The search engine, called accessFind, is a consumer-centric nonprofit initiative designed in partnership with leading disability-focused organizations including Columbia Lighthouse For The Blind (CLB), The Viscardi Center, The IMAGE Center of Maryland, Earle Baum Center of the Blind, Determined2Heal, Senspoint, and others, with the hope that more organizations will join the initiative as founding members before the search engine’s launch in quarter three, 2021. This will be the first search engine designed to enhance how people with disabilities utilize the internet.
“On average, people make 5.4 billion Google searches per day, but for the 1.5 billion people with disabilities around the world, the experience of using the internet looks very different. Believe it or not, only 2% of all websites are accessible, so it can be a daunting and frustrating task for this community to find the information they need,” said Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer of accessiBe. “I have firsthand experience when it comes to the challenges our current search engines put in place for those with disabilities, what we call ‘the web accessibility gap,’ and this initiative is a huge step forward in filling this gap.” accessFind will index only websites that are accessible-friendly. Currently, the search engine will have over 120,000 websites included at launch, with the hope of creating an accessible internet by 2025. accessiBe announced earlier this year $28 million in its first round of funding and hopes other nonprofits and businesses will join the movement as either founding members or websites that will be indexed on accessFind. You can learn more at accessfind.com. “With the understanding of the web accessibility gap, the decision to put our resources in accessFind was an easy one,” said Shir Ekerling, CEO of accessiBe. Michael Caprara, Chief Information Officer, The VIscardi Center adds, “We live, work, and play in an increasing digital world. We hope that this is another step forward in encouraging businesses and organizations to make their websites accessible, others will join the movement as accessFind founders, and hope that every search engine follows accessFind’s lead in the future.”
