Carl Augusto is the President and CEO of the American Foundation for the Blind, a U.S.-based non-profit organization that expands possibilities for people with vision loss. One of AFB's priorities is broadening access to technology, and AFB is working together with Facebook to make the site more accessible and user-friendly for people who are blind or visually impaired.


I am a huge music fan. I played in two garage bands when I was younger and today, I can still be found playing guitar, listening to music and updating my "best of" music lists. When I first heard about Facebook, I thought it was the perfect place to reconnect with former band members and talk about music, but then I ran into a problem. As a blind person using Facebook, I had trouble updating my profile and using the site.

You may be wondering how people with vision loss use computers or surf the web. The answer is quite simple: People who are blind or visually impaired use a screen magnification program to enlarge fonts in order to optimize the screen for reading, or they use a screen reading program that reads the text aloud. These are quick, efficient and helpful solutions — that is, if the websites and computer programs are properly designed.

The challenge is that not all Web pages are compatible with screen readers and magnifiers. When a website is built without regard to accessible design, screen reading software cannot interpret the information, which prevents the blind person from accessing the site. Social networking sites present some especially difficult challenges. For instance, images are an important part of the site experience, but it is rare that photos get described. Even while in the middle of reading a page, comments or links can change in ways that are undetectable to the screen reader or fall outside the viewing window of screen-magnification.

About two years ago, AFB approached Facebook in order to combat the accessibility problems of blind members who were having trouble using the site and its applications, including AFB's own cause on Facebook. From our very first interaction, Facebook has been responsive to our feedback and committed to finding solutions to these problems. This has underscored the fact that Facebook is a community dedicated to all of its members, including those with disabilities.

Because of our collaboration with Facebook, there is an accessibility-specific help center page to channel feedback from the disability community and provide instructional tips on using assistive technology with Facebook. We're also working together on design changes that will make the site more usable for people with visual impairments.

While our ultimate goal of making the Internet fully accessible is far from being attained, we are making progress toward reaching that goal by working together with organizations like Facebook.


Carl enjoys sharing his list of top vocalists with his friends and colleagues on Facebook.