Brasschaat is the first town in Belgium to make its communal website accessible to blind and partially sighted people. “We wanted to make all requested information available for everyone, and needed a solution in order to make our communal website acessible to blind and visually impaired people “ says mayor Dirk de Kort.

Thanks to the integration of BrowseAloud, the general looks and current concept of the website could be kept unaltered. BrowseAloud is a software which allows for reading out all texts that are published on the website. The software can be freely downloaded. Not only are texts read out, every pointed-and-clicked picture gets an explanation and read texts are magnified in an extra bar on the screen. Speed of reading, voice and even the language spoken can be adapted. Moreover one can have a whole page being read out or can even download it on a mp3-player.

Take a look at this newspaper page. Notice how fast you not only spot, but also get the message of the ad at the bottom of the page. It draws your attention not because of screaming type and background colors, but with shear minimalism.

It delivers its key messages: what, who, where and when better than any special “on sale” badge would have done.

To use one giant understatement: less is more.

Newspaper: De Standaard.