February 9, 2012 
An IBM’s employee Chieko Asakawa certainly has one of the dream jobs. Although she cannot see your web page, she can improve it…
Spectrum Portal subjected to her check, were delighted with Chieko and decided to write an article about her. Her program revealed a number of disadvantages for the aforementioned page, whose users can also be blind people. Asakawa uses a browser to read the content of pages and if a lot of time is needed to reach the article, it means that the page is not very good.
She lost vision after head injury
The interview revealed that this is not very unusual because many sites are bad for those who cannot see. She has dedicated her life to improve Internet access for the blind. Her life story is truly fascinating. Chieko was born with sight, and as a child she had dreams of a successful athletic career. During swimming one day, Chieko suffered head injury, and at the age of 11 she began to lose her vision. At the age of 14 she completely lost her sight, and her future was sealed. “I didn’t want someone else deciding instead of me. My goal was to find a new type of work for blind people,” said Asakawa.
“Access to information is very important nowadays. This is not a privilege, it is a human right”
After she graduated in English Language and Literature, she decided to attend a two-year IT program for the blind. She signed up and there her career started. She began to work for IBM in 1984. Besides adapting the page to blind people, she is deeply involved with improving the IBM offer, and meanwhile even managed to get a PhD. Although she loves her job, she would be happy if one day she didn’t have to work anymore. “Access to information is very important nowadays. This is not a privilege, it is a human right,” Asakawa concluded.
Taken from: www.index.hr