Research and Development of Methods to Deliver Information from MyPyramid.Gov to People with Visual Disabilities

Obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and stroke are significant health concerns for Americans. The American diet, portion size, caloric intake, and activity levels all play a role in the extent of these health issues. To counter this growing problem, USDA has recently released new dietary guidelines, along with a completely new pyramid diagram to promote healthy food choices for all Americans. From the nutrition’s point of view, the Mypyramid.gov website has the potential to reach all Americans with effective and usable nutrition information. Reaching underserved, high-risk populations such as the disabled and elderly with appropriate information via mainstream distribution channels has historically been conveyed through television, radio and print. Today, however, Internet multimedia (interactive “edutainment”) emerges as a main venue for the dissemination of such information, which is reflected in the prominence of the MyPyramid.gov. And yet, because of numerous technical problems and usability issues associated with incorrect design methods, those people who most need that information often can’t obtain the Internet content. Nearly 50 million Americans reported having a disability in the 2000 Census, representing 19% of the total population. Among them, about 10 millions reported some kind of a visual impairment. Unfortunately, MyPyramid.gov does have serious problems with its accessibility for individuals with visually impairments. That is why as the first step, IDET Communication Inc proposes to improve accessibility for those individuals with visual impairments who can use the Internet to access information on MyPyramid.gov. In addition, to enhance the opportunities to obtain nutrition information for this category of people, IDET proposes to develop a fully accessible application in the form of a stand-alone CD and audio e-book that could be used anytime, any place, regardless of their access to the Internet, to provide the same benefits of the information presented on MyPyramid.gov and other related websites. All these measures are aimed on providing the individuals with visual impairments with a wide variety of options to access nutrition information contained in MyPyramid.gov