Statistical Software from a Blind Person's Perspective

Abstract

Blind people have experienced access issues to many software applications since the advent of the Windows operating system; statistical software has proven to follow the rule and not be an exception. The ability to use R within minutes of download with next to no adaptation has opened doors for accessible production of statistical analyses for this author (himself blind) and blind students around the world. This article shows how little is required to make R the most accessible statistical software available today. There is any number of ramifications that this opportunity creates for blind students, especially in terms of their future research and employment prospects. There is potential for making R even better for blind users. The extensibility of R makes this possible through added functionality being made available in an add-on package called BrailleR. Functions in this package are intended to make graphical information available in text form.