Located in an inconspicuous building in Franconia is a branch of one of New Hampshire's most dedicated non-profit organizations. Granite State Independent Living -- with headquarters in Concord and satellite offices in Franconia and Keene -- is the state's only cross-disability advocacy and service organization. GSIL, whose mission is to promote life with independence for people with disabilities, is dedicated to the removal of physical, attitudinal, and social barriers to independence for people with disabilities. GSIL’s staff and board’s commitment to this mission statement runs deep, as the organization is run by people who have experienced barriers in their own lives and who now work assisting others to reach their independent living goals. One such person is Gil Vickery.

Vickery, who is an Independent Living Services Coordinator with GSIL, works primarily with advocacy and research, seeking out resources and then providing access to these resources to consumers. As a proponent of universal access to various resources, he is both proactive and realistic. "Access to information is very important," Vickery says, referring to the ability of all people to be able to take control of their lives through being informed of their rights. He also points out that being able to get online can be a key factor in people's finding the information they need. Vickery, who is blind, has utilized assistive technologies to work with his own disability and has become an avid web-surfer, and he is happy to demonstrate these methods to others.

The primary adaptation he uses is a program known as JAWS which reads aloud information displayed on a computer screen. The software can be set up on almost any computer, runs in the background and is ready at the press of a button. It offers many customizable options including the speed with which the program reads text, the voice which it uses, and the function of different key commands. Vickery's seeing eye dog naps as his owner flies through web pages, aptly demonstrating that, with assistive technology, the web is a medium which can be used by everyone.

Unfortunately, though, some web sites can be confusing for people who are unable to see objects and links on the screen. Since web pages are made primarily with visual elements in mind, screen-reader software cannot accurately represent the contents of some pages due to the way they are constructed. For this reason, Vickery advocates that web designers utilize universal access guidelines established by the World Wide Web Consortium (www.w3c.org.) Making small changes -- such as providing transcripts of audio files and captions for video files, using meaningful text for links instead of the generic "click here," and providing summaries of graphs and charts -- can make the difference between comprehension and confusion. When these guidelines, and others, are followed correctly, users with screen-readers and other assistive technologies can have the same online experience as a person browsing via a graphical interface.

When it comes to the Internet, though, GSIL is concerned not only with adaptive computer technology. Vickery and his colleagues also advocate for physical adaptations, such as wheelchair ramps and adjustable workstations, in buildings with public computer access. They also hope to make people and organizations conscious of the needs of those with disabilities, so that they can take action to meet these needs. When taken as a whole, these adaptive technologies allow all people, whether they have a disability or not, to have the same ability to access information. And information, as Vickery points out, is power.

To learn more about GSIL, please visit their web site at: http://www.gsil.org/