Below is a comprehensive list of web links leading to many great blindness-related resources on the internet. These sites include the websites of screen reader manufacturers, peoples’ personal home pages, informational sites, blogs, audio-related sites and much, much more. If you have a link or run a website that you would like to see added to this page, please contact me and let me know, as I would be more than happy to post it here.
Audio Programs and Streaming
Dancing Dots – They serve blind musicians and their educators through technology and training. “Where Music Meets Technology for the Blind”
Winamp – This is a great alternative to Windows Media Player. It’s powerful, flexible and very accessible.
Sound Forge – This is an extremely powerful audio editor that is very popular with blind audio professionals.
Goldwave – This is a very accessible and inexpensive audio editor, file converter, player and much more. It is highly recommended by many in the blind community if you are looking for a powerful but inexpensive accessible audio editing program.
Total Recorder – This is an inexpensive audio program that lets you record audio streams from the web as well as letting you record and edit audio files on the PC.
Replay AV – This is a program that will allow you to record audio and video streams from the internet.
The Snowman’s Scripts – This is where you can get scripts for Sound Forge and other programs such as the hot spot utility for JAWS. He also has scripting tutorials that you can purchase to learn scripting.
NCH – This is the home page for Wavepad, an audio editor that is free and popular for those on a budget.
Shoutcast – This is a great free internet audio stream site.
AOL Music – This is another large source of streaming internet radio feeds including XM.
Anything But iPod – This is a place to get info on many mp3 players besides iPods.
Blind iPod Portal – This is a great place to go if you own an iPod.
Magnatunes – This is a very nice place where you can purchase great music by lots of independent artists. Half the purchase price of the music goes directly to the musicians.
Louddcity – This site also has hundreds of internet radio streams to choose from and best of all it’s totally free.
Tuner2 – This is another internet source for streaming audio from around the world.
Africa Cam – This is a 24/7 audio and video stream from the heart of an african nature reserve.
A Windows Media Player 11 Guide – This is a guide for Jaws users. An excellent reference.
Another Windows Media Player 11 Guide – For anyone that uses WMP 11.
The Q Online – This is another internet radio station. It’s fairly new and growing.
OTRCAT – This site is dedicated to the preservation of the golden era of radio (old time radio). They offer vast resources about nostalgic radio shows. As well as hear thousands of old time radio episodes online, visitors to the site can stream or download full episodes in Mp3 format as well as read detailed descriptions of the performers and series broadcast in the era (1920′s – 1959). In the ‘daily downloads’, there are the broadcasts of the day throughout history (from the last 50-70+years).
Houndbite – This is a websight, that allows a user to create an account, and post sound clips, A.K.A, Houndbites , upto 8 MB and 8 minutes in length, for free. You can email links to individual houndbites, or to your entire page/profile. You can search houndbite.com with keywords to find others houndbites that may be of interest to you.
Blogs
Blind Access Journal – This is Darrell Shandrow’s Blog and podcast web site. He is a great accessibility evangelist, and always has great comments and information on accessibility-related issues.
The Desert Skies – This is Jeff Bishops web site. He has lots of comments and information on current topics of interest to the blind.
Blind Bargains – This is a great blog with lots of bargains from all around the internet with an emphesis on items for the blind.
Blind Geek Zone Blog – This is the Blog for the Blind Geek Zone web site. It is run by Rick Harmon, and he posts things here that he feels his audience will want to know about for various goings on in the blind community.
Blind Confidential – This blog serves as a commentary on issues regarding people with vision impairments. You will find some great fiction writing here too.
The Ranger Station – This blog has a lot of good technology news as well as ramblings from someone in the Assistive Technology industry.
Serotek Blog – This is where you can get information about the current happenings at Serotek.
Blind Resources Blog – This is a Blog for the Blind Resources web site.
Jeffrey Shockley’s Blog – This is a personal tech Blog that is done by Jeffrey Shockley. He talks about his personal life and also posts technical goodies as well.
Petro’s podcast / Blog – This is where you can go to get information on Petro’s podcasts.
Chairman-Mals-Little-Red-Book – This is another very well done blindness blog.
Tech Talk Radio Blog – This is a interesting blog that has lots of tech postings.
Texplosion – There’s hundreds of technology blogs out there, and there’s mailing lists, websites, and newsletters about access technology news. However, the authors of this blog aim to bring the 2 together. They cover mainstream technology, with a particular focus on the accessibility of that technology.
Hear a Blog – An on-line service that narrates blogs. It’s not text to speech, it’s real people narrating blogs. The service is free for bloggers and free for listeners. They provide RSS feeds of the blogs so people can subscribe with almost any device.
Sylvia’s Guide Dog Tale – The executive director at the Lighthouse for the Visually Impaired and Blind in Port Richey, Florida has just started a new blog detailing her journey towards getting a guide dog from the Seeing Eye.
Kathie Comments – aging, disabled, assistance/service dog user? All are welcome
Games
Trenton’s Gaming GalaxyThis is an excellent gaming site done by Trenton Matthews. he makes an effort to put all of the different gaming sites in a list, as well as a download link to games and patches.
Kitchens Inc. – A site that has quite a few free speech based games for both DOS and Windows.
G M A Games – This is another accessible games site for blind gamers.
All in Play Accessible Games – This is an excellent site where you can play Poker, Texas Hold-em and Crazy Eights with players around the world.
7-128 Software Computer Games for Everyone – SIMPLY ENTERTAINMENT GAMES. Here you can get FREE demos. There are Serialized stories, an on-line trivia game, poetry, and other engaging cultural info and articles.
V I P Game Zone – This is another great source for accessible games online.
Meebo – This is another place with accessible games for you blind gamers out there.
USA Games – Also has accessible games for blind gamers.
Accessible Games – Links to more accessible games.
Simons Games – This is a new and growing games website for blind gamers.
Draconis Entertainment – This is a fairly new and growing website which offers audio games.
Informational Sites
Nimer Jaber’s Site This is a site that contains information about technology issues, screen Readers, software programs, a great compiled list of resources, as well as a guestbook for interaction.
Access Watch – This is a valuable source of information for the blind that is done by Jamie Pauls. You can find reviews of accessible software, info about accessible cell phones and much more.
Top Tech Tidbits for Thursday – This is a great source for tech goodies. Check here every Thursday for a new list.
Brian Hartgen’s Home Page – This is another very good source of useful info.
JFW Lite – This is a very good web site with lots of program links and helpful hints for using many different programs. It was done by Debbie Scales who passed away in September 2006. It’s no longer being updated but will remain a great source of information for a long time to come.
Free Guides – By John Wilson is a series of free tutorials that will show you how to use several popular applications with the keyboard. These are now free and will not be updated any longer but will still be a good reference for quite a while.
Blindness Related Mailing Lists – This is a large list of links to blindness related mailing lists on the internet.
White Stick Program Site – Tom Lorimer’s white stick site is a great source of information for anyone in the UK.
The Blind Webring – This is a good source for blindness related web pages made by other blind people.
Computing.net – This is a vast source of computing information. Very useful with many members contributing answers to questions.
The MSFN Windows Unattended Installation – This is a tremendous source of information on doing unattended installation of windows on your PC.
The LangaList – This is a great source of tech articles. While not a blind web site, the list offers a lot of great info for any techie out there.
Zap 2 It – This is an online source for TV listings and movie guides.
Housing & Mortgages for People with Disabilities – This is a comprehensive guide to housing and mortgages for people with disabilities. It covers terminology, the process of buying a house, financial assistance and more.
LAL Recordings – The website of Listen and Learn recordings. Offering tutorials, introductions and reviews for users who prefer listening to practical demonstrations instead of reading lengthy documentation.
Tax Tips for the Blind – Anyone whose field of vision falls at or below 20 degrees, who wears corrective glasses but whose vision is 20/200 or less in his best eye, or who has no eyesight at all, meets the legal definition of being blind and is eligible for certain tax deductions. Check out this page for various tax tips.
Cheapest Online Colleges – Most Affordable Schools Directory – is a comprehensive and informative resource that allows you to search for colleges and their respective tuition. This type of information is very valuable to today’s students who are not only dealing with a more competitive higher educational environment, but also with the rising costs associated with them.
Edudemic – A good resource if you have questions about on-line degrees, or universities.
Confessions of a DeafBlind Mother – Tracy Stine’s website. Here you’ll find her stories as a Deafblind woman and mother, her views on life, fun videos, helpful information and inspiration.
The Bartimaeus Alliance of the Blind, Inc. – This webpage offers a number of Biblically related resources for the blind. One of the most popular resources is the Greek and AHebrew languages page where numerous grammars, lexicons and Biblical texts can be accessed by qualified members. Other resources are audio recordings, theological books and articles, and a page to other links and resources.
Assistive Technology for Students with Disabilities
Family Health – Guide to Learning Disabilities
Rehabilitative and Assistive Technology: Overview
Benefits for People with Disabilities
Medicare and Social Security Disability: Benefits for Disabled Individuals
Mailing Lists
Below are links to many great blindness-related mailing lists that you can join to get help with computer and other technology-related items, and even to make new friends in the blindness community. There are maling lists that discuss almost anything you can think of. Some discuss the use of screen readers with different computer applications, and some are lists such as gaming lists, guide dog-discussion lists, etc. If you have or run a mailing list that you would like to see added to this page, please contact me and let me know; I’ll be more than happy to post the info here.
blind html – This list is for the discussion of this very basic, but very effective language for the creation of websites.
JAWS Users Mailing List – This is a place to discuss all things related to the JAWS For Windows screen reader.
The JFW Mailing List – This is another good mailing list for the discussion of anything related to the JAWS For Windows screen reader.
– This is a Yahoo mailing list for people in Australia that use the JAWS For Windows screen reader.
Blind Cool Tech Mailing List – This is a great place for the discussion of all things related to podcasts and podcasting. They talk about everything from what recorders to use to what audio editor is best for creating your podcasts. BCT is not a general tech discussion list and is there for anyone that wants to know how to make podcasts and / or how to listen to them.
– This is a Yahoo mailing list dealing with technology issues for the blind.
Blind Geek Zone Mailing List – This is a nice friendly place to discuss all things geek.
– This is a Yahoo group for the discussion of blind users using the Vista operating system.
Talk Serotek Mailing List – This is a mailing list for the discussion of all things related to Serotek.
NVDA Mailing List – This is a mailing list that is for the discussion of the free open source screen reader NVDA.
– This is a Yahoo mailing list for those of you who are blind and write your own web sites.
Blind Programming Mailing List – This site offers several programming lists as well as a windows mailing list and a blind news mailing list.
– This is a Yahoo mailing list for the discussion of accessibility of using your PC hardware and software.
PC Audio Mailing List – This is a list for the discussion of any PC audio related topic such as PC audio software like sound editors, audio players and audio formats, as well as hardware like sound cards, CD and DVD devices, etc.
Bavis Podcasting – A mailing list for the blind and visually impaired community to chat together about technology related subjects.
– This is a Google groups mailing list for the discussion of the audio editor Goldwave that is popular with blind users.
– This is a Yahoo groups mailing list dealing with accessible cell phones from LG used on Verizon’s network.
Richard Justice has created a blind computing mailing list. The list is for any aspect of computing, from building to maintenance, and of course operation. To subscribe, send a message to:
Tom Klaus has created the Blind Buy/Sell/Trade list on Freelists. To join, send a email to: and put subscribe in the subject field.
Below are the links to some of the sites that host the above mailing lists. You can even create your own mailing lists at places such as Freelists, Yahoo Groups and Google Groups.
Freelists – This is the home page for the Freelists mailing lists.
– This is the home page for the Google Groups mailing lists.
– This is the home page for the Yahoo Groups mailing lists.
Organizations
Audible – This is a very good place to purchase audio books.
Book Share – This is a web site that you can join and download more than 30,000 electronic books.
RFBD – This is another source for electronic books for the blind.
The Hadley School for the Blind – This school offers more than 90 distance education courses to eligible students completely free of charge.
American Council for the Blind is an organization for the blind community.
American Foundation for the Blind is another organization for the blind community.
National Federation of the Blind is yet another organization for the blind community.
ATCB – Adaptive Technology Center for the Blind (ATCB) is a non-profit resource and Information Technology center. We are committed to fulfilling the fundamental rights of access to all expressions of knowledge, intellect and creativity and to providing an environment that supports self-determination for visually challenged people, based upon the principles of choice, equality, cooperation and mutual respect.
The Joshua Project Foundation – Dedicated to helping the blind and visually impaired by placing Braille labels in grocery stores. The foundation is looking forward to the day any blind person will have the ability to walk through a store and be able to shop independently.
Online File Transfers
Yousendit – This is an online site where you can transfer large files to anyone for free.
Sendspace – This is another online site that you can use to transfer large files for free.
Operating Systems
TalkingArch – This is the website for TalkingArch, a respin of the Arch Linux live CD/USB image modified to include speech and braille output for blind and visually impaired users.
Sonar GNU/Linux – This is the home of Sonar GNU/Linux, an accessible operating system focused on assistive technology.
Other Web Pages
LFLegal — This is the web site for the Law Office of Lainey Feingold, a disability rights legal advocate.
Tony Broome Ministries – This is Tony Broome’s web site where you will find links to his ministry and links to other tech web sites.
Blind Computing – This is Rick Justice’s web site, here you will find lots of programs, utilities and blind resources.
The visually impaired page of First UCC of Millvale – This is done by Gary G. Schindler. You can find many spiritual and informational links of interest to visually impaired people at this site.
Blind Bridges – This is a new and growing web site where you can have some fun.
Tomi’s Tech Reviews – This web site is another source for various tech reviews.
Lisa Hall’s World – This is another good source of info for blind users, especially those interested in the NFB and Braille services.
Blind Resources Info – This page is another good resource web site for the blind.
Lynn White’s Web Site – This is a blindness related web site that is done by Lynn White. there you will find links and other info for you to read.
BlindSpots – A VI social networking site.
Lioncourt – The Mac-cessibility site for the blind and visually impaired.
VICS Ireland – The website of the visually impaired computer society of Ireland that will be launched on the 17th of November.
Digital Darragh – Darragh’s personal website.
African Safaris for Disabled People – A good online resource for people with disabilities who want to travel on African safari. A good read for anyone with a disability going on vacation.
ROKTalk – A text-to-speech service for website owners which enables proper access to websites for the blind and visually-impaired.
Podcasts, Podcasting and Radio
– This is the place where you can get your podcasts noticed by the rest of the world.
FS Podcast – This is a monthly podcast from Freedom Scientific.
Blind Cool Tech – This is a great place to hear all kinds of things related to blindness and blind technology. You can also find sound-seeing tours and many social podcasts of interest here too.
Blind Geek Zone – This site is run by Rick Harmon, and he has many audio podcasts and tutorials on various topics for you to listen to.
ACB Radio – This is an excellent source for lots of audio programming for the blind.
Accessible World – This is a great place for technical podcasts and live audio events. Check the web site for their schedule of live events.
Blind Podcasters – This is another good source for podcasts relating to blindness and technology as well as other blind interests.
– This is a fun filled site with lots of podcasts for you to enjoy.
– This is another source for blind related podcasts.
Ray’s World – This is a blog and podcast done by Ray Forett Jr. that describes his life.
MaLyn’s Slice of Life Podcast – This is another blindness related podcast by Maria and Linda.
Mary’s Home Page – Here you can find a number of blindness related links as well as lots of interesting podcasts for you to listen to.
Here is a podcast feed from Petro where he talks about Replay A/v. Add the link below into your pod catcher.
Another podcast feed from Petro, Here he talks about things he uses everyday as a blind person. Add the link below into your pod catcher of choice.
Here and There – Dave Uhlman, a visually impaired accessibility consultant, has a podcast titled “Hear and There” which he has been producing for five years for radio reading services. He visits cool places and gives detailed descriptions. He recently added a “How to podcast” page aimed at new blind podcast users.
Radio 360 – A great radio station run by the blind. Started in summer of 2009. Check out their instant request feature, they have over 500 artists you can listen to.
Legend Oldies – An online radio station managed by Bill Sparks and contributed to by Brian Hartgen and Jonathan Mosen.
Programming Sites
Blind Programming Web Site – This is your one stop shop for all your programming needs. They also have many great mailing lists for programming as well as script programming,and a blind news mailing list with tons of blind related news stories from around the world.
Freedom Scientific Developers Network – This site contains a large reference file for anyone wanting to make scripts for JAWS.
Jamal Mazrui’s EMPOWERMENT ZONE – This is another technical and programming source with lots of other valuable information.
Hofstader.com – This is a new web site that will be offering lots of programs, utilities and scripts from various free and open source projects on the internet.
Model Talker SAPI Speech Synthesizer Project – You can use this to create SAPI voices that you can use with your screen reader that can be in your own voice.
Inthane’s Grab Bag – This is an excellent source for all you VI programmers out there. There are many links to programming utilities and links to other programming sites.
Accessible HTML – By the Accessible Web Design Group shows you many ways for making accessible web sites.
Introduction to HTML – This is a good source for someone wanting to learn to code in HTML to produce a web page.
Introduction to CSS – This is another tutorial from W3C schools that teaches CSS coding.
Introduction to XHTML – This is a good tutorial from W3C to teach you how to code in XHTML which is becoming the new standard for coding web pages.
XML Checker – This is for checking your podcast XML files for correct syntax.
CSE HTML Validator – This is a very good tool for editing and validating your HTML code. There is a free and a pay version of the software.
Arachnophilia 4.0 – This is an older but accessible HTML coding program.
W3C CSS Validation Service – This is where you can validate your CSS code for free.
W3C Markup Validation Service – This is where you can validate your HTML code for free.
Script Socket – This is where you can go to get remotely hosted CGI scripts in case your server doesn’t allow you to host your own CGI scripts.
Screen Readers
Freedom Scientific – This is the home of Job Access With Speech (JAWS) screen reader.
GW Micro – This is the home of Window-Eyes, a screen reader for Windows on the PC. This is the second most popular screen reader after JAWS.
Dolphin Computer Access – Offers many types of assistive technology including HAL, a screen reader for the PC.
Serotek System Access – This is another fairly inexpensive screen reader for the PC.
NVDA – This is a free and open source screen reader for Windows XP and Vista.
Thunder – This is a free screen reader from the United Kingdom.
Next Up – Offers many different SAPI voices for your screen reader as well as several programs that take full advantage of the voices. These include Text Aloud, News Aloud and Weather Aloud.
Text and Audio Chatting
Skype – This is what all your blind friends are talking about. It’s quickly becoming one of the most popular communications programs on the net. You can call other PCs and make calls around the world to regular phones as well. It’s accessible and very fun to use.
Scripts For Skype – Can be downloaded here to help you use Skype with JAWS easier.
For The People – This is a web community where you can find many tutorials and talking chat rooms.
Doug Lee’s Skype Scripts – This is the new web site to get the latest Skype scripts from. This replaces the older web site listed above for newer scripts.
Shopping
Blind Bargains – This is a great place to find the lowest prices on products for the blind.
Blind Mice Mart – This is an online store where you can buy lots of items for people with disabilities.
ILA – This is another good online store with lots of items for the disabled.
Maxiaids – This is another great source for items for the disabled.
Speak To Me Catalog – This is a good source for talking items for the blind.
Badger – This is another online store with many items for the blind.
Braille Books Superstore – This is a good place to find many Braille items for the blind.
Dynamic-Living – This is yet another great source for items for the disabled.
Utilities and Scripts
Accessible Programs – Has scripts for Ad-Aware, SpyBot search and destroy, and several other popular programs.
Jim Bauer’s Scripts Page – This is where you can get scripts that Jim has done as well as other scripts done by others. You can get Goldwave and MIRC scripts here.
AVG Anti Virus – This is a free anti virus program. It’s a great alternative to the higher priced and often less accessible anti virus programs out there.
FireFox – This is an alternative web browser that you might want to look at. It’s supposedly faster and better to use than Internet Explorer.
Juice – This is a very good pod catcher you can use to receive podcasts from around the net.
Accessible PodCatcher – This is simpler to use than Juice to catch podcasts for the beginner wanting to get into listening to all the podcasts out on the net.
Accessible RSS Feed Reader – This is a simple to use news feed reader.
Nero Burning Rom – This is a powerful and easy to use CD and DVD burning program. It’s very accessible.
Major Geeks – This is an excellent site where you can download free and shareware utilities that never contain any spyware.
Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor – Is your PC ready for Vista?
Software Patch – This is where you can download various patches for Windows and many other programs.
Process Library – This is an online site where you can find out information for all the processes running on your PC.
NoteTab – This is a nice replacement for NotePad. It’s very flexible and powerful.
Microsoft OneNote Blind – John Martin has a new project that is now complete. It is called Microsoft OneNote Blind and it is a note taking program that you can attach files, embed audio and video and more. The site has an audio podcast that you can also listen to. http://www.OneNoteBlind.com/demo.mp3.