Feasibility of doing genealogy when you're blind

Question

Hi there,

I have been on WikiTree for nearly a year now, and I am completely blown over by how much thought has gone into finding ways to make not only the site, but the process of researching, as friendly and accessible as possible for all. This includes people who face physiological challenges or who are neurodiverse. We have a great team of mentors for those struggling to use the site, yet another team that helps with use of the site from an accessibility point of view, not to mention a group of volunteer transcribers who have been of great assistance to me personally.

Yet sometimes, I still can't help wondering, how feasible is genealogy for those who are totally blind and relying on screen reader technology?

While, at least for UK records, many vital stats (births/baptisms, marriages, deaths/burials) have been transcribed (again, thanks to many volunteers), and most census data as well, there are still many records that we can't access (court sessions, deeds, trader/company records, newspaper articles, divorces, wills and probate and so on). I can't even speak for records based in the channel islands, the States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, or non-English speaking countries.

Most records are images, are not easily downloadable, and some have no transcription/index data on them at all, meaning it would take lots of time clicking through pages or looking at each individual image file, even for someone who is sighted.

For someone who is blind, using a screen reader, and only gets the image filename (or even a person's name if you're very lucky), still doesn't guarantee you are reading about the correct person and so what we'd need rather than a transcriber would be more akin to a personal assistant.

There are two "genealogy for the blind" mailing lists, and it's a real shame that each list has very few people on it, and the number of posts can more or less be counted on one hand for an entire year. So either blind people are:

1. Not interested in genealogy, in which case I'm even more of an oddball than I realised,

2. Don't think genealogy is an option for them, or

3. Have tried genealogy and have more or less discovered its "limitations" in relation to their "abilities" to such an extent that they feel unable to continue.

From 2015 to 2020, I found myself in category 3, and unfortunately I'm finding myself drawn towards that category again.

I'm really not sure how we can resolve this, if indeed we can. I really enjoy genealogy so I would be devastated if I got to a stage where I felt I had to close the door behind me, all because I am limited to what I can access.

If anyone here is blind and regularly does genealogy beyond the basic records, I'd be very happy to hear from you in regards to tips and tricks you use to access these records.

If you are sighted and have more ideas on how we can extend our resources for those who are blind (whether that be petitioning online record/archive providers or even setting up our own database for volunteer transcribed data to live etc), again, I'd be happy to hear from you. Obviously setting up our own services would take a lot of research. Just thinking out loud here.

Cheers.

Comments

Well  done Day for bringing this to everyone's attention. My husband was blind and he would have been over the moon to have been able to do as much as you have been able to do. Screen readers were in their infancy and could really only handle items that had been entered on a computer.

I am sure the technology will get there in the end. I went on a school trip to see a computer that filled a room which struggled to play noughts and crosses (tic tac toe) and now i can access my family history sites and play games far more complex on my phone.

Keep going your input is important.

Heather

Heather Brannon (Brown - 87900)

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I have significantly low-vision, but am not blind. I used to try to use a screen reader here, but found it way too cumbersone. I know you may have no choice. What Ive developed for myself is an easier way to create profiles.  I do not do inline citations - they completely overwhelm my ability to make sense of what I see or hear. (And as I have some physical limitations, too, that only adds to it.)2 My source list carries a lot more information than the name of the source.  A census citation names everyone named. I check the neighbors and see if I recognize anyone. This helps to reuse sources for siblings, parents, children.  Its much easier to find it already in scalable text on wikitree attached to the correct name than to find it under unusual mispellings.  Wikitree is a lot more low-vision user friendly than it used to be when I started here nearly a decade ago. Thank you for those improvements.

Answer 1

Hi Day --

I'm not blind, but do have sight issues and agree that accessibility is a problem for those that are interested in genealogy. Wish I had a solution for you. Thank you for raising the topic.

Answer 2

Hi, Day! This is a great post!

What you accomplish on here and with your research just blows me away. 

For those of you who aren't familiar with it, Day referred to the Accessibility Angels Project, which is where we have volunteers who help with the transcription of records, among other things, for members who need help accessing information on WikiTree and with records on other sites.

Comments

Hi Julie,

I'm pleasantly surprised to hear that my research blows you away, given your own expertise. The way I saw it, if I hadn't have used sentences my bios may well be about as useful as the autogenerated gedcom stuff, with the additional caveat that there's a lot of speculation. So that really has brought my confidence up a notch. Thanks for that.

Answer 3

Hi Day,

I am not blind, but I am sight impaired. I understand your frustrations. My advice would be to volunteer and do what you can do, with the options available (screen readers, etc.) to help other users.

It has been wonderful for me to feel useful by volunteering my services in this way, and so good for your mental health to feel that you are helping other people. The technology is improving all the time. For people with a small amount of sight (and I realise this might not apply to you) there are lots of accessibility functions on devices such as the iPad which are great (in the UK the charity RNIB was invaluable to me in this regard). With no sight, options are at the moment more limited, but that doesn’t mean you can’t help. Lots of people with full sight need help with their research, and aren’t as experienced as you might be with records and sourcing.

As the months and years go by, I expect screen readers and AI to improve to read script, handwriting, and help by browsing films of images. In the meantime, we can make ourselves useful.

Best regards,

Maddy

Comments

Hi Maddy,

Thanks for that. Yes, I'm definitely up for helping. I'm already an accessibility angel and a mentor myself, so I can help people with the site.

Cheers.

Answer 4

Thank you, Day, for the great question! I should just say that I have been impressed with how quickly you have adapted to WikiTree.

It is true that the further back in time we get, the more use is made of images of original handwritten documents. That said, some of the images aren’t easy to read, even for sighted people, especially documents written before 1700 when handwriting and spellings differed from those commonly used today. This can make reading old documents a bit of a specialised skill and in reality the information in them isn't readily accessible to a lot of genealogists. This is one of the reasons why modern indexes and transcriptions are so popular.

I would encourage you to continue with your research and to let the Accessibility Angels know when you encounter images you would like help with. We have volunteers who can help with document checking and transcription.

Ian

Comments

Hi Ian,

Thanks for your comments. It's not just old pre-1800 documents though - I had to commission someone to try and help me fix some discrepancies in my own family tree, that was in the 1880s. Turns out there were records that could have given me answers if I could have searched the prison records and quarter sessions. As it is, I don't think such images are available as downloads and thus I guess the only way I could get those transcribed is if, A, I could find them, and B, I sent a link to a transcriber who had a paid subscription to services that display those types of records. Not sure how I'd even start with things like that.

Again, just shows how little I know.

Cheers.

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Yes, it's not easy. Searching through unindexed records or original manuscripts held by the various archives offices is not something that can be done with a screen reader. I fully accept that. I can no longer read documents without using adaptive technology, so my research is totally reliant on me first obtaining digital images of documents that might contain the information I want. I use Ancestry, Findmypast, FamilySearch, the National Archives catalogue, and other indexes to pinpoint documents that might be relevant. If the document isn't indexed online, then I am unlikely to find it. And it can be hit and miss, because the document might turn out to be totally useless. Nevertheless, I can still succeed in discovering as much as many fully-sighted genealogists.