T.V. Raman is grateful that he didn't completely lose his eyesight until he was 13. Because of that, he says, he didn't get used to always receiving ``special'' treatment.

``When you get things done special for you, you come to always expect it,'' said Raman, who was blinded by childhood glaucoma. ``It can be a crutch. You get marginalized. The sooner you become mainstreamed, the better.''

That's the same attitude Raman brings to his research in speech technology. While Raman, a software engineer, is a fervent proponent of making the Web and other technology accessible to the disabled community, he chooses not to work in the assistive technology field where products are designed specifically for people who are physically impaired. Instead, he works in developing mainstream products, such as cell phones and personal digital assistants that can be used with equal ease by people with disabilities and those without.

``With most assistive technologies, you end up retrofitting something that hasn't been properly designed to work for people with disabilities,'' said Raman, a researcher in the Human Language Technologies Lab at IBM's Almaden research facility in South San Jose. ``You want to design it right from the beginning and make it work for you.''

Raman, 38, is one of a small community of engineers creating new technologies that will make the Web much more responsive to the needs of all users. The standards that he and other researchers are working on will form the framework for the next generation of Web applications. Raman's goal is to allow Web developers to create a single piece of content that can take many different forms -- text, audio and video -- to accommodate many different types of users.

Accessibility

Step into Raman's spartan office and one striking detail jumps out -- there are no papers or books anywhere. ``There's nothing I can do with paper,'' laughs Raman. Nothing, that is, except tear it up and fold it into intricate designs, which he does when he fidgets. Raman, who sports Ray-Ban sunglasses to shield his cloudy white eyes, empties his pockets for a visitor and they are full of oragami-like structures.

Raman's Web research is done in conjunction with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the international standards-setting body that works to ensure the Web develops in a cohesive and relatively seamless manner. The group, headed by the Web's original creator, Tim Berners-Lee, is on the forefront of efforts to promote accessibility for the disabled.

When the Internet was young, and primarily text-based, blind users could access most of it through text-to-speech software. As the Net evolved and began adding bells and whistles -- graphics, audio and video -- it became less accessible.

That evolution has forced developers to find new ways to bring information to disabled users, said Jim Fruchterman, who is working with W3C on accessibility issues and helped draft some of the federal government's Web accessibility regulations in 1999.

``Before, the goal was separate and equal. But of course once it's separate, it very quickly stops being equal,'' said Fruchterman, who runs Benetech, a non-profit technology company in Palo Alto. ``Now, the goal is universal design that's integrated and equal: Don't make disabled people use a different Web structure but make it so they can use it too.''

Raman's research for IBM, which overlaps with his standards-setting work for W3C, includes developing speech technology for a variety of devices. He's also working on a technology called ``x-forms,'' which would make it easier to collect data on the Web. For example, a Web form that now must be completed by typing could be filled out by voice or by a beamed message from a PDA.

The myriad technical challenges of making the Web a more responsive medium are just another set of puzzles to someone who devours all manner of math games and brain teasers.

Raman's eyes began to deteriorate during his childhood near Mumbai, India. Because the slightest fall or injury could trigger further damage to his eyes, he spent most of his childhood as a bookworm in the corner of the room while his cousins and other children ran and played around him. His love of puzzles and numbers came early. Even after he was fully blind, he could twist and turn a Rubik's Cube (specially outfitted so his fingers could distinguish the textures) in seconds. These days, most of the the counter space in the San Jose condominium he shares with his Labrador guide dog, Hubbell, is taken up by puzzles and elaborate geometric structures made of children's building toys.

No more gibberish

After graduating with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and a master's degree in computer science in India, Raman came to Cornell University to study applied mathematics. It was then that he began using speech software. In his applied mathematics class, the software read back gibberish when it tried to read complex mathematical equations on the screen. So Raman designed his own software that could decipher the formulas. That project, which eventually turned into his doctoral thesis, launched his interest in speech technology.

In 1994, Raman wrote a program, emacspeak, that allows his computer desktop to be completely audio-enabled. A computer voice reads to him what's displayed on his screen as he navigates e-mail, surfs the Web and accesses programs. Raman's software is distributed free on the Web and IBM will package it soon as part of a suite of server software. It's also distributed on Sun's operating system, Solaris.

On this particular day, Raman is showing visitors how the program works. He opens his e-mail program using his keyboard and the computer voice reads the messages to him at warp speed. It sounds exactly like playing an audio tape on super-fast forward. With nothing to see, all of his concentration goes to his ears. ``That way, I'm hearing it as fast as you would read with your eyes,'' he said.

Raman joined IBM in 1999 after having worked for Digital Equipment and Adobe.

He gets excited when he talks about XML, or Extensible Markup Language, which Raman and others believe is a linchpin in making the Web more accessible.

Specialized needs

The problem with the Web these days, Raman and others say, is that content takes a back seat to presentation. And snazzy Web pages with lots of graphics, streaming audio and video content are often useless to people with disabilities.

XML is a system of encoding Web content so programs can work together more intelligently. Once content is written in XML, it can be displayed as plain text, audio or graphics.

``The separation of form from content is a key tool for accessibility, but it's also a good design technique for lots of other reasons,'' said Berners-Lee. XML ``helps one adapt information to different applications, needs, devices, cultures, languages, and so on.''

Advocates of XML fervently believe its adoption will not just improve access for the disabled but lead to better products and technology for everyone.

As devices such as cell phones get smaller and smaller and the world becomes more wired, ``who's going to want to read the newspaper visually by looking at that small screen on your cell phone?'' asked Raman. ``You're going to want your phone to read you the newspaper.''