Systems 3: multisensory access to the graphic based computers by persons who are blind

As personal computers have evolved, they have become an essential tool in the personal, educational, and professional lives of people who are blind. However, the advent of graphics-based operating systems (such as Macintosh, Windows and OS/2), has caused well-founded concern that computers will no longer be accessible to people who are blind, because these systems use a display technology incompatible with traditional screen access approaches. The Systems-3 prototype, through cooperative efforts and innovative programming, offers a solution to this screen access problem in one graphical environment, the Apple Macintosh and soon the Windows 3.0 environment as well. The prototype system not only allows access to what can be though of as traditionally textual information (standard word processing files, spreadsheets and databases) but also to information that is inherently graphical in nature (graphs, charts, diagrams, and line drawings). System 3 offers: keyboard access to menus, icons, windows etc; full page virtual tactile tablet, 2D sound, and other features. >