(Economic Observation) China's Internet "Blind Road" Construction Technology, Pratt & Whitney Will Not Drop 17 Million Visually Impaired People
Since the outbreak of the Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, July 10 (Xia Bin), the digital advantages of Chinese society have become prominent in terms of precise prevention and control. In the post-epidemic era, digital transformation will continue to speed up, but in the near future, the topic of how vulnerable groups such as visually impaired people are not left behind by technological progress has sparked discussions. When the general public enjoys the technological dividend, how to prevent the "digital divide" from expanding? How not to drop 17 million visually impaired people?
In response, many interviewees said that although China has made substantial progress in promoting information accessibility technology in recent years, the experience of using Internet applications is still uneven, and there are still many obstacles to be removed in the future. A "technical inclusive" society requires government, enterprises, and research institutions to participate in the co-construction, and China needs to develop the Internet "blind path".
Cai Qionghui is a blind piano tuner in Hangzhou and has now resumed work for more than two months. At the age of 27, although invisible, she, like her peers, is also an "indigenous person" in the mobile Internet era.
During the epidemic, she and her nearly 60-year-old parents lived in Fuyang's hometown for several months. Due to limited travel, she usually loves the Internet and has become a "pillar" at home. Shopping for daily necessities online and applying for a health code for her parents are all done by her on her mobile phone.
The way for visually impaired people to use smartphones is mainly through "listening". At present, mainstream smartphone systems will come with software that supports screen reading. After the user starts the screen reading software, and the hand touches the screen, the software will read the corresponding text, and the user uses the mobile phone according to the sound.
At this stage, more than 40 Chinese Internet companies have set up a department responsible for the accessibility of enterprise product information. This year, Alipay also took the lead in becoming China’s first mobile app that passed the test of the international information accessibility standard WCAG2.1. But compared with China's massive mobile phone programs, the participation of 40 companies is obviously not enough.
What limits the development of barrier-free adaptation technology in China?
According to Xiao Chen, a wireless development engineer at Alipay, the biggest challenge is the lack of cognition. Many Internet company management and product developers do not know how the visually impaired use mobile apps. "Actually taking Alipay's visually impaired users as an example, they use a lot of services, such as grabbing vouchers recently, applying for health codes during the epidemic, participating in Double Eleven or 618 shopping, or even planting trees in the ant forest."
At present, information accessibility in major European and American countries has entered the legislative level. However, although Chinese laws have some provisions on accessibility adaptation, they are scattered in different laws and regulations, and are not mandatory. There are currently about 17 million visually impaired people in China, but the information accessibility services of domestic Internet products are still dominated by enterprises or industries.
On March 1 this year, a landmark national standard "Technical Requirements and Testing Methods for Accessibility and Accessibility of Information Technology Internet Content" was officially implemented, which means that "made a blind path on the Internet" has made substantial progress. Industry experts suggest that the construction of "Internet blind path" also needs to promote the improvement of relevant laws and regulations.
Yang Fei, an associate professor at the School of Civil and Commercial Economic Law of China University of Political Science and Law, said that the national standard for the construction of Internet "blind roads" is an important way to guarantee the disabled people's right to information accessibility. With the "national standard", it is necessary to further improve the legislation, etc., to support its implementation.
Xiao Chen believes that China still has a lot of lessons to be made in establishing an "Internet blind path." The promotion of information accessibility also requires the use of market forces. Many small and medium-sized Internet companies do not have professional talents and sufficient funds. Therefore, it is even more necessary to cultivate professional companies through the market and improve the accessibility of the Internet industry with their technical services and solutions. (Finish)