I started to get more and more involved with web development and wanted to try out alternative forms of presentation. The next redesign had 2 new features: A completely acoustic version and one for cell phones.
When Flash 4 came out, there was the ability to stream MP3 files. I recorded my read-out texts with a microphone, converted the WAV files to MP3 and gave the website keyboard navigation with JavaScript. The menu navigation always indicated acoustically which page the user was on and which navigation options they had with the keyboard. The aim was to enable blind users to navigate my website without having to rely on a monitor. Once they had arrived at an article page, they could either have the article read out to them (which was just a static streaming of my recording) or continue navigating.
At the same time, there was a text-only version that could be accessed with the WAP browsers of cell phones at the time. Smartphone with browser apps weren’t invented yet.
It was a design for the blind, without a screen reader, and a design for cell phones and a version for printers, without CSS media queries or the responsive design we know today.
I was exploring the field of web accessibility in those times.
