap often prefer sign language information above character-and-word based information. Although more and more persons get used to access electronic documents it is absolutely vital for print disabled persons that the information is made available electronically.We will briefly describe the current status in this field and produce a framework in which the ICCHP2002 contributions can be located.