The ring of history that encircles York in the form of the ancient Bar Walls is being opened up for blind people to enjoy with the help of the World Wide Web.

The 3.4km monument was inaccessible to blind people without sighted help until a new project ventured into cyberspace.

The initiative allows blind and partially sighted people to take a virtual 17-stage tour of the walls using speech synthesising technology and links between two websites.

For some time, City of York Council's website has featured a tour of the walls (www.york.gov.uk/walls) where virtual visitors can meander along the monument picking out points of interest by mouse-clicking on the pictures it displays.

But the speech synthesisers used by blind and partially-sighted people to surf the Net transform digital information from text into spoken words and cannot read pictures.

This meant the site was impossible for them to enjoy.

But now with council support, blind Jim Doherty, of Tostig Avenue, Acomb, has linked York Blind and Partially Sighted Society's website on York Access Gateway (www.a-vip.com/yorkaccess) to the councils' site in a way that gives the speech synthesisers information they can read out.

The Alternative Bar Walls Tour, as it has been named, now means blind people can explore the gems of history dotted around the walls, such as how the Romans built their early defences in York and how the Danes captured the city after the Battle of Hastings.

Mr Doherty worked with the blind society's chief officer, Diane Roworth, and the council's IT development consultant, Dave Taylor.

Mr Doherty said: "It just goes to show what collaboration between two organisations can achieve with a little thought in web design when considering if blind and partially sighted people can use the website.

"As a result, what used to be an inaccessible website has opened up yet another gateway into York's historical era for visually disabled Internet users."

The alternative tour can be found under the 'accessible places to visit' section on the blind society's website, which can be reached through the York Access Gateway address.

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