Executive Summary

The Internet opens up many opportunities for people with disabilities. Most fundamentally, the Internet is liberating. For example, people with visual impairments can read the daily newspaper the minute it is published, rather than wait for a taped transcription. The participants in our study embrace the Web, and most said that they would never want to give up their Internet connection. Every user mentioned at least one thing that they can do using the Web that they could not do before. As in our previous Web user studies, participants’ Web use varied greatly: Everyone has different interests and needs. The beauty of the Web is the diversity of specialized things it lets users do.